Acculturation and Psychological Adjustment of Vietnamese Refugees: An Ecological Acculturation Framework

Abstract

Acculturation to the culture of the host society as well as to one's heritage culture have been shown to impact immigrants' adjustment during the years following resettlement. While acculturation has been identified as an important factor in adjustment of Vietnamese immigrants (Birman and Tran in Am J Orthopsychiatr 78(1):109-120. doi: 10.1037/0002-9432.78.1.109 , 2008), no clear pattern of findings has emerged and too few studies have employed an ecological approach. The purpose of this paper is to contextualize the study of acculturation and adjustment by taking an ecological approach to exploring these relationships across several life domains, using a bilinear scale, and examining mediators of these relationships for adult Vietnamese refugees (N = 203) in the United States. We call this approach the Ecological Acculturation Framework (EAF). Results of a structural equation model (SEM) showed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between American acculturation and psychological distress, demonstrating that this relationship was specific to an occupational domain. However, while Vietnamese acculturation predicted co-ethnic social support satisfaction, it did not predict reduced psychological distress. Implications for a life domains approach, including domain specificity, are discussed.

Acculturation in the discourse of immigrants and receiving community members: Results from a cross-national qualitative study.

“…Acculturation strategies and expectancies can also vary across life domains as different settings affect acculturation and exert different adaptive requirements or acculturative pressures (Salo & Birman, 2015). For example, RCMs may accept and foster maintenance of immigrants' traditions in a private context (e.g., within families, values/belief systems) while simultaneously expecting and even demanding adaptation to the receiving culture in public domains (e.g., work, school, other shared spaces; Buckingham, 2017;Navas, et al, 2005).…”

Prioritising Family Needs: A Grounded Theory of Acculturation for Sub-Saharan African Migrant Families in Australia

“…Cohen (2011) developed a three-fold model with four new acculturation strategies: group integration, group nostalgic insulation, group acculturation and group insulation. Other models such as the relative acculturation extended model (RAEM) by Navas et al (2005) and the ecological acculturation framework (EAF) by Salo and Birman (2015) suggest that acculturation processes vary by ecological context, and this is dependent upon the life domains in which the migration occurred. While both models refer to life domains, the RAEM considers Berry's four acculturation strategies in different contexts, such as work, economic, familial, social and religious practices.…”

“…While both models refer to life domains, the RAEM considers Berry's four acculturation strategies in different contexts, such as work, economic, familial, social and religious practices. Conversely, the authors of the EAF challenged Berry's bi-dimensional model and suggested that life domains are cultural contexts that bring to bear adaptive changes and not merely situations in which immigrants prefer one type of acculturation over another (Salo and Birman 2015).…”

The Acculturation of Community Psychology: Is There a Best Way?

“…However, from the person‐environment fit perspective, acculturation is not a context‐free choice, but is constrained by pressures and opportunities in immigrants’ environments. From this perspective, my research (e.g., Birman, Trickett & Buchanan, ; Salo & Birman, ), as well as others' (Oppedal, Roysamb & Sam, ; Schnittker, ), has found that there is no best acculturative style independent of context (Birman & Bray, ).…”