Acculturation and Adaptation
of Immigrant Youth
John W. Berry
Queen’s University
Kingston, Canada
Open Lecture, Moscow, April, 2012
OUTLINE
1.Introduction:
Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Psychology
2. Immigrant Youth Issues
3. Acculturation: Cultural and Individual
4. Acculturation Strategies
5. Research with Immigrant Youth
(i) ICSEY study
(ii) Montreal-Paris study
6. Conclusions
7. Policy Implications
1.Introduction
Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology seeks to understand the
development and display of individual behaviour in
differing cultural contexts.
• Traditionally, these contexts were found in
independent societies
• Comparisons of them allowed for relationships
between cultural and psychological variables to
examined and be established.
• Ref: Berry, Poortinga, Breugelmans, Chasiotis &
Sam (2011).Cross-Cultural Psychology: Research
and Applications. Cambridge University Press.
1.Introduction:
Intercultural Psychology
• In the contemporary world, culturally-independent
societies have become rare.
• In their place, most societies are now culturally
plural, with many cultural groups living in daily
interaction.
• As a result, much interest in the relationship
between culture and behaviour has become focused
on “Intercultural” or “Acculturation” psychology.
• This enterprise is also being carried out
comparatively.
• Ref: Sam & Berry (2006). Cambridge Handbook of
Acculturation Psychology. Cambridge UP.
1. Introduction: Plural Societies
• Immigration is a worldwide phenomenon, even in
societies that do not seek it.
• Following immigration, ethnocultural groups often
become established and continue over generations
• Public debates about immigration, immigrants and
ethnocultural groups, are often based on prejudice
and self-interest.
• Research can contribute to a less biased public
discussion on immigration and intercultural
relations.
• Research can also inform public policy and
programme development.
2. Immigrant Youth Issues
• In most plural societies, public debate has come to
be focused on immigrant and ethnocultural youth.
• In some cases, youth are viewed as problems, with
low educational achievement, and a high level of
social problems.
• One basis for these presumed difficulties is the set
of challenges presented by living in two cultures.
• This is especially the case when the cultures of
origin and of settlement differ with respect to values.
• The experience of discrimination and exclusion are
also considered to be a major challenge for youth.
2. Immigrant Youth Issues
• In some societies, it is not only these
educational and social issues that are of
concern.
• There are other issues such as
underemployment, and gang activity.
• In some cases, the radicalisation if immigrant
youth has become a concern, in which youth
can even turn against the larger society.
• One concept that has guided the examination
of these issues is that of acculturation.
3. Acculturation: Definition
• Acculturation is the process of cultural
and psychological change following contact
between cultural groups and their individual
members.
• It takes place in both groups and all individuals.
• Although one group is usually dominant over the
others, successful outcomes require mutual
accommodation among all groups and
individuals living together in the diverse society.
3. General Acculturation
Framework
3. Acculturation Questions
1. How do immigrants and ethnocultural
groups acculturate? What are their
strategies, identities and attachments?
2. How well do they adapt? What are the
psychological and sociocultural outcomes?
3. What is relationship between how they
acculturate and how well they adapt?
4. Acculturation Strategies
• How individuals and groups seek to acculturate has
been examined using the concept of acculturation
strategies.
• Groups and individuals in hold differing views about
how to relate to each other and how to change.
• These views are based on two underlying issues:
- Maintenance of heritage culture and identity to
sustain cultural communities,
- Participation with other groups in the life of the
national society.
• Their intersection produces 4 acculturation
strategies, in both groups in contact.
4. Acculturation Strategies
Framework
4. Four Intercultural Strategies
• On the left are the strategies of ethnocultural
individuals and groups.
• On the right are those of the larger society.
• Integration/Multiculturalism are defined by holding a
positive orientation to both issues.
• Assimilation/Melting Pot exist when there is negative
orientation to first, and a positive one to second.
• Separation/Segregation exist when there is a
positive orientation to first, and a negative one to
second.
• Marginalisation/Exclusion exist when there are
negative orientations to both issues.
5. Research with Immigrant Youth
Two studies of the acculturation and
adaptation of immigrant youth are
reported:
1. International Comparative Study of
Ethnocultural Youth (ICSEY)
2. The Comparative study of immigrant
youth in Montreal and Paris.
6. International
Comparative Study
of Ethnocultural Youth (ICSEY)
• Book: Immigrant youth in cultural
transition: Acculturation, identity and
adaptation across national contexts. LEA,
2006
• Article in Applied Psychology (2006).
Both by John Berry, Jean Phinney, David
Sam and Paul Vedder.
6. International Comparative Study
of Ethnocultural Youth (ICSEY)
• 13 SOCIETIES OF SETTLEMENT:
(5 Settler,8 Recent)
• 32 IMMIGRANT GROUPS
• Immigrant youth N =5366
(aged 13 -18; 65.3% 2nd generation))
• Immigrant parents N =2302
• National youth N = 2631 (aged 13-18)
• National parents N = 863
ICSEY Question 1. How do
immigrant youth acculturate?
Using 12 intercultural variables, cluster
analysis yielded four acculturation profiles:
- Integration: 36.4% (oriented to both cults.)
- Separation: 22.5 % (oriented to heritage)
- Assimilation:18.7 % (oriented to national)
- Marginalisation: 22.4%(oriented to neither)
Integration Cluster
(Orientation to both groups)
Separation Profile
(Orientation to ethnic group)
Assimilation Profile
(Orientation to national society)
Marginalisation Profile
(Orientation to neither group
Profile Membership is Related to
Other Variables:
1. Length of residence in new society
2. Neighbourhood ethnic composition
3. Discrimination against self and group
Acculturation Profiles
by Length of Residence
Neighbourhood Ethnic Composition
• We asked immigrant youth to indicate the
ethnic composition of the neighbourhood
in which they live.
• Rating were provided on the scale:
“Almost all are other than my own ethnic
group”…to “There is about equal…”…
to “Almost all are my own ethnic group”.
Acculturation Clusters by
Neighborhood Ethnic Composition
Perceived Discrimination
• Respondents were asked to indicate (in
response to 5 questions) whether they had
been treated unfairly because of their ethnic
group.
• Sample items were: “I don’t feel accepted by
(national) group”. And “ I have been teased
or insulted because of my ethnic
background”.
• Discrimination was the single most important
contibutor to not achieving integration, and
to being marginalised.
Perceived Discrimination
by Acculturation Strategy
0.25
0.2
mean z-scores
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15
-0.2
integration
ethnic
national
diffuse
Role of Discrimination
• In a related analysis (structural equation
model), discrimination was the single
largest predictor of poor psychological and
sociocultural adaptation.
• This finding corresponds to the role of
discrimination in limiting the integration of
immigrant youth, and promoting their
marginalisation.
ICSEY Question 2.
How Well do Immigrant Youth
Adapt?
Two forms of adaptation were found in all samples:
1. Psychological: Lack of Psychological Problems
(anxiety, depression, psychosomatic symptoms),
Self-esteem, Wellbeing.
2. Sociocultural: School Adjustment, lack of Behaviour
Problems (eg.,truancy, petty theft).
NB: There were no overall differences between
immigrant and national youth.
ICSEY Question 3
Are there relationships between how youth
acculturate, and how well they adapt
Psychologically and Socioculturally? Yes.
Psychological Adaptation: Integration highest;
followed by Separation, then Assimilation;
Marginalisation lowest.
Sociocultural Adaptation: Integration highest;
followed by Assimilation, then Separation;
Marginalisation lowest.
ICSEY: Society Level Analysis
Cultural Diversity (Multiculturalism) Policy
was examined across the 13 societies:
Nine criteria included: the existence of a
national public policy promoting diversity
and equity, and of programmes and
institutions to implement it (Banting &
Kymlicka, 2004).
ICSEY DIVERSITY POLICY:
Impact Across 13 Societies
• High policy diversity  higher integration.
• High policy diversity  combined higher
orientation to national society, and
higher orientation to own cultural group
• High policy diversity higher sociocultural
adaptation (but, there is no relationship
with psychological adaptation).
Overall ICSEY Findings
1. There are individual and group differences in how youth
acculturate: integration, assimilation/national,
separation/ethnic, and marginalisation/diffuse.
2. There are two distinct ways in how well people adapt to
acculturate: psychological and sociocultural.
3. There are systematic relationships between how and
how well immigrant youth adapt to acculturation:
Integration/Multiculturalism clearly serves as the
most favourable strategy for immigrant youth wellbeing.
This pattern corresponds with most previous results
from research with adult immigrants.
Study 2.
Second Generation Immigrant
Youth In France and Canada
• Sabatier, C. & Berry, J.W. (2008).The role of
family acculturation, parental style and
perceived discrimination in the adaptation of
second generation immigrant youth in France
and Canada. European Journal of
Developmental Psychology, 5,(2), 159-185.
• Berry, J. W., & Sabatier, C. (2010).
Acculturation, discrimination, and adaptation
among second generation immigrant youth in
Montreal and Paris. International Journal of
Intercultural Relations, 34(3), 191-207.
Participants in the study:
Youth and Parents
France: Youth N= 395/Parents N=356
Algerians,89/82;Antilleans,63/51;
Moroccans,99/94;Portuguese,94/88;
Vietnamese,50/41.
Canada: Youth N= 323/Parents N=271
Greeks,88/65;Haitians, 94/87;
Italians,83/70;Vietnamese, 58/49
Acculturation Strategies
• Used two scales, one for each dimension:
- Preference for maintaining heritage
culture.
- Preference for contact and participation
in the larger society.
Used median split to create four
acculturations strategies.
Acculturation Strategies and
Adaptation
Assimilation
M
SD
Montreal (N=)
Integration
M
SD
(65)
Marginalisation Separation
M
SD
(94)
M
F
SD
(80)
(84)
Self-esteem
Rosenberg scale 3.21ab 0.41
Emotional
a
4.44
0.86
ab
3.38b
4.86
b
c
Familial
4.55
0.82
4.95
Social
4.70
0.84
4.89
School
b
5.23
b
0.62
5.23
b
ab
Academic Perf.
2.97
1.00
2.74
Deviance
1.29
0.29
1.28
Paris (N=)
(106)
0.47
3.12a
0.58
a
4.42
a
0.44
0.87
3.27ab 0.52
4.55 **
ab
0.76
6.13 ***
bc
4.64
0.53
4.50
0.73
4.79
0.70
7.66 ***
0.63
4.59
0.70
4.64
0.51
a
4.96
a
0.60
0.83
2.80 *
b
0.60
4.45 **
ab
5.22
0.82
2.49
1.02
2.67
1.03
2.96 *
0.30
1.27
0.25
1.26
0.33
0.21
(107)
(102)
(80)
Self-esteem
Rosenberg scale 3.06
0.45
3.16
0.50
2.99
0.41
3.04
0.53
2.17
Emotional
3.65
0.51
3.75
0.60
3.58
0.48
3.69
0.59
1.66
Familial
3.77
0.84
3.90
0.83
3.59
0.82
3.66
Social
School
a
3.73
b
0.57
3.98
b
b
3.52
0.74
3.61
Academic Perf.
2.91
1.00
Deviance
1.37
0.44
0.68
a
3.61
a
0.59
1.06
2.41
a
0.65
6.58 ***
b
3.71
0.75
3.30
0.66
3.54
0.83
3.22 *
2.63
0.97
2.64
0.99
2.81
0.85
2.07
1.35
0.29
1.44
0.34
1.39
0.37
1.17
Acculturation Strategies
and Adaptation
• France: for all variables, the adaptation for
those preferring Integration is numerically
better and for Marginalisation it is lower.
However, this variation reaches
significance only for familial and social self
esteem.
• Canada: the same pattern holds, but
variation for all adaptation variables
(except deviance) reaches significance.
6. Overall Conclusions:
Acculturation and Adaptation
•
If a society is culturally diverse, the best policy to promote positive
adaptation is to accept, promote and support this diversity through
Integration/Multiculturalism policies.
•
Results of the country- level anaylsis correspond with, and enhance,
the results found in the analysis of the adaptation of individuals:
SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION : INTEGRATION (ie., A JOINT
ORIENTATION TO BOTH CULTURES) PROMOTES SOCIOCULTURAL
ADAPTATION AT BOTH THE INDIVIDUAL- AND COUNTRY-LEVELS OF
ANALYSES).
PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION: THE INTEGRATION
ACCULTURATION STRATEGY PROMOTES PSYCHOLOGICAL
ADAPTATION AT THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS (BUT HAS
NO IMPACT AT THE COUNTRY-LEVEL OF ANALYSIS).
7. Policy Implications
These consistent relationships may permit
the development of policies and
programme applications to improve the
outcomes for all groups in contact: the
national society, public institutions,
ethnocultural groups, schools, families and
individuals.
7. Policy Implications for
National Society
In the national society, public policies of
Multiculturalism, supporting the
integration of, and security for, all
individuals and groups, will serve the
general good more than any of the other
ways of acculturating.
At all cost, the descent into
Marginalisation should be avoided.
7. Policy Implications for
Immigrant and Ethnocultural
Communities
For all immigrant groups, it is important to provide financial
support and encouragement for both their cultural
maintenance and their full and equitable participation
in the life of the larger society (integration and security).
• Participation without maintenance promotes
Assimilation, and threatens the group’s security.
• Maintenance without participation promotes Separation,
and threatens the dominant group’s security.
• Engaging in both promotes Integration, and avoids
Marginalisation.
7. Policy Implications for Immigrant
and Ethnocultural Individuals
For individuals, general dissemination of
information and personal counselling are
important in order for youth to understand
the benefits of engaging both cultures in a
balanced way (integration), and avoiding
becoming marginalised.