Psychological adaptation of adolescents with immigrant backgrounds.
In the present study, the author examined 3 theoretical perspectives--family values, acculturation strategies, and social group identity--as predictors of the psychological well-being of adolescents from immigrant backgrounds. The 3 perspectives share the view that immigrants' successful adaptation involves the balancing of their heritage culture and the culture of the society of settlement. The participants were 506 adolescents from 4 backgrounds--Vietnamese, Pakistani, Turkish, and Chilean--who were living in Norway. The 3 theoretical perspectives together accounted for between 12% and 22% of the explained variance of mental health, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. The predictive powers of the different perspectives, however, were dependent on which outcome was predicted. On the whole, social group identity showed the strongest predictive power.
Sam
D L
DL
Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Norway. david.sam@psych.uib.no
D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway