The construction of health beliefs within a Mexican American community: A culture-centered approach to understanding diabetes through minority voices
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to listen to the voices of Mexican Americans in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento, California in order to understand the their health beliefs regarding diabetes. Utilizing the culture-centered approach (Dutta, 2008) as a conceptual framework, I conducted interviews with eleven Mexican American women and sought to uncover alternative constructions of health meanings located within their lived experiences. This study engaged in dialogue with participants from this minority culture to foreground their voices and to discover the themes that emerge from their stories. The culture-centered approach compelled me, as the researcher, to listen to these voices and acknowledge their expertise in defining health beliefs and identifying structural barriers to pursuing good health. Culture-centered research emphasizes the co-construction of health meanings with cultural participants, which has implications for health communication theory and practice because it offers an alternate perspective to cultural sensitivity approaches, which currently dominates health communication research that deals with culture.
Degree
M.A.
Advisors
Dutta, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Public health|Hispanic American studies
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