Acculturation and Attitudes toward Violence among Latinos

Bratina studied a group of Latino males to examine how attitudes that endorse the use of violence are influenced by assimilation. The sample was partially derived from Social Networking Sites (SNS) including MySpace and Facebook. The primary expectation was that pro-violent attitudes would vary depending on level of assimilation. Bratina expected a significant positive relationship between highly assimilated Latinos and pro-violent attitudes. By-and-large, endorsement of violence was low among this overwhelmingly assimilated group; however, multivariate analyses revealed a different picture. Regardless of assimilation level, the most significant predictors of pro-violent attitudes included male superiority and perception of mistreatment by U.S. non-Latinos.