The Franco-Manitobans : a study on cultural loss
Date
1971
Authors
Backeland, Lucille L.
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Abstract
The basic problem in this study was one of investigating to what degree Franco-Manitoban adolescents were losing their parents' French-Canadian culture. Underlying this problem was a theoretical orientation which postulated that as a result of culture contact with the English majority over a long period of time there would. be a breakdown in ethnic continuity between Franco-Manitoban adults and Franco-Manitoban adolescents. Previous research had repeatedly explained the time factor involved. In cultural loss in terms of the "third generation hypothesis" on the basis of this theoretical orientation and past research it was hypothesized that there would be a lack of congruity between the adherence of Franco-Manitoban adolescents to selected attributes of their parents' French culture and that of the Franco-Manitoban adults. A sample of 333 Franco-Manitoban adolescents and 136 Franco-Manitoban adults was obtained. from St. Boniface, which has a high concentration of French Canadians. Bilingual questionnaires were used to collect the data on French language use, use of the French mass media, attiitude towards "outdating", religiosity and ethnic identity. Three intervening variables were later taken into account for it was felt that these could affect the cultural loss of the adolescents. These were the type of school attended, peer influence and sociaL class. The statistical measures used to determine the degree of association between the variables was Goodman and Kruskol's Gamma and Theta. A second descriptive measure, an index of dissimilarity was also uti1ized...