Psychological Adaptation of Turkish Students at U.S. Campuses

The number of Turkish citizens entering the U.S. for their studies is growing more rapidly than almost any other group. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how acculturation factors affect psychological adaptation of Turkish students in the U.S. One hundred and twenty-four Turkish students participated in the study. Regression analyses revealed that social support and self-esteem were predictors of psychological adjustment. Implications suggest that Turkish students, as with other international students as previous research has suggested, should have a strong network of both co-national students and other social connections.     

当前环境下图书馆多元文化服务活动的设计

文章围绕着图书馆多元文化服务活动(或项目)设计的原则、步骤、调查、方案、评估等工作而展开,为国内图书馆有效地开展多元文化服务提供具体建议和实践方法。     

Biculturalism and self-construal

Evidence on the dimensionality of self-construal points to the coexistence of both an independent and an interdependent self-image. Drawing on conceptualizations of the acculturation process, this study is a preliminary examination of the distinctiveness of four hypothesized self-construal patterns: Bicultural, Western, Traditional, and Culturally-alienated. Different types of individuals, having experienced varying amounts of cultural contact and having made different choices in adjusting to cultural groups, might portray distinctive self-construal patterns. Especially intriguing was the notion that those with a well developed sense of interdependence and a well developed sense of independence could be described as bicultural. To test this, persons from four a priori identified groups were selected to represent the four patterns of self-construal. We predicted that on a measure of self-construal, the mean scores of the respondents in the four groups would differ in strength with the bicultural experience group, in particular, exhibiting both a high independent and a high interdependent score on a measure of self-construals. Our hypotheses were supported. In terms of independent self-construal, the Bicultural and Western groups scored significantly higher than the Traditional and Alienated groups. For the interdependent self-construal, the Traditional and Bicultural groups scored significantly higher than the Western and Alienated groups. The bicultural group was the only group to score significantly higher on both types of construals. The availability of both types of self-construal would likely facilitate communication and adaptive behaviors for persons interacting in multiple cultures.     

Expectations and acculturation: Further unpacking of adjustment mechanisms within the Russian-speaking community in Montreal

Recent years have witnessed a significant growth in the Russian-speaking community in Montreal, Canada. However, little is currently known about the predictors of psychological adjustment in immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). In this study we explored the expectations that this group of immigrants (N = 271) hoped to fulfill in their adopted society, the extent to which these expectations have been fulfilled, and the impact of fulfilled expectations on psychological adjustment. We found that the degree of fulfilled expectations was significantly associated with better psychological adjustment independent of personality traits, language proficiency, and acculturation. These findings contribute to the literature on cross-cultural adaptation of immigrants from the FSU and highlight the potential importance of expectations for the study of acculturation more generally.     

Social support perceptions,network characteristics,and international student adjustment

Two hundred seventy-six international students reported their perceptions of social support from multiple sources (i.e., friends, family, institution, and significant other) as predictors of three facets of cross-cultural adjustment (i.e., general, interaction, and school-related adjustment). In addition, this study explored the incremental effects of cultural diversity and social network size on adjustment by asking international students to report members of their social network that they rely on for instrumental (i.e., task-oriented) and socio-emotional (i.e., relationship-oriented) support. Findings showed that certain sources of social support (i.e., friends and institution) were more strongly related to adjustment than others. Moreover, cultural diversity and the presence of host-nationals in student’s socio-emotional support network were significant predictors of cross-cultural adjustment. This demonstrates the importance of promoting initiatives that encourage host-national and sojourner interactions and diverse relationships within higher education to benefit cross-cultural adjustment.     

Acculturation in a postcolonial context: Language,identity, cultural adaptation,and academic achievement of Macao students in Mainland China

The mainstream acculturation research focuses on international students and immigrants’ settlement in a new cultural environment, but little is known about the adaptation process of people from postcolonial areas relocating to their home country. Drawing from research on acculturation and postcolonial studies, this research examined the importance of language and social identity of Macao Chinese (N = 102; 50 males, Mage = 20.1) transitioning to universities in Mainland China. The results of path analysis showed that Chinese national identity and perceived Mandarin language proficiency were positively associated with each other, but they were linked to cultural adaptation through different paths. Perceived language proficiency was directly linked to social, academic, and psychological adaptation, whereas Chinese identity was indirectly associated with social and academic adaptation through acculturation to the Mainland Chinese culture. Moreover, academic adaptation was, in turn, associated with academic achievement (i.e., GPAs). The present study extends acculturation research to a postcolonial context, highlighting that national identity and language proficiency are important factors for successful cultural adaptation to the homeland. The theoretical and practical implications regarding intra-cultural adaptation barriers andprocesses in postcolonial contexts were discussed.     

“It's on Time That They Assimilate” – Differential acculturation expectations towards first and second generation immigrants

Research has shown that societal majority members have specific conceptions (i.e., acculturation expectations) about how immigrants should acculturate. These expectations are often less welcoming towards devalued than valued immigrant groups. In a 2 × 2 experiment with a sample of 187 German majority members we show that acculturation expectations also differ in terms of which generation members of the targeted immigrant groups belong to. Our results revealed lower endorsement of integrationism towards the second generation of both valued and devalued immigrants. However, the results indicated that acculturation expectations were particularly unwelcoming towards the second generation of devalued immigrant groups. For valued immigrants, segregationism was lower towards the second generation than towards the first generation. For devalued immigrants in contrast, assimilationism was higher towards the second generation compared to the first generation. Majority members’ tendency to be less willing to endorse cultural maintenance for second generations stands in stark contrast to immigrants’ preference of cultural maintenance and may therefore lead to particularly conflictual societal outcomes. Implications of the findings for future studies are discussed.     

Identities for Sale: How the Tobacco Industry Construed Asians,Asian Americans,and Pacific Islanders

Previous research has substantiated the targeting of various demographic subgroups by the tobacco industry through marketing practices. However, relatively little research has examined targeting of Asians and Pacific Islanders. Based on prior tobacco document research citing the use of identity-based marketing strategies, a content analytic scheme was developed to assess if these strategies were applied to the Asian and AAPI populations. The study was grounded in social identity theory and optimal distinctiveness theory paradigms in order to develop a coherent analytic framework. Keyword searches of documents were conducted and a random sample of the documents of interest was drawn. These data suggest that the tobacco industry targeted Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States and abroad via interpersonal and commercial communication tactics. These strategies were carefully orchestrated and employed as a result of sophisticated analyses of the social identities and value systems of the source culture populations. Barriers to reaching this culturally and linguistically heterogeneous market were overcome via the construct of collectivism. At the same time, more Westernized Asians were targeted via advertisements that blended a hybrid Western style identity. For both source and immigrant cultures, the industry attempted to facilitate identity construction and maintenance through smoking.