Discrimination, acculturation, acculturative stress, and Latino psychological distress: a moderated mediational model

Prior research has found that perceived discrimination is associated with adverse mental health outcomes among Latinos. However, the process by which this relationship occurs remains an understudied area. The present study investigated the role of acculturative stress in underlying the relationship between perceived discrimination and Latino psychological distress. Also examined was the ability of acculturation to serve as a moderator between perceived discrimination and acculturative stress. Among a sample of Latino adults (N = 669), moderated mediational analyses revealed that acculturative stress mediated the perceived discrimination-psychological distress relationship, and that the link between perceived discrimination and acculturative stress was moderated by Anglo behavioral orientation but not Latino behavioral orientation. The findings are discussed within a stress and coping perspective that identifies the psychological consequences associated with perceived discrimination and acculturative stress.     

Disaggregating the effects of acculturation and acculturative stress on the mental health of Asian Americans

This study examines the impact of level of acculturation and acculturative stress on the mental health of Asian American college students. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to clarify the relation between level of acculturation, acculturative stress, and mental health outcomes (psychological distress and clinical depression). Being less identified with mainstream United States culture was associated with higher psychological distress and clinical depression, but lost significance when acculturative stress was introduced into the model. Retention or relinquishing of identification with one's heritage culture was not associated with mental health outcomes. Although understanding level of acculturation can help us identify those at risk, findings suggest that acculturative stress is a more proximal risk factor and increases risk for mental health problems independently of global perceptions of stress.     

Soviet Jewish Refugee Women:

In the following article, you will meet some typical Soviet Jewish refugee women. Three came to America more than a decade ago, the others within the last eighteen months. Although they are from different regions and diverse backgrounds, their stories bear a common thread of the effects of living under totalitarian rule. They suffered anti-Semitism on the streets and sexual harassment in the work place. Yet even wife battering, overcrowded living conditions, and daily governmental repression would not induce any of them to seek professional help. Stress and trauma were never mentioned outside of the family.     

Predictors of majority members' acculturation preferences: Experimental evidence

A study was conducted to test experimentally whether majority members' perceptions of which acculturation strategies minority members prefer would causally impact on majority members' own acculturation preferences, especially their preference for integration. Participants (N = 113) were exposed to videos in which actors who posed as Pakistani minority members voiced different acculturation preferences (integration, assimilation, separation or control condition). Their views were presented as representative of their ethnic group. The effect of this on white British majority participants' own acculturation preferences was measured. As expected, perceived acculturation preferences significantly impacted on own acculturation preferences. In line with predictions, participants' level of prejudice significantly moderated these effects.     

Acculturation strategies, coping process and acculturative stress

Using structural equation modeling, this study examines the influences of motivational factors (Need for Cognitive Closure--NCC--and Decisiveness), coping strategies and acculturation strategies on levels of acculturative stress. Two groups of immigrants in Rome (Croatians n= 156 and Poles n= 179) completed a questionnaire that included scales for the various factors. Although our initial hypothesized model was not confirmed, a modified model showed that the motivational factors of NCC and Decisiveness indirectly influence acculturative stress. The modified model with good fit indices indicated that the relationship between NCC and Decisiveness are mediated by coping strategies and acculturation strategies. Specifically, NCC is associated positively with avoidance coping, which in turn is negatively associated with the host group relationships and positively with the original culture maintenance. The last two dimensions predicted lower levels of acculturative stress. Decisiveness was positively associated with the problem-oriented coping and, negatively, with emotional and avoidance coping.     

Psychosocial predictors of acculturative stress in Mexican immigrants

Psychosocial predictors of acculturative stress were examined in a sample of adult Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that family dysfunction, geographical separation from family, nonpositive expectations for the future, and low income levels were significantly related to elevated levels of acculturative stress. The findings suggest that family closeness, hopefulness for the future, and financial resources may provide a buffer against acculturative stressors experienced by migrating individuals. The findings highlight the importance of using culturally relevant clinical methods when assessing and treating immigrants and acculturating individuals.     

Validation of the acculturative stress inventory for children

The psychometric properties of the Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC) were examined with a sample of 139 Hispanic children. This self-report instrument was studied using the items of the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale for Children (SAFE-C; Chavez, Moran, Reid, & Lopez, 1997), which had face validity for acculturative stress. The psychometric properties of the ASIC were examined by conducting an exploratory principal-axis factor analysis, which yielded a two-factor solution. The first factor includes 8 items assessing perceived discrimination and the 4 items of the second factor measure immigration-related experiences. Evidence of internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the 2 factors and the total scale were found to be adequate. In addition, sufficient estimates of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity were obtained. Implications for future research of acculturative stress in children involving the ASIC are discussed.     

Biology and the Jewish question after the revolution: one Soviet approach to the productivization of Jewish labor

In the 1920s a group of health professionals and biologists in the Soviet Union embraced the nascent eugenics movement in order to justify the promotion of physical labor among Jews. Eugenics offered a scientific approach to solving the “Jewish question” through the productivization of Soviet Jewry. Drawing upon the work of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, this group linked the settlement of Jews on the land to the belief that the physiognomy of Jews engaged in physical labor would be genetically passed on to their offspring. The goal was to overcome the perceived debilitating psychological and physical traits of shtetl Jewry by mobilizing Soviet Jewry for the building of socialism. By the late 1920s, however, eugenics fell victim to the Kremlin’s materialist conception of human society that emphasized social engineering and voluntarism and excluded biological influences on the transformation of Soviet society.     

Career and Employment Counseling With Soviet Jewish Immigrants: Issues and Recommendations

This article addresses issues faced by career and employment counselors working with Soviet Jewish refugees and provides recommendations for working effectively with this population.     

Advisory working alliance, perceived English proficiency, and acculturative stress

The aim of this study was to examine the moderators of (a) general or cross-cultural advisory working alliances and (b) perceived English proficiency on the association between acculturative stress and psychological distress. A total of 143 East Asian international students completed an online survey. Results from a hierarchical regression indicated significant three-way interactions of (a) General Advisory Working Alliances × Perceived English Proficiency × Acculturative Stress on Psychological Distress and (b) Cross-Cultural Advisory Working Alliances × Perceived English Proficiency × Acculturative Stress on Psychological Distress. Specifically, the present results indicated that acculturative stress was significantly associated with psychological distress only when students perceived lower English proficiency and had a stronger general or cross-cultural advisory working alliance. However, acculturative stress was not significantly related to psychological distress when these students perceived lower English proficiency and had a weaker advisory working alliance (i.e., general or cross-cultural). In addition, acculturative stress was also not significantly related to psychological distress when these students perceived higher English proficiency and had a stronger or weaker advisory working alliance (i.e., general or cross-cultural).     

Affective and attributional features of acculturative stress among ethnic minority college students

Little is known about the affective features of acculturative stress or its relation to attributional styles for negative events. The authors examined associations among acculturative stress, attributional style, and positive and negative affect among 96 ethnic minority college students. They hypothesized that acculturative stress would be characterized by elevated negative affect and global and stable attributions for negative events. Consistent with prediction, acculturative stress was significantly associated with negative affect and global attributions, even when controlling for other relevant predictors. Attributional style did not account for the association between negative affect and acculturative stress. Positive affect and stable and internal attributional styles were not related to acculturative stress. The authors discuss implications for reducing stress associated with acculturation.     

Predictors of quality of life of Portuguese Americans: identity,acculturation, and religiosity

ABSTRACT

Utilising the Multicultural Assessment-Intervention Process (MAIP) framework, the present study examined the effects of acculturation, ethnic identity, and religiosity on Portuguese Americans’ perceptions of their quality of life. Several culturally-sensitive variables were used to predict quality of life attitudes among a convenience sample of 305 Portuguese American adults. A structural model with quality of life as the outcome variable, Portuguese identity as the predictor, and Anglo orientation and religious faith as separate mediators was tested and a simple mediation structure involving religious faith was confirmed. While Portuguese identity predicts quality of life directly, when religious faith was added into the model as a mediator, much of the predictive value of Portuguese identity on quality of life was funnelled through religious faith. Implications for future Portuguese American research were discussed.     

Escape through Poland: Soviet Jewish Emigration in the 1950s

The emigration movement among Soviet Jews is usually dated to the 1960s–1990s. This essay focuses on the premovement emigration in the 1950s, which prepared the ground for the massive departure of Jews and non-Jewish members of their families, primarily to Israel and the United States. The parameters for leaving the Soviet Union in the 1950s were in many ways similar to the parameters for returning to Poland in the immediate post–World War II years. On paper, the basic pools of emigrants were the same: Jews who at the outbreak of World War II were Polish nationals. In reality, many repatriates of the 1950s were more Soviet than Polish, leaving the country where they had lived for up to twenty years, which often was a lion’s share of their lives. Those—that is, the majority—who ultimately reached Israel went through two repatriation processes: first, as returnees to their pre–World War II homeland and, second, as Jews going back to their historical homeland. As this essay shows, the contemporaneous political and social climates in the Soviet Union and Poland, the nature of those countries’ mutual relations and of their relations with Israel, not present on the map until 1948, framed a unique context for emigration in the early post-Stalinist period.     

Acculturative Hassles and Immigrant Adolescents: A Life-Domain Assessment for Soviet Jewish Refugees

Abstract

In a sample of 146 adolescents, the authors developed and validated a measure of acculturative hassles for Soviet Jewish refugees. They based the measure on an ecological perspective, which focuses on hassles involving person-environment transactions occurring in life domains of school, family, peers, and language. The authors reviewed conceptual and methodological issues in existing instruments and incorporated efforts to address current limitations into instrument development. The measure was correlated with psychological distress, level of acculturation to Russian and U.S. cultures, and outcomes in life domains; it contributed to outcomes over and above effects of nonacculturative hassles. Implications for measurement of acculturative hassles are discussed.     

Acculturative hassles and immigrant adolescents: a life-domain assessment for Soviet Jewish refugees

In a sample of 146 adolescents, the authors developed and validated a measure of acculturative hassles for Soviet Jewish refugees. They based the measure on an ecological perspective, which focuses on hassles involving person-environment transactions occurring in life domains of school, family, peers, and language. The authors reviewed conceptual and methodological issues in existing instruments and incorporated efforts to address current limitations into instrument development. The measure was correlated with psychological distress, level of acculturation to Russian and U.S. cultures, and outcomes in life domains; it contributed to outcomes over and above effects of nonacculturative hassles. Implications for measurement of acculturative hassles are discussed.     

Construct validity of a measure of acculturative stress in African Americans

The properties of the main measure of acculturative stress have not been systematically examined. The authors conducted a study of the construct validity of the Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (A. M. Padilla, Y. Wagatsuma, & K. J. Lindholm, 1985) in a sample of 248 African American university students (156 of whom attended a historically Black college). After controlling for general life stress, the authors found that the relations of acculturative stress to depressive and anxious (but not suicidal) symptoms remained. Also, African American students at a historically Black college reported less acculturative stress than African American students at a large state university. These findings clarify the nature of a key construct and measure of acculturative stress.     

Acculturation and adaptation of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents: predictors of adjustment across life domains

This study explores how acculturation is related to adaptation across different life spheres for 162 Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents in a suburban community in Maryland. Because the different contexts of refugee adolescents' lives vary in acculturative demands, different patterns of acculturation should be related to adaptation in different life spheres. The study uses a multidimensional measure of acculturation and assesses acculturation to both American and Russian cultures as it relates to psychological adaptation, peer relations, and school and family outcomes. Findings support the general ecological thesis that acculturation to different cultures is differentially related to adaptation across life domains. Acculturation to American culture predicted better grades and perceived support from American peers. Acculturation to Russian culture predicted perceived support from Russian peers. Both American acculturation and Russian acculturation predicted reduced loneliness and perceived support from parents. Further, different dimensions of acculturation, such as language and identity, were differentially related to adaptation. Implications for acculturation theory and measurement are drawn, and cautions are offered about the interpretation of acculturation studies using single proxies such as language use or preference.     

Primary prevention of acculturative stress among refugees. Application of psychological theory and practice

Primary prevention in refugee mental health requires information from clinical, health, and cross-cultural psychology. Primary prevention's roots are in public health, which is distinguished by a communitywide perspective for addressing mental health concerns. This article summarizes research suggesting that refugees are an at-risk population, making them especially suitable for public health interventions. Research on stress and acculturation is highlighted, given its importance to prevention in refugee mental health. The opportunities for primary prevention programs and policies at 3 levels (i.e., local community, national, and international) are illustrated with case examples from both the United States and Canada. Prevention at the international level is highlighted by a World Health Organization Mental Health Mission to camps on the Thai-Cambodian border.