Acculturation refers to changes in cultural attitudes, values, and behaviors that take place as a result of continuous direct or indirect contacts of groups having different cultures (Broom and Selznick 1963). Consecutive waves of ethnic groups arriving in North America over the last century have adopted some values and behaviors of the mainstream culture (Silverstein and Chen 1999). In a particular cohort of immigrant families, the acculturation process is typically intensified in succeeding generations by their prolonged and direct contacts with the predominant North American culture (Redfield, Linton and Herskovits 1936).
