Correlates of Political Ideology Among U.S.-Born Mexican Americans

Latino Americans have to navigate involvement and identification with two cultural groups--their ethnic culture and the dominant American culture. Differences in cultural identifications have been found to correlate with political affiliation and attitudes toward acculturation. Using a sample of U.S.-born Mexican Americans, we examined several correlates of political ideology including the strength of identification with both Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, acculturation attitudes, and socioeconomic status (SES). Strength of Mexican identity, stronger integration acculturation attitudes, weaker assimilation attitudes, and lower SES were associated with holding a more liberal political ideology. Furthermore, we found that integration acculturation attitudes mediated and SES moderated the relationship between Mexican identification and political ideology. These findings suggest that political campaigns should be mindful of differences in cultural identifications and acculturation attitudes when addressing their Latino constituents.