Emerging Adulthood, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and the Environment: Young Hispanics in Oklahoma and New Mexico

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine the cross-cultural adaptation of Hispanic emerging adults in two distinct environments--the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. These two research sites were selected because the former offers a unique history of Hispanic influence and the latter recently has found its Hispanic population on the rise. This work is primarily based on face-to-face interviews and focus group interviews with twelve Hispanic emerging adults, ages 18 to 23. Hispanic emerging adults in this study present a wide-ranging ethnic identity orientation from cultural fusion to ethnic identity achievement. This varied ethnic identity orientation is not unusual, as emerging adulthood is a distinct period of life described as the age of identity explorations (Arnett, 2004). The language use practices of the emerging adults in this study also vary. The New Mexico participants are English monolinguals and the participants from Oklahoma are generally bilingual. The New Mexican emerging adults did not appear to reveal any loss of culture, self, or pride as previous scholarship indicates. The Oklahoma emerging adults engage in code switching and appear to implement a convergence speaker strategy in interactions with others.