Context matters!? Insights from comparative research on immigrant adolescents' development (original) (raw)

Embedded in a context : the adaptation of immigrant youth

2012

With rising levels of immigration comes a need to know what fosters positive adaptation for the youth growing up in a new culture of settlement. The issue is increasingly studied; however, little of the research conducted has combined a developmental with a contextual approach. The aim of this dissertation was to explore the adaptation of immigrant youth on the basis of developmental theories and models which put emphasis on setting or contextual conditions. This entailed viewing immigrant youths as developing organisms that actively interact with their environments. Further, immigrant youths were seen as embedded in multiple settings, at different levels and with different contextual features. Two of the overall research questions addressed how contextual features of the settings in which the youth are embedded were related to adaptation. Results from all three studies combined to show that the contextual feature of a setting is not of prime or sole importance for the adaptation of immigrant youth, and that the contextual feature of SES diversity is of greater importance than the ethnic compositions of settings. The next two overall research questions addressed how the linkage between settings was related to adaptation. The results indicated that adaptation is not always setting specific and that what is happening in one setting can be related to adaptation in another setting. Further, it was found that the cultural distance between settings is related to adaption, but that contextual factors affect this relationship. Overall, the results of the dissertation suggests that the adaptation of immigrant youth is a complex matter that is explained better by interaction and indirect effects than by main and direct effects. This highlights the importance of taking all settings in which the immigrant youths are embedded into account and to account for how the settings interact to understand the factors that foster and hinder positive adaptation of immigrant youth.

Psychological and sociocultural adaptation of immigrant youth

Immigrant youth in cultural transition: …, 2006

The previous chapters focus on country-level and contextual variables (chap. 2), methodological considerations (chap. 3), and intercultural variables (chap. 4). This chapter examines the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of ethnocultural youth with the ...

Immigration and Adolescence: Psychology Research Essay

This research essay investigates and explores the psychological effects that immigration and the settlement of a family in a new country has on adolescents. Adolescence is an unpredictable, tumultuous and often frightening journey that facilitates a transition from the cocooned time of childhood to the mature world of adulthood. A sudden displacement or change of surroundings can cause this transition to become even more so confusing and difficult to deal with. This research essay gains insight and knowledge from personal experiences and life anecdotes of immigrant teenagers living in Toronto, Canada and about how the shift in the culture, society and their environment cause or is still causing a temporary but impactful phase of psychological problems in their adolescence.

Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation

Applied Psychology, 2006

Cet article présente plusieurs des principaux résultats d’une grande étude internationale sur l’acculturation et l’adaptation de jeunes immigrés (âgés de 13 à 18 ans) qui se sont implantés dans treize pays (N = 5,366); il y est adjoint un échantillon de jeunes nationaux (N = 2,631). La recherche s’appuyait sur trois questions centrales: comment les jeunes migrants gèrent‐ils le processus d’acculturation? Comment parviennent‐ils à s’adapter? Et y a‐t‐il un lien manifeste entre la forme d’acculturation et le succès de l’adaptation? L’analyse en clusters déboucha sur quatre profils d’acculturation: intégrateur, ethnique, national et diffus. L’analyse factorielle de cinq variables d’adaptation mit en évidence deux types d’adaptation: psychologique et socioculturel. Il existe une forte relation entre la façon dont les jeunes s’acculturent et leur adaptation: ceux qui présentent un profil intégrateur bénéficient des meilleurs indicateurs d’adaptations psychologique et socioculturelle alor...

Immigrant and Refugee Adolescents’ Resilient Adaptation: Who does well and why?

Psychology: the Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 2020

Resilient adaptation of immigrant and refugee youth in receiving societies is consequential for the wellbeing of the youth and the prosperity of the receiving societies. Yet there is significant diversity in their adaptation. The central question addressed in this article is: “Who among immigrant and refugee youth do well and why?” To address this question, we present an integrative model for conceptualizing immigrant-youth resilience, which integrates developmental, acculturation, and social psychological perspectives. This resilience framework frames research on the basis of two key questions: First, what challenges immigrant youths’ adaptation? Second, what resources protect their positive adaptation? Accordingly, we present scientific evidence regarding the influence of immigration-specific challenges and contextual and individual-level resources on their positive adaptation. Extant evidence suggests that focusing on strengths and resilience, instead of on weaknesses and psychol...

Migrant Children and Youth “On the Move”: Between the Legacy of the Past and Challenges of the Future

Kultura i Edukacja

The paper presents thematic analyses relating to migration processes, situated between the Legacy of the Past and Challenges of the Future. The authors focus on a complex migration process referring to key factors that characterise it as well as dominant concepts in host societies: segregation and integration. The theoretical considerations undertaken in the text are primarily oriented towards presenting the diverse situation of Migrant Children and Youth "On the Move" as a category of the young generation affected by migration processes. The text is an attempt to reflect on the functioning of migrant backgrounds in the context of children's and adolescents' integration with the new place of residence. Particular attention was drawn to fragile areas generating distance, social exclusion and consequently hindering the process of integration.