Examining External and Internal Acculturative Factors: Cuban-Born Women’s Experience of Well-Being in the U.S.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thanks for the invitation to review this paper. It was good to read and think about this paper.

This paper has a welcome focus on Cuban women, and argues persuasively that they are often not included in studies with sufficient specificity. This is because many studies focus on Latinos more generally. I think the paper could be strengthened by defining more precisely some of the theoretical frames used such as "familismo." Also, the diagrams could be explained a bit better, and statements could be clarified such as "The Contextual Model of Family Stress... FSM suggests that the impact of acculturative stress on acculturative stress is a function of one’s perception of stress, resources available and external and internal context which shape one’s perception of the magnitude of stress" (p. 3). 

The article “Quantifying Acculturative Challenges: Cuban-Born Women's 2

Path to Psychological Well-Being in the U.S.” is a thorough look into the experiences of Cuban women in an attempt to distinguish their experiences so they are not lumped in with other Latina women. They looked at the results of studying the stress levels of 264 Cuban women with a wide variety of backgrounds.

Something this study does well is covering the experiences of a very wide range of Cuban-born women. The age range of participants: 18 to 97 is about as wide of a range of adult ages as one can get. The average age was 58, which likely means that they were able to find a decent amount of participants in various age demographics. This is valuable because it allows the researchers to compare and contrast the experiences of younger and older Cuban women. Although there is likely some commonality in the experiences of Cuban women on either end of the age spectrum, there are a lot of details which change generationally and over time, which needs to be accounted for. None of the participants were born in the USA. Was that an intentional choice? I’m guessing it was, given that the title says “Cuban-born,” but I’m also not sure why it was a choice if the study was only going to focus on women who were born in Cuba.

 That is to say that while is this is fine a better way to prove the hypothesis would have been to compare familism across Cuban immigrant generations in Florida. Something to point for future research.

 This article is well written, and the methods section is very thorough. However, I think there are some areas that assume that the reader knows more about the studied population than they actually do. For example, at the beginning of the table the authors explain that Cuban immigrants are the population at study because there are "diverse contexts and experiences of Cuban migrants" (2). However, the article doesn't explain why women are of particular interest, and how gender impacts the experience of migrants. There is also lack of explanation for why South Florida is of interest--I know it is because many Caribbean folks (Latino or not) migrate to that area, but that might not be clear to the reader.

Finally, there are some references that are U.S. centric, such as the identification of "three major racial/ethnic categories: African American, Asian American, and Latin American" (5). These are racial categorizations that are very recognizable in the U.S., so that should be specified. Even if the racial categories are assumed, it should be specified that these categories are uniquely "estadounidense." Overall, the article is very strong, but could be strengthened in some places.

Some of the variables also could be strengthened. For example, "church attendance" could possibly be used instead of "religiosity," which I believe connotates something different. The paper does raise some important potential variables that affect and potentially inhibit "acculturation." This is of interest for those attempting to foster better acculturation, well-being, and flourishing, whether or not the reader is convinced that the author has "proved" a particular variable correlation. 

More specific feedback:

The title does not reflect the content of the paper.

Define early on what is the meaning of “acculturation.”

It seems to us that the author(s) statement about Hispanics not been a monolith is a way to justify studying only Cuban-born women, but 1) there is nothing wrong in focusing in a particular subpopulation, 2) Nonetheless, the focus on Cuban-born women produces data about them but that does not mean that they are all that the acculturation experiences they undergo are not that different from those of other contemporary and historical groups as other research shows.

Line 64 Bborn

I was a little lost on the idea of familismo causing more tension through family-cultural conflicts.  It might be helpful to include an example. (line 75)

“Other contextual factors, such as discrimination, 102 length of time in the U.S., marital status, age at immigration, 9/11 impact, and age, remain 103 relatively unexplored among Cuban Latinos, despite their influence on acculturative 104 stress among Latinas in general (Perez, 2021; Horevitz et al., 2012; Huyny et al., 2012; 105 Leung et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2012). 106”

The elements of these lists are not necessarily comparable. Reviewer wonders why this list,

Figures 1 and 2 seem bogus theoretically-speaking

Better to avoid graph and explain it words since its coming from Boss anyway. E.g. the economy is put in the same level as history and culture but anthropologists would are that the economy is created by particular cultural understandings and social relations in a point in time. Heredity is included but not the environment.

Lines 120 and 122 Tautology or circular thinking argues that acculturative stress is caused by stress in facing new cultures.

In Measures

E.g.

(1)  I felt guilty about leaving family or friends in the country 172 of origin.

One could miss left and family left behind but not necessarily and not develop negative pathology based on this stress. Maybe the hypothesis behind this should be explained or the sources better cited.

Sometimes leaving a family behind that was abusive is a better way to protect physical and mental health.

The authors be should be more reflexive about the assumptions that they make throughout.

Going over the variables, true empirical validation would indeed be novel and contribution.  

Is church attendance really the same as religiosity?

The overall arguments of the paper would have been stronger if there were comparative groups but that would require a different design. We are not against this paper. But point to ways to strengthen it.

So, the paper stays within the tradition of this literature. Studying Cuban immigrants is important in itself. We hope the feedback provided is seen as a way to improve the paper as it is revised. Best wishes.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English language is fine.

Author Response

Please find attached a document indicating how we responded to both reviewers' feedback.  Thank you for the comments. Our article is much stronger as a result of this feedback.  I have sent both files on an email with the revised article.  

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article “Quantifying Acculturative Challenges: Cuban-Born Women's Path to Psychological Well-Being in the U.S.” is well written and puts forth a clear idea and theoretical framework to consider acculturation stress among a unique population. The findings are not novel, given that previous literature has found very similar findins with other groups. However, as the paper states there is limited research on this subject among this particular population, therefore it is an important contribution. The only suggestion I have is to recosinder the discussion on cultural competence. The literature has moved away from this concept and has begun to use other concepts such as cultural humility, cultural sensitivity, and cultural consciousness. Here is an article that helps to explain this shift. Azzopardi, C., & McNeill, T. (2016). From cultural competence to cultural consciousness: Transitioning to a critical approach to working across differences in social work. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 25(4), 282-299.

25(4), 282-299.

25(4), 282-299.

Author Response

Please find attached a document indicating how we responded to both reviewers' feedback.  Thank you for the comments. Our article is much stronger as a result of this feedback.  I have sent both files on an email with the revised article.  

Author Response File: Author Response.docx