title: Acculturation and alienation of Soviet Jewish refugees in the United States.
abstract: We examined the relationship of identity and behavioral acculturation to alienation among 49 Soviet Jewish refugees in the United States in 1987. For all the subjects, acculturation was best described as a unilevel rather than a bilevel or multilevel process, because a negative relationship was found between acculturation and the American and Russian cultures. For women, finding an American identity was related to length of residence, whereas holding on to a Russian identity as well as behavioral acculturation predicted alienation. For men, however, a multicultural process appeared to exist with respect to behavioral acculturation, although holding on to a Russian identity was positively related to alienation. Thus, men were able to continue to participate in Russian-oriented activities without feeling alienated, and this participation appeared to increase with length of residence in the United States.
authors.affiliation: Refugee Mental Health Branch, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD 20857.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Birman
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Tyler
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012918:Social Alienation; D014586:USSR / Q000208:ethnology; D014481:United States