On October 24 the Levitt Center sponsored a talk by John Berry, psychology professor emeritus of Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. Berry discussed the results of a recent large-scale study in a presentation titled "Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures."
Berry began by explaining the term acculturation. Acculturation is "how people who have been raised within one cultural matrix come [to make a new life] in a new cultural setting," said Berry. The purpose of the study was to "find a way of judging when people have been able to create a new life that is satisfactory to them and those around them."
There are two ways to look at acculturation. At the cultural level, changes occur in both cultures involved, both the dominant and non-dominant. At the psychological/individual level, short-term results are behavioral changes, which range from food choices to fundamental values, and acculturative stress, which refers to stress experience and reactions that come about from the interaction of two cultures. Longer-term adaptations refer to the psychological well-being of a person and how well they are able to manage their new life, for example, if a child is doing well and happy in school.
The study Berry discussed involved researchers in 13 countries, including Canada, where Berry was a researcher. The countries were chosen in order to have a range of historical experience in immigration and vary in policies on multi-culturalism. The study looked at immigrant youth, immigrant parents, national youth and national parents, but for this presentation Berry focused on immigrant youth and their adaptations to a new culture. He discussed how children adapt (meaning what strategies they use), how well they adapt (their psychological well-being), and whether the strategy used to adapt has an effect on how well they adapt.
The children were placed into one of for categories of adaptation strategies based on different variables, such as language proficiency, peer contact, familial obligations, and the desire for rights in the national society. The integration category, in which a child identifies with both their ethnic culture and the national culture, was the most common (36%). A child in this category uses mostly the national language, has contact with peers in both cultures, and has familial obligations but still desires rights outside the family in the national culture. Children in the ethnic category identify with their own culture only; they use mostly their own language have contact mostly with peers of their own ethnic group. In the national category, children have a low ethnic identity. They use mostly the national language, have contact mostly with national peers, and have no sense of obligation towards the family. The diffuse category are "psychologically confused kids," said Berry. These children do not identify with either culture.
Children at the diffuse level experience the highest levels of perceived discrimination, and in fact were found in areas known to be discriminatory towards the immigrant group. "When young people feel discriminated against, they turn their backs on the national culture," explained Berry.
When looking at children over longer periods of time spent in the new culture, the study showed an increase in the number in the integration category, an increase in national identity, and a decrease in the diffuse category. Over time, the study showed, perceived discrimination decreases.
In terms of the relationship between how and how well children adapt, children who used an integration strategy were the most successful. "Young people involved in both societies are the best adapted in terms of mental health, self-esteem, and psychological well-being," said Berry.
Other results showed the second to integration, children in the ethnic category were better psychologically adapted than those in the national category. At a socio-cultural level, all categories except integrated had a negative effect (though national was only slightly negative). A surprising result of this study, according to Berry, was that doing well in school and being involved in the community results in psychological success, not the other way around. It was thought that a child would have success if he or she were psychologically well-adapted.
In conclusion, Berry said policies, programs and counseling for immigrant or refugee children should encourage involvement in and acceptance in both the national and the ethnic society. Pushing children towards either an ethnic or national identity can have negative effects.
"Most adaptation depends on the individual, not where they come from or go to," said Berry, "and the majority find that integration is the way to do it."
The full results of this study will be published in this spring.
-- by Laura Trubiano '07
