Feel American, Watch American, Eat American? Remote Acculturation, TV, and Nutrition Among Adolescent-Mother Dyads in Jamaica.

Ferguson, Gail M.; Muzaffar, Henna; Iturbide, Maria I.; Chu, Hui; Meeks Gardner, Julie

Globalization prompts remote acculturation toward U.S. culture in Jamaica; this study used a bioecological systems approach to examine its proximal impact on nutrition through U.S. cable TV consumption, and maternal influences in the home. Overall, 330 randomly selected adolescent-mother dyads from schools in Kingston, Jamaica (Madolescent_age  = 13.8 years, SDadolescent_age  = 1.8) completed questionnaires reporting American identity and behavioral preferences, daily time spent watching U.S.-produced TV programs, and frequency of eating unhealthy foods. Actor-partner interdependence models revealed that girls' American identity/behavior directly predicted their unhealthy eating, whereas girls' mothers and boys' American identity/behavior indirectly predicted unhealthy eating as mediated by their U.S. TV hours. Additionally, mothers' American identity/behavior predicted daughters' unhealthy eating as mediated by mothers' U.S. TV hours. Remote acculturation theory may facilitate more targeted research and prevention/intervention.

JAMAICA; UNITED States; ACCULTURATION; GLOBALIZATION & society; ADOLESCENT nutrition; AMERICAN identity; BINGE watching (Television); PARENTAL influences; ADOLESCENT psychology; MOTHER-child relationship; ATTITUDE (Psychology); COMPARATIVE studies; EMOTIONS; FOOD; FOOD habits; GROUP identity; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; MOTHERHOOD; PSYCHOLOGY of mothers; PARENTING; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH; TELEVISION; EVALUATION research; IMPACT of Event Scale

Child Development, 2018, Vol 89, Issue 4, p1360

0009-3920

Academic Journal

10.1111/cdev.12808