Reading focus
Syllabus: How Do People Navigate Multiple Cultural Worlds?
Compare the trajectories with the distinctions introduced by Schwartz and colleagues in 2010.
Why you’re reading it. Examine whether a multidimensional framework clarifies observed change.
A question to consider. Which additional setting would most challenge the generality of these trajectories, and why?
Why this reading
Schwartz and colleagues follow practices, values and identifications across five waves. The study asks whether cultural change proceeds together across domains and how different patterns relate to family functioning and mental health.
Before you read
Trajectory classes summarize patterns estimated from repeated measurements. They are model-dependent groupings, not fixed types or stages through which everyone must pass. A later outcome does not by itself establish causation.
Read for
- Compare changes in heritage and U.S. orientations across the three domains.
- Examine how the authors combine trajectory classes and relate them to outcomes, including the role of baseline differences.
Consider afterwards
- What could a language-use measure miss about an adolescent whose cultural values remain stable?
- How might the same study differ in a setting with fewer opportunities to maintain a heritage tradition?
Editorial context
The 302 adolescents lived in Miami or Los Angeles and had recently immigrated. The study retained 85% across five waves, but recruitment and retention differed by site. A single adolescent reporter and two strongly bicultural settings limit inference. The estimated classes are not a universal developmental sequence, and associations do not establish that a particular trajectory causes better adjustment.