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The Role of Demographic Variables and Acculturation Attitudes in Predicting Sociocultural
and Psychological Adaptation in Moroccans in the Netherlands
Otmane Ait Ouarasse & Fons J. R. van de Vijver
Tilburg University
The Netherlands
WILL BE PUBLISHED IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERCULTURAL
RELATIONS.
Correspondence Information:
Fons van de Vijver
Department of Psychology
Tilburg University
PO. Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
The Netherlands
E-mail: fons.vandevijver@uvt.nl
Fax: 00 31 13 466 2370
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Abstract
The goals of the present study were twofold, (i) to test the independence of the
attitudes of second-generation migrants toward their culture of origin and toward the culture
of the host society, and (ii) to test a path model in which these acculturation attitudes
moderate and/or mediate the relationship between demographic factors (age, gender,
occupation, education, and length of stay) and acculturation outcomes (including
psychological adjustment, as measured by mental health and sociocultural acculturation as
measured by school success, work success). Both hypotheses were to a large extent
confirmed in a group of 155 second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands. The results
suggest that the two underlying dimensions of acculturation attitudes were largely
independent across migrants and slightly negatively related within migrants; furthermore,
there were some indications that ethnic culture was to some extent more liked in the personal
domain and the host culture more in the public domain. Acculturation attitudes mediated the
relationship between demographic variables and sociocultural adaptation. In turn,
sociocultural adaptation mediated the relationship between acculturation attitudes and
psychological adaptation. The results showed also that sociocultural and psychological
adaptation had their own predictors; psychological adaptation was directly predicted by
background variables while sociocultural adaptation was directly predicted by acculturation
attitudes.
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The Role of Demographic Variables and Acculturation attitudes in Predicting Sociocultural
and Psychological Adaptation
The current study examines two aspects of acculturation. The first involves the
structure of acculturation attitudes. Specifically, the question addressed is whether attitudes
(of second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands) toward the ethnic and the host culture
are independent. Independence of ethnic and host culture means that the scores on attitudes
toward one culture are not related to the scores on the second culture; the correlation between
the two scores is insignificant. The second involves the often claimed, but infrequently tested,
moderating or mediating role of acculturation attitudes. A path model is tested in which
acculturation attitudes moderate or mediate the relationship between background factors,
such as gender and length of stay in the host country, and acculturation outcomes.
Models of Acculturation Attitudes
Two models of acculturation are dominant: The unidimensional model and the
bidimensional model. In the unidimensional model, attitudes toward the culture of origin and
attitudes toward the culture of the host society are dependent. There are two variants within
the unidimensional model namely, the assimilation variant and the bicultural variant.
According to the assimilation variant, complete absorption in the mainstream culture is the
unavoidable outcome of migration, and cross-cultural travellers end up losing their ethnic
feelings and cultural characteristics in favour of the embracement of the host culture (e.g.,
Gordon, 1964; Olmeda, 1979). The bicultural variant, on the other hand, views biculturalism,
the simultaneous adherence to both cultures, as a possible outcome (e.g., Shadid, 1979;
Wong-Rieger & Quintana, 1989). Although the bicultural variant is favoured over the
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assimilation variant for making room for the possibility of actually managing cultural
differences, it is criticised for failing to distinguish between real biculturalism, in which
cross-cultural travellers wish to associate with both mainstream and minority culture, and
double alienation, in which they wish to dissociate from both.
The second model, known as the bidimensional acculturation model, considers ethnic
and host identities as independent. Adherence to both identities yields “integration” (real
biculturalism), adherence to none yields “marginalization” (double alienation), there is
“separation” when one favours only one’s own ethnic identity, and finally there is
“assimilation” when one favours only the host identity (e.g., Berry, 1974, 1984, 1994).
Berry’s acculturation model has gained support and the four acculturation strategies turn out
to have a good descriptive and explanatory power (Berry, 1997; Bochner, McLeod, & Lin,
1977; Lalonde & Cameron, 1993; Redmond, 2000; Sam, 1995).
Despite this support, the model by Berry has its critics. While Boski (1998) and
Weinreich (1998) consider the model by Berry to be too simplistic to account for the
complexities of acculturation processes, Ward (1999) argued that the two underlying
dimensions of cultural identity (i.e., attitudes toward minority culture and attitudes toward
mainstream culture) are better predictors of acculturation outcomes than the four
acculturation strategies. Other researchers (e.g., Arends-Tóth, 2003; Phalet, Van Lotringen, &
Entzinger, 2000; Phalet & Swyngedouw, 2003) found evidence for the distinction between
public and private domains in acculturation attitudes, while the bidimensional model assumes
that acculturation attitudes are similar across life domains. Turkish migrants in the
Netherlands were found to be more in favour of separation in the private domain and more in
favour of integration in the public domain.
Demographic Factors and Acculturation Attitudes
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Research on generation status (i.e., first-, second-, third-, or later generation) and
acculturation patterns suggests the existence of changes in cultural identifications over time.
Montgomery (1992) showed that immigrants tend to develop stronger identifications with the
host culture over generations. It has also been demonstrated that this tendency does not
necessarily entail dissociation from one’s culture of origin; Maveras, Bebbington, and Der
(1989) reported that second-generation Greeks in the United Kingdom identified more
strongly with the host culture than their parents did but without dissociating from their own
culture of origin, achieving thus balanced loyalties. Also interesting is the distinction between
attitudinal and behavioural aspects of acculturation; it is argued that attitudinal and
behavioural aspects of acculturation show distinct patterns of change over time, with attitudes
often showing a stiffer resistance to change (Triandis, Kashima, Shimada, & Villareal, 1986;
Wong-Rieger & Quintana, 1987).
Gender may also be significantly related to acculturation attitudes. There is evidence
that women are more assertive of their culture of origin (Harris & Verven, 1996; Liebkind,
1996; Ting-Toomey, 1981) and are slower than men at developing identifications with the
host culture (Ghaffarian, 1987). Length of residence in a foreign culture has been proven to
be positively associated with attitudes toward the host culture and negatively with attitudes
toward ethnic culture (Cortes, Rogler, & Malgady, 1994). Educational level is also associated
with acculturation attitudes; Suinn, Ahuna, and Khoo (1992) demonstrated that higher levels
of education boost host culture identification. The claim that demographic factors have been
reported to be significantly associated with acculturation attitudes should not be overstretched
for such association may well differ across ethnic groups.
Acculturation Outcomes
Acculturation researchers have used a multitude of variables as relevant acculturation
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outcomes, but these variables can be systematically grouped under two major types:
psychological outcomes and sociocultural outcomes (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001).
Psychological adaptation is mainly studied in the stress and coping tradition and is a matter of
mental health and of general satisfaction with life in the host milieu. Sociocultural adaptation,
on the other hand, is studied in the culture learning tradition, and is mainly a matter of
successful participation in the host society.
It has been argued that psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation are
linked; their correlations have been reported to be in the range [.4, .5] (Berry, 2003). Ward
and Kennedy (1999) found that psychological and sociocultural adaptation outcomes were
positively correlated. It was further found that the strength of the association between
psychological and sociocultural adaptation was positively related to the degree of cultural
proximity and of integration in the social host milieu (Ward, 1999; Ward & Kennedy, 1996;
Ward, Okura, Kennedy, & Kojima, 1998; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 1999).
Demographic Factors and Acculturation Outcomes
Age has been reported to be significantly, albeit inconsistently, related to
acculturation outcomes (see Church, 1982, for a review). Beiser et al. (1988) argued that
adolescence and old age are high-risk periods compared to other periods; adolescence was
believed to be fraught with psychological problems due to identity formation and
development, while old age was believed to be fraught with learning difficulties that impair
sociocultural adaptation and ultimately jeopardize general satisfaction with life in the host
milieu. Padilla (1986), on the other hand, found that older Japanese and Mexican migrants in
the United States showed higher levels of psychological distress.
Research on the relationship between generation and acculturation outcomes has also
reported inconsistent results. Furnham and Li (1993) found that first-generation Chinese
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migrants to Britain experienced more psychological distress than their second-generation
counterparts. In contrast, Heras and Revilla (1994) reported poorer self-concepts and lower
self-esteem among second- than among first-generation Filipino-Americans.
The association between length of stay in the host country and acculturation outcomes
is not yet clear. The U-curve hypothesis according to which cross-cultural transitions start
with enjoyment and euphoria, followed by crisis, recovery, and finally adjustment (Lysgaard,
1955; Gullahorn, & Gullahorn, 1963), has not been fully supported. The earlier support for
the U-curve may have been influenced by the inadequacy of cross-sectional designs to
account comprehensively for changes over time. Although the hypothesis is not completely
abandoned, it is now believed (Ward et al., 2001) that the patterns of the association between
length of stay and acculturation outcomes depend on the type of migrating group (sojourners,
immigrants, refugees) and also on whether acculturation outcomes are cognitive, behavioural,
or affective (Ward et al., 2001).
The association between educational level and acculturation outcomes has also been
investigated. Better-educated cross-cultural travellers reported stronger involvement with the
host culture and better sociocultural and psychological adaptation due to their relative
resourceful cultural learning (Jayasuriya, Sang, & Fielding, 1992) than less educated
migrants. Level of education was also reported to be positively associated with self-esteem
(Pham & Harris, 2001). However, highly educated migrants who experience downward social
mobility (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974) or blocked upward mobility (Aycan & Berry,
1996; Beiser, Johnson, & Turner, 1993) because of their minority status showed higher
psychological dysfunction than less educated migrants.
Research on the relationship between gender and acculturation outcomes has yielded
inconsistent results. Beiser et al. (1988) and Furnham and Shiekh (1993) found that females
were prone to experiencing a relative lack in involvement with the host culture and to
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possessing fewer host culture-specific skills, and were also likely to experience more
psychological problems than males. Boski (1990, 1994), on the other hand, reported a better
psychological adjustment among females than among males. Still, other studies reported no
gender differences in psychological adjustment (Furnham & Tresize, 1981; Nwadiora &
McAdoo, 1996).
It is clear from the above that studies examining relationships between demographic
factors and acculturation outcomes are still fraught with inconsistencies. We suspect these
inconsistencies to be the result of either weak effects, or the overlooking of crucial
moderating variables in the studies, or a combination of both.
Acculturation Attitudes and Acculturation Outcomes
Research on the association between acculturation attitudes and acculturation
outcomes, which seems to focus mainly on psychological adaptation as an outcome variable,
has yielded inconsistent results. Singh (1999) demonstrated that stronger identification with
the host culture was related to higher levels of stress, while Padilla (1986) showed that it was
related to less stress. A similarly inconsistent pattern was found for depression; whereas
Ghaffarian (1987) demonstrated that stronger identification with the host culture was related
to less depression, Kaplan and Marks (1990) demonstrated that it was related to more
depression. Buriel, Calzada, and Vasquez (1982) showed that a balanced identification with
both cultures tended to co-occur with psychological adjustment. Ward and Kennedy (1994)
found that strong host culture identification was associated with more sociocultural
adjustment, and that strong ethnic identification was associated with fewer psychological
adaptation problems.
Other researchers used the acculturation strategies developed by Berry and found
substantial and quite consistent evidence for the association between acculturation strategies
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and outcomes. The strategies of integration and separation were related to better
psychological adjustment, while marginalization and assimilation were related to lower levels
of psychological adjustment (Berry & Annis, 1974; Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987).
Acculturation Context of Moroccans in the Netherlands
The first Moroccans arrived in the Netherlands some forty years ago. Dutch labourintensive industries needed workers and Morocco had plenty of those, ready and cheap. Now,
and as a result of a long recruitment period, family reunion, new marriages and births, the
Moroccan community in the Netherlands has grown in size and now counts some 280,000
individuals, of which about 40% are born in the Netherlands.
Most members of the second generation are still at school. Up to 1998, only 2% of
Moroccans are thought to have completed higher professional or university education,
compared to 3%, 14%, 12%, and 26% for Turks, Surinamese, Antilleans, and Dutch,
respectively (Martens, 1999). With 22% registered unemployed, Moroccans also have one of
the highest unemployment rates (Martens, 1999). The image of young Moroccans in the
Dutch media and public discourse is far from bright; they are often associated with
delinquency, separation, and resistance to change (Hagendoorn, 1991).
Although Moroccans are found in various areas of the country, they tend to
concentrate in the largest urban centres. Many relatives live close to one another. This is
dictated by both the need for mutual support and for senior Moroccan women, mostly
housewives, to have frequent contacts with one another.
Islam is the religion of all of Moroccans in the Netherlands. Mosques, which did not
exist in the Netherlands before, have been built. They serve both as a place for worship for
the old, and a place for teaching Arabic, the language of the Scripture, to the very young.
Mosques are not as salient in the Netherlands as in Morocco because they do not have a
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minaret and because the call for prayer is not allowed. There is a disagreement as to whether
Islam also plays an important role in the lives of Moroccan youth in the Netherlands. Buijs
(1993) and Pels (1998) argue that Islam remains an important constituent of their identity
although, in comparison to their parents, they have a more liberal interpretation of it.
Hypotheses
The model tested in the present study summarises our reading of the literature. The
inconsistencies reported in the literature, we suspect, are the result of weak effects or the
overlooking of pertinent moderating variables. Path analysis is conducted for the testing of
the mediating/moderating role of acculturation attitudes. The current study addresses school
success and work success as indicators of sociocultural adaptation, and mental health as an
indicator of psychological adaptation. Although we acknowledge that the relationship
between aspects of sociocultural adaptation and aspects of psychological adaptation might be
reciprocal, we restrict our hypothesis in this study to the flow of effects from sociocultural
adaptation to psychological adaptation. Participants in the current study are secondgeneration Moroccans who have followed Dutch schooling and know the Dutch language and
culture well. In this group, the level of and variation in experienced stress is assumed to be
more modest than in a group of first-generation Moroccans. As a consequence, we do not
expect the experienced stress to exert a strong influence on sociocultural adaptation. We
further hypothesize that for reasons of temporal priority, school success would precede work
success, and that mental health is a more or less long-term outcome. The effects are then
expected to flow from demographic factors to acculturation attitudes to school success to
work success, and finally to mental health.
Method
Participants
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The sample consisted of 155 second-generation individuals of pure Moroccan
parentage. Their parents originated from different provinces in Morocco; the participants
lived in different provinces in the Netherlands. They were aged between 18 and 25, with a
mean age of 21.68 years (S = 2.29). Of these, 84 were males and 71 females;. 77 were fulltime students, 71 full-time workers and 4 unemployed. All full-time students happened to
have a part-time work experience. Full-time workers answered school questions on the basis
of their past schooling. All participants were fluent in Dutch, while. 54.2% had Moroccan
Arabic as mother tongue, and 44.5% had a variety of Berber as mother tongue. All
participants reported very good mastery of their respective mother tongues. 85.8% had a
Dutch nationality. The average length of residence in the Netherlands was 17.55 year (S =
6.21). They all reported to be Moslem (see Table 1 for descriptives).
No sampling frame is available in the country that would allow exact proportional
representation of second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands. However, age, gender,
and profession are present in the sample in ways that would provide the necessary variation
to study acculturation-related variables. Although the age group 18-25 consists mainly of
students (many Moroccan students in the Netherlands are made to follow a longer route
toward their degrees), we included in the sample as many students as workers. It is true that
some sampling was school-based, but some sampling was also Mosque-based. Twelve
gatekeepers from different professions and regions al as well as geographic backgrounds
helped in the search for and recruitment of participants.
Instruments
Attention was paid to the validity of the tests constructed for the study from the very
beginning. Prior to the main study, we conducted a round of unstructured interviews and
administered a round of questionnaires. We developed clear operationalizations of the
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concepts. Items were developed that fitted the concepts’ definitions. Statistical analyses were
then performed that provided information on item quality and item clusters. Cronbach’s
alphas are reported in Table 1.
Acculturation attitudes. This is a 68-item measure of the extent to which participants
like or dislike elements of Moroccan culture and of Dutch culture. There is a one-to-one
correspondence between the items in each culture. Scores vary from not at all (1) to very
much (5). The scale contains items pertaining to twelve cultural domains namely, food (e.g.,
“Do you like the way Moroccan food is prepared?”), home (“Do you like the Moroccan home
atmosphere?”), clothing (“Do you like Moroccan female clothing?”), arts and festivities (“Do
you like Moroccan humour?”), language (“Do you like the Moroccan language?”), family
(“Do you like parent-child relationship in the Moroccan family?”), friends (“Do you like
boyfriend-girlfriend relationships in Moroccan culture?”), strangers (“Do you like the way
Moroccans treat persons they do not know?”), politics (“Do you like Moroccan media?”), and
religion (“Do you like interpersonal relationships in Islam?”).
Mental health. This is an 18-item measure of mental health. It is a mixture of
elements from the Depressive Tendencies Scale (Alsaker, 1990), complemented with a list of
psychosomatic complaints based on a slightly modified version of the World Health
Organization Cross-National Survey of Psychological and Somatic Symptoms (1988). The
psychosomatic items employ a frequency format, with five response options ranging from
never (1) to most of the time (5). The scale contains items such as “I feel I don’t have much to
be proud of”, “Sometimes I think that life is not worth living” and “I feel difficulty getting to
sleep”.
School Success. This is an 11-item measure of how well participants do at school. It
contains elements pertaining to cognitive and social aspects of school achievement. The scale
contains items like “I am satisfied with my marks” and “I have a good reputation among my
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classmates”. The scale is unifactorial and its factor accounts for 40.86% of the total variance.
Work Success. This is a 12-item measure of how well participants do at work. It
contains items pertaining to professional aspects of work success such as task completion
(“My supervisor is pleased with the work I do”) and items pertaining to the social aspect of
work (“I have a good reputation among my co-workers”). The scale is unifactorial and the
factor accounts for 35.48% of the total variance.
< Insert Table 1 about here >
Procedure
Data were collected by means of questionnaires. Informal networks of communication
inside the Moroccan community were called upon for the recruitment of participants. The
goal of the research was explained to the participants and the financing body explicitly
named. Participants were told that the information provided in the questionnaires would
remain confidential and that they were free not to contribute to the research. They were paid
for their contribution. Four native speakers translated the English template of the
questionnaire into Dutch. Versions were compared and differences (which were small) were
resolved through discussion.
Data Analysis
Acculturation attitudes. Factor analysis is conducted for the exploration of the
structure of acculturation attitudes.
Assumptions about the use of path analysis. There are 155 participants and 10
observed variables. The ratio of cases to variables is 15:1, which is adequate for our analysis
purposes. The very few missing values were estimated using regression logic. A visual
inspection showed that the distribution of all scores was fairly normal. The skewness statistic
for all variables fell within the range [-.88, .10]. These data checks supported the use of path
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analysis.
Hypothesised model. Two models were simultaneously tested namely, a moderation
model and a mediation model. The hypothesised model consisted entirely of observed
variables. Attitudes toward ethnic culture and attitudes toward host culture were assumed to
be unrelated. Sociocultural outcomes (school success and work success) were assumed to
precede psychological outcomes (mental health). All background variables were allowed to
be interrelated. Both the moderation and mediation models allowed background variables to
be associated with acculturation attitudes and, in turn, acculturation attitudes were allowed to
be associated with acculturation outcomes. While the moderation model allows background
variables to correlate directly with acculturation outcome variables, the mediation model does
not (Baron & Kenny, 1986).
Results
Independence of Acculturation Attitudes
Scree test, eigenvalue, and interpretability criteria suggested the extraction of two
factors (eigenvalues: 8.66, 7.99; see Figure 1). The two factors explained 24.44% of the
variance. Three-, four- and five-factor solutions with more factors were not clearly
interpretable. Factor loadings (Oblimin-rotated) are presented in Table 2. Out of the initial 68
items, three (Moroccan girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, Bible, and Christian prayer, see
Table 2) had very low communalities and therefore loaded on none of the factors. With the
exception of two items (Moroccan music and Moroccan feasts, see Table 2), all remaining 32
ethnic items loaded together on one factor that we called “attitudes toward ethnic culture”.
The remainder of the scale items, with the exception of two (Bible and Christian prayer),
loaded on a second factor that we called “attitudes toward host culture”. It could be
concluded that acculturation attitudes boil down to two factors namely, attitudes toward
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ethnic culture and attitudes toward host culture. The results also pointed to the orthogonality
of the factors (r = .03).
The acculturation items about the ethnic and host cultures were formulated in an
identical way (e.g., “Do you like Moroccan table manners?” and “Do you like Dutch table
manners?”). The identical formulations enabled the computation of intra-individual
correlations between the responses at the ethnic and host items (34 items per culture). The
average correlation (across all 155 participants) was -.21 (S = .24), which suggests that the
participants saw the two cultures as somewhat incompatible.
<Insert Table 2 and Figure 1 about here>
Major Likes and Dislikes
A close look at the descriptives showed that there is a pattern in the major likes and
dislikes across both cultures, particularly for the extreme scores. Food and religion
represented both the items most liked in ethnic culture and most disliked in the host culture.
The same is to some extent true for politics; politics tended to be the participants’ most
disliked items in ethnic culture and its human rights aspect the mostly liked in Dutch culture
(Tables 3 and 4).
<Insert Tables 3 and 4 about here>
The Moderating/Mediating Function of Acculturation Attitudes
Model estimation. The hypothesised model [χ2(3, N = 155) = .55, p = .91] presents a
very good fit to the sample data (GFI = 1.00; AGFI = .99; RMSEA = .00; see Figure 3). All
fit indices pointed to a good fit between the hypothesised model and the sample data.
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Model assessment. Most parameter values exhibited the expected signs, which
provides strong support for the adequacy of the hypothesised model of Figure 2 (see also
Table 5 for correlations). However, not all parameter estimates were statistically significant.
Although this information might be due to the limited sample size (Byrne, 2001; Hoelter
1983), it still could point to the possibility that some hypothesised paths are relatively
unimportant to the model.
< Insert Table 5 and Figure 2 about here >
Model modification. As could be expected, on the basis of the very good overall fit,
no modification indices were significant. However, an examination of the model’s parameter
estimates showed that 28 parameters were not significant (8 covariances, and 20 regression
paths; one observed variable, education, was deleted). A new model (Figure 3) in which only
significant paths are represented [χ2(22, N = 155) = 16.42; p = .79] showed a very good fit
(GFI = .98; AGFI = .95; RMSEA = .00). Obviously, this model runs the risk of capitalizing
on the particulars of the current sample. The explained variances for the modified model are
.09, .07, .12, .20, and .19 for attitudes toward host culture, attitudes toward ethnic culture,
school success, work success, and mental health, respectively.
< Insert Figure 3 about here >
It can be concluded that attitudes toward ethnic culture and attitudes toward host
culture moderate the relationship between background and acculturation outcomes. A
remarkable feature of the data is that acculturation attitudes do not influence psychological
adjustment directly, but only indirectly via sociocultural adjustment. Attitudes toward ethnic
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culture and attitudes toward host culture were independent and affected mental health only
via school success and work success. Attitudes toward ethnic culture mediated the
relationship between both age and length of stay and sociocultural adaptation; similarly,
attitudes toward host culture mediated the relationship between gender and sociocultural
adaptation. Length of stay, occupation, and gender affect mental health directly, with
occupation affecting also work success directly (see Figure 4 for a tentative summary of these
patterns).
Positive attitudes toward ethnic and host cultures have positive effects on school and
work success; in turn, work success significantly diminishes distress risks. The positive
attitudes toward ethnic culture are diminished by both age and length of stay; the older the
participants and the longer their stay in the Netherlands, the less positive they are toward their
ethnic culture. Young Moroccan females tend to be more positively appreciative of Dutch
culture than their male counterparts. As to the direct effects of background variables on
distress, it was found that females, workers, and those with a shorter stay are more prone to
distress than males, students, and those with a longer stay.
<Insert Figure 4 about here>
Discussion
The goals of the present study were (i) to test the independence of attitudes toward
ethnic culture and attitudes toward host culture, and (ii) to test a path model in which these
moderate the relationship between demographic factors (age, gender, occupation, and length
of stay) and acculturation outcomes (sociocultural and psychological). Both hypotheses were
to a large extent confirmed.
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Independence of Acculturation Attitudes
Attitudes toward ethnic culture and attitudes toward host culture are independent. This
result is line with the bidimensional model of acculturation (Berry, 1974, 1984, 1994).
According to this model, a young Moroccan may well choose to identify with or dissociate
from a culture without constraining identification or dissociation possibilities with the second
culture. Future studies will have to determine to what extent and under which circumstances
this independence of attitudes generalizes to behaviour.
The results on the major likes and dislikes hint to the possibility that migrants’
preferences vary across cultural domains. They might prefer separation in one area of culture
and integration or assimilation in another area. Although the participants seemed to adopt the
separation strategy in the areas of food and religion, they nevertheless opted for assimilation
in the area of politics; a similar pattern was reported by Arends-Tóth (2003).
In sum, the results suggest that the two underlying dimensions are largely independent
across migrants and slightly negatively related within migrants; furthermore, there were some
indications that ethnic culture might be more liked in the personal domain and the host
culture more in the public domain.
The Time Factor
The longer young immigrants reside in a host country, the easier it should become for
them to understand and deal fruitfully with the new culture and its challenges. By being in the
Netherlands for only a short time, young Moroccans may find it difficult to get along
comfortably with the streams of novelty facing them. Even with enough ethnic support,
newly landed immigrants need that relative relaxation which only familiarity would bring. So
day in day out, immigrants are expected to shed some of the malaise experienced early in
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their immigration history. Situations that would have been appraised as stressful in the early
stages of residence would now, and maybe by sheer familiarity, fail to alert the immigrant or
even trigger a stress process.
The finding that length of stay predicts attitudes toward ethnic culture negatively
might be the expression of a real change in preference due to the immigration experience and
exposition to an alternative life-style. This negative effect on attitudes toward ethnic culture
is shared by age; the results showed that within this age group of older adolescents and young
adults, the older the immigrants are the less favourable to their own culture. Two possibly
complementary explanations can be envisaged. First, there may be a slow movement away
from Moroccan culture as a consequence of involvement and immersion in the public sphere.
Moroccan work values, for instance, may not be functional in a Dutch-managed workplace
and might be abandoned. The character of culture as a collective coping and survival strategy
may take over its essential and emotional value, and the pressure to survive in an alien milieu
might urge immigrants to steer away from their culture of origin. This slow movement away
from the ethnic culture is in line with existing literature (e.g., Montgomery, 1992) and with
the unidimensional acculturation model (Gordon, 1964). Second, older participants in this age
group of the current study are more likely to have left school and are most probably paid fulltime workers with a salary. With this new status, the young worker is expected to take part in
the parental household responsibility by providing for parents and younger siblings. The new
responsibility can easily manifest itself in a decrease in liking for the source of the burden:
Moroccan culture. The negative effects of occupation on mental health corroborate this
explanation. The results showed that workers are more likely than students to be distressed.
The Gender Factor
Attitudes toward host culture is mainly dependent on gender. The results show that
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females were more favourable toward the Dutch culture than males, which is not in line with
research findings elsewhere (Ghaffarian, 1987; Harris & Verven, 1996; Liebkind, 1996;
Ting-Toomey, 1981). An explanation for these results may be the comparative “attraction” of
gender roles in Dutch culture for Moroccan women; Moroccan women seem to have more to
gain from Dutch culture (e.g., more freedom and independence) while Moroccan males seem,
in comparison, to have more to lose. Combining this with our finding that there are no gender
differences on attitudes toward ethnic culture, it becomes clear that an explanation of the
comparative appreciation of Dutch culture among Moroccan females does not reside in the
contents of the Moroccan culture. It seems rather that Moroccan women appreciate Dutch
culture for its instrumental value. A Moroccan young lady adhering unquestionably to the
values in Moroccan culture might still perceive in Dutch culture a legitimate tool for the
promotion of herself and her cultural values; more power and independence might be
examples of such tools.
Conclusion
To sum up, the results suggest that the two underlying dimensions of acculturation
attitudes were largely independent across migrants and slightly negatively related within
migrants; besides, ethnic culture tended to be favoured more in the personal domain and the
host culture more in the public domain. Acculturation attitudes mediated and moderated the
relationship between background variables and sociocultural adaptation. In turn, sociocultural
adaptation mediated the relationship between acculturation attitudes and psychological
adaptation, which is in line with our expectations and previous findings (Ait Ouarasse & Van
de Vijver, 2004a, 2004b, b). Ward and Kennedy (1993; see also Liebkind, 2001) argue that
sociocultural adaptation is mainly a function of contact variables (such as education in the
host country and length of stay), while psychological adaptation is mainly a function of
Acculturation Attitudes
22
ethnic group variables (such as support networks). Our findings point to a slightly different
role of both the host and ethnic culture in adaptation. In a previous study (Ait Ouarasse &
Van de Vijver, 2004a) we found that sociocultural adaptation is split up into school success
and work success and that different predictors were found for both types of success. Ethnic
group variables were better predictors of school success and mainstream variables were better
predictors of work success. The ethnic group variables examined were not instrumental, but
support values such as the permissiveness to adjust. Analogously, we found evidence that the
effect of the main culture on work success is not just instrumental. The perceived tolerance of
the mainstream society toward ethnic group was a significant predictor of work success. The
evidence of the current study indicating that attitudes toward both ethnic and host culture
predict sociocultural adaptation can be interpreted along the same line. The role of the ethnic
and host cultures cannot be reduced to their instrumental and supportive function,
respectively. Although the model obtained presented a good fit to the data, a test of
multigroup invariance is necessary before the model can be generalized to other groups and
to other acculturation contexts.
Acculturation Attitudes
23
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Acculturation Attitudes
Table 1.
Descriptives
Agea
Length of Staya
School Success
Work Success
Acculturation Attitudes (Initial Scale: all items)
Attitudes toward Ethnic Culture (Factor)
Attitudes toward Host Culture (Factor)
Mental health
* Age and Length of Stay are in years.

M
21.68
S
2.29
--
17.55
6.21
--
3.48
.55
.85
3.67
.55
.82
3.54
.32
.87
3.87
.45
.89
3.30
.49
.89
1.77
.47
0.91
30
Acculturation Attitudes
31
Table 2.
Factor Structure of Acculturation Attitudes
Do you like Moroccan food?
Do you like the way Moroccan food is prepared?
Do you like Moroccan table manners?
Do you like Moroccan home atmosphere?
Do you like Moroccan home furniture?
Do you like Moroccan female clothing?
Do you like Moroccan male clothing?
Do you like Moroccan child clothing?
Do you like Moroccan physicians?
Do you like Moroccan jokes?
Do you like Moroccan music?a
Do you like Moroccan feasts?a
Do you like Moroccan sport?
Do you like the Moroccan language?
Do you like the size of the Moroccan family?
Do you like parent-child relationship in Moroccan family?
Do you like husband-wife relationship in Moroccan family?
Do you like sibling relations in Moroccan family?
Do you like marriage partner choice in Moroccan culture?
Do you like marriage laws in Moroccan culture?
Do you like domestic role distribution in Moroccan culture?
Do you like friendship in Moroccan culture?
Do you like girlfriend-boyfriend relationship in Moroccan
culture?b
Do you like stranger-stranger relationship in Moroccan
culture?
Do you like the Moroccan media?
Do you like human rights in Moroccan culture?
Do you like the rule of law in Moroccan culture?
Do you like the Qurán?
Do you Islamic prayer?
Do you like fasting in Islam?
Do you like food restrictions in Islam?
Do you like time use in Islam?
Do you like money use in Islam?
Do you like interpersonal relations in Islam?
Attitudes
Attitudes
toward Host toward Ethnic
Culture
Culture
(Eigenvalue: (Eigenvalue:
8.66)
7.99)
.06
.55
.04
.56
-.09
.56
.05
.67
.06
.48
-.03
.54
-.14
.44
-.03
.49
.01
.36
.26
.41
.55
.23
.46
.28
.02
.49
.16
.48
-.14
.50
.05
.45
.06
.55
.08
.44
-.11
.34
-.16
.55
-.20
.41
.04
.35
.18
.17
.07
.45
.09
.03
.05
-.07
-.06
-.07
.00
-.23
-.10
-.14
.34
.37
.32
.66
.51
.60
.50
.54
.53
.55
(Table continues)
Acculturation Attitudes
Table 2 (continued)
Do you like Dutch food?
.39
-.14
Do you like the way Dutch food is prepared?
.32
-.13
Do you like Dutch table manners?
.47
-.00
Do you like Dutch home atmosphere?
.57
-.15
Do you like Dutch home furniture?
.48
.09
Do you like Dutch female clothing?
.61
-.07
Do you like Dutch male clothing?
.64
.11
Do you like Dutch child clothing
.58
.13
Do you like Dutch physicians?
.26
.12
Do you like Dutch jokes?
.53
.07
Do you like Dutch music?
.47
-.15
Do you like Dutch feasts?
.52
-.15
Do you like Dutch sport?
.25
.19
Do you like the Dutch language?
.47
.13
Do you like the size of the Dutch family?
.39
-15
Do you like parent-child relationship in Dutch family?
.63
-.09
Do you like husband-wife relationship in Dutch family?
.62
-.08
Do you like sibling relations in Dutch family?
.40
-.00
Do you like marriage partner choice in the Netherlands?
.34
.01
Do you like marriage laws in the Netherlands?
.66
-.01
Do you like domestic role distribution in the Netherlands?
.54
.07
Do you like friendship in the Netherlands?
.43
.03
Do you like girlfriend-boyfriend relationship in the
.61
-.04
Netherlands?
Do you like stranger-stranger relationship in the Netherlands? .39
.08
Do you like the Dutch media?
.37
.03
Do you like human rights in the Netherlands?
.35
.08
Do you like the rule of law in the Netherlands?
.37
.17
Do you like the Bible?b
.19
-.13
Do you like Christian prayer?b
.18
-.06
Do you like fasting in Christianity?
.38
-.16
Do you like food restrictions in Christianity?
.35
-.16
Do you like time use in Christianity?
.43
-.09
Do you like money use in Christianity?
.50
-.08
Do you like interpersonal relations in Christianity?
.49
.03
a
The items point to one culture but have their highest loading on the factor dealing with the
second culture. bThe items have very low communalities and therefore load on none of the
factors.
32
33
Acculturation Attitudes
Table 3.
Major Likes and Dislikes in Ethnic Culture
M
S
Major Likes
Moroccan food
The way Moroccan food is prepared
Moroccan table manners
Moroccan home atmosphere
Moroccan home furniture
Moroccan female clothing
Moroccan language (respective mother-tongue)
Moroccan jokes
Moroccan Friendship
The Qurán
Islamic prayer
Fasting in Islam
Food restrictions in Islam
Time use in Islam
Money use in Islam
Interpersonal relations in Islam
4.46
4.38
4.14
4.46
4.08
4.25
4.54
4.39
4.04
4.63
4.68
4.74
4.49
4.41
4.35
4.25
.82
.81
.85
.66
.95
.90
.63
.89
.97
.72
.84
.61
.73
.79
.90
1.00
Major Dislikes
Domestic role distribution in Morocco
Moroccan media
Human rights in Morocco
2.90
2.70
2.46
1.13
1.05
.92
Acculturation Attitudes
Table 4.
Major Likes and Dislikes in Host Culture
M
S
Major Likes
Human rights in the Netherlands
Dutch male clothing
Dutch child clothing
Dutch physicians
4.19
4.05
4.04
4.03
.69
.87
.90
.81
Major Dislikes
Dutch food
The way Dutch food is prepared
Dutch home atmosphere
Dutch music
Dutch feasts
Fasting in Christianity
Food restrictions in Christianity
Time use in Christianity
Money use in Christianity
2.74
2.45
2.53
2.46
2.61
2.39
2.74
2.82
2.87
1.01
1.03
1.06
1.28
1.22
1.31
1.22
1.06
1.13
34
35
Acculturation Attitudes
Table 5.
Correlations among Background Factors, Acculturation Attitudes, and Acculturation
Outcomes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1. Age
1.
2. Gender
-.07
1.
3. Occupation
.43**
.08
1.
4. Education
.02
.12
-.36**
1.
5. Length of stay
.08
.06
.20*
.01
1.
6. Attitudes toward
ethnic culture
-.21*
-.06
-.15
-.03
-.20*
1.
7. Attitudes toward
host culture
-.08
.30**
-.03
.03
.13
-.01
8. School success
-.08
.04
-.02
-.02
.03
9. Work success
.11
.12
.25*
-.07
.12
10. Mental health
.04
-.16
-.07
.09
.19*
Coding of gender: 1 = Male, 2 = Female. *p < .05. **p < .01.
1.
.20** .28**
.05
.04
9
1.
.26** .31**
-.05
.12
1.
.31**
Acculturation Attitudes
Figure Caption
Figure 1.
Scree Plot of the acculturation attitudes scale
Figure 2.
Hypothesised Model (Note: Correlations between background variables are not
represented in the figure)
Figure 3.
Empirical Model. (Note: All paths are significant at p < .05 and standardized)
Figure 4.
Simplified Empirical Model
36
Eigenvalue
Acculturation attitudes
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
5
9
13
17
21
25
29
33
37
41
45
Component Number
49
53
57
61
65
Acculturation attitudes
Attitudes toward
Ethnic Culture
+
+
+
+
+
Age
+
e
+
School Success
-
+
+
+
Length of
Stay
+
+
Mental Health
-
Occupation
+
+
+
+
+
Gender
+
a
-
+
+
+
Education
Attitudes toward
Host Culture
Figure 2
Note:
a. Gender code: 1 = Male; 2 = Female.
Work Success
+
+ +
Acculturation attitudes
Attitudes toward
Ethnic Culture
.20
-.20
-.17
Age
.41
School Success
Length of
Stay
.18
Mental Health
.17
-.16
Occupation
.29
.37
.22
Work Success
-.20
Gendera
.28
.30
Attitudes toward
Host Culture
Figure 3
.19
Acculturation attitudes
+
Time
Attitudes toward
Ethnic Culture
-
+
Sociocultural
Adaptation
+
Gender
+
Attitudes toward
Host Culture
Figure 4
+
Psychological
Adaptation