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Prevalence and Acculturation in the 21st Century

Despite machismo’s documented history in Hispanic and Latin American communities, research throughout the years has shown a shift in prevalence among younger generations. In Brazil, researchers found that while the majority of young men interviewed held traditional attitudes on gender roles and machismo, there was a small sample of men that did not agree with these views.

Acculturation and education have been proposed to be a factor in how machismo is passed down through Hispanic and Latinx generations in the United States. According to researchers who measured self-reported levels of machismo among 72 university students, 37 whom identified as Hispanic, the “somewhat unique population of college-educated students who have been heavily influence[d] by egalitarian attitudes, values, and norms” may explain why ethnicity did not directly predict machismo attitudes in two studies. Because education and acculturation of American values in Latinx individuals may result in the development of attitudes supporting gender-equality, this demonstrates how machismo may gradually decline over time in the United States.

Moreover, researchers analyzed a large cross-sectional survey among 36 countries, including 6 Latin American countries, from 2009 and discovered countries with less gender inequality had adolescents that supported attitudes of gender-equality, though females were more likely to support non-traditional gender roles than males. While the mean score of gender-equality attitudes was 49.83, with lower scores indicating less gender equality attitudes, Latin American countries scored the following: Chile (51.554), Colombia (49.416), Dominican Republic (43.586), Guatemala (48.890), Mexico (45.596), Paraguay (48.370). Since machismo is associated with gender inequality, this data suggests that Latinx individuals living in their native countries may support more machismo attitudes than Latinx immigrants adopting American values of gender equality.

Analysis of self-reported measures of sexual relationship power among 40 recently immigrated Latinx couples found data against machismo attitudes since women perceived themselves to have greater control and decision-making roles in their relationships. This serves as a stark contrast since machismo traditionally creates a relationship dynamic that relegates women to submissive roles and men to dominant roles. Again, acculturation may play a role in this dynamic shift because the couples averaged about 8 years since immigrating to the United States.

However, acculturation has not only been associated with a decline in machismo, it has appeared to affect how it manifests and how it is transferred through generations. Recently, Mexican American adolescents in romantic relationships demonstrated “adaptive machismo,” which consist of the positive qualities of machismo, such as “emotional availability, demonstrations of affection, desire to financially care for a female partner, responsibility in child-rearing, and/or to the community or friends,” during conflict resolution scenarios. Furthermore, while Mexican American adolescent males were found to have certain values and attitudes, such as caballerismo, passed down by their families, machismo was not one of them. Because families are not teaching machismo, this implies that it may be learned from sources separate from the family unit, such as peers and the media. Ultimately, these findings suggest that machismo is changing in terms of its prevalence, manifestation, and socialization.