Perceived discrimination and psychological distress among immigrants to Canada: The mediating role of bicultural identity orientations

Abstract

Bicultural identity orientations have rarely been examined in relation to both perceived discrimination and psychological distress. Furthermore, these constructs have usually been studied in isolation, but their intersection is essential for understanding intercultural relations in multicultural societies. Using cross-sectional data from 1,143 Canadian undergraduate students from immigrant families, this study explored the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological distress, and how bicultural identity orientations might mediate this relationship. The structural equation modeling results indicated that perceived discrimination was associated with higher levels of psychological distress and hybrid, monocultural, alternating, and conflicted orientations, but lower levels of complementary orientation. Alternating and conflicted orientations were related to higher psychological distress, whereas the other orientations were not. Alternating and conflicted orientations mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological distress, whereas the other orientations did not. The findings are discussed in light of theories on identity integration, rejection–identification, and acculturation.

Cultural Stressors and Cultural Identity Styles Among Hispanic College Students

“…Thus, it is possible that more advanced intercultural abilities help people to avoid situations where discrepancies between the two groups arise and, as a result, to encounter fewer occasions where culturally stressful encounters (e.g., discriminatory behavior) and events are likely to occur. In contrast, our findings also indicated that an AIS may be less functional for Hispanic college students and support prior work suggesting that greater discomfort with managing multiple cultural identities may predict poor psychological adjustment (Firat et al, 2022;Ward et al, 2018Ward et al, , 2021. In the present sample, it is possible that students who more frequently used an AIS perceived less congruence between their two cultures, and therefore tended to experience greater amounts of cultural stress.…”

The Dynamic Interaction Between Cultural Identity Styles: A Person-Centered Approach Examining the Associations Among Cultural Identity-Processing Profiles, Cultural Identity Outcomes and Psychological Well-Being

“…This study provides further evidence that hybridising, a characteristic process of the HIS, leads to more favourable well-being outcomes in terms of fewer psychological symptoms and greater life satisfaction. This is in accordance with previous research where HIS was linked to greater life satisfaction and fewer psychological symptoms (Ward et al, 2018;Schwartz et al, 2019;Firat & Noels, 2021).…”

“…In terms of different configurations of HIS and AIS being related to cultural identity outcomes, given the previous research (Ward et al, 2018), it is likely that the group with predominant use of HIS would be associated with the greatest level of cultural identity consolidation and the group with the predominant use of AIS would be associated with the greatest level of cultural identity conflict (Ward et al, 2018;Schwartz et al, 2019;Firat & Noels, 2021). Regarding the group who adopts both HIS and AIS (dual processors), Schwartz et al's (2019) research found that well-being positively correlated with HIS and negatively correlated with AIS, so as HIS is thought to relate to greater cultural identity consolidation and AIS to greater cultural identity conflict, the group characterised by endorsing both HIS and AIS will be expected to display moderately high levels of cultural identity consolidation, in between the other two groups.…”

Two or More

“…For Multicultural people, discrimination is associated with different orientations toward one's Multicultural identity. More frequent discrimination was associated with a less harmonious and complementary Multicultural identity (Firat & Noels, 2021;Huynh et al, 2018). However, some work found no association between discrimination and identity harmony among first-generation Multicultural people (Huynh et al, 2018).…”

“…Recognition of frame switching may lead some Multicultural people to experience compartmentalization or alternation, the experience of keeping one's cultural identities separate and contextspecific (Yampolsky et al, 2016; also see, Downie et al, 2006). However, there is debate over the extent to which frame switching and alternating identities are bound versus independent, with some researchers pointing to instances of highly integrated Multicultural people still frame switching and the moderating role of identity integration and authenticity on the relative positive versus negative outcomes of frame switching (Firat & Noels, 2021;Hong & Schmidt, 2021;Meca et al, 2019;Szabó et al, 2020;Ward et al, 2021).…”