Acculturation of Developmental Timetables among Adolescent Immigrants (original) (raw)
Related papers
Child Development, 2012
This longitudinal study compared immigrant and native adolescents' expectations concerning the timing of conventional socially acceptable and oppositional less socially acceptable forms of autonomy. Based on normative development and a collectivist background among immigrants, both developmental and acculturative change was expected. The sample consisted of 523 ethnic German immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 475 native German adolescents, both groups divided into an early (age 12.5 years) and a late (age 16 years) adolescent group. Results revealed more developmental than acculturative change, as immigrants and natives mostly showed a similar rate of change in autonomy expectations. Acculturative change was found only for oppositional autonomy among late adolescent immigrants, whose later expectations approached those of their native age-mates over time. This project was funded through the German Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP-4.1) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We thank Verona Christmas-Best for her help in the preparation of the manuscript.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2012
Stress-and-coping frameworks predict increasing psychological adaptation of immigrants over time, but although previous studies found evidence for this assumption in adult samples, this temporal pattern was hardly found among adolescent immigrants. The authors argue that in adolescent immigrants an acculturation-related increase in psychological adaptation over time might be counterbalanced by an age-typical decrease in indicators of psychological adaptation. This longitudinal study, covering a 3-year period in mid-adolescence, compared change in depressed mood as an indicator of psychological adaptation in three matched samples of 101 newcomer adolescent immigrants, 101 more experienced adolescent immigrants, and 101 native adolescents. Results showed that native adolescents and experienced adolescent immigrants increased in depressed mood, as is typical for this age group, over the 3-year period. Newcomer adolescent immigrants, however, remained stable, reporting more depressed mood initially than the more experienced immigrants. Moreover, the extent of depressed mood reported by newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants converged over time. This pattern of results indicates that both age-typical development and acculturation need to be considered when drawing conclusions on change in psychological adaptation over time in immigrant populations.
Adolescents’ transitions to behavioral autonomy after German unification
Journal of Adolescence, 2008
The present study examined the timing of behavioral autonomy transitions in two same-aged cohorts of East German adolescents assessed in 1991 and 1996. An earlier timing of autonomy privileges was associated with higher deviant behavior. A later timing of autonomy privileges and responsibilities was linked to structural constraints, specifically, to parental unemployment. Between 1991 and 1996 significant timing differences were observed for some autonomy transitions in the East, implying an adaptation to Western timetables. Our findings illustrate the plasticity of autonomy transitions under conditions of social change.
The Role of Parentification and Family Climate in Adaptation Among Immigrant Adolescents in Israel
Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2006
Parentification has been defined as the familial interactional pattern in which children and adolescents are assigned or assume roles and responsibilities normally the province of adults. Two studies were conducted to examine the role that parentification takes in the context of immigration with regard to its impact on adolescent adaptation. In study 1, a comparison between 70 adolescent immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel with 70 nonimmigrant Israeli adolescents showed higher levels of spousal role taking among the immigrant adolescents. In the case of the immigrants, spousal role taking was seen to involve positive relationships with both parents (as opposed to with only one for the nonimmigrants) and to be associated with better coping with stressful events. In study 2, the association between the incidence of parentification and family climates was explored among 123 adolescent immigrants from the FSU in Israel. Of the three climates found, the optimal cohesive independence-oriented family climate showed a higher incidence of parentification (parental role taking, spousal role taking, parental role for siblings, and nonspecific adult role taking) as opposed to within the unstructured-conflict-oriented and controloriented family climates. These results seem to strengthen the position that optimal adolescent development following immigration involves a combination of enhanced familial relatedness and assumption of responsibility within a climate that allows age-appropriate autonomy. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 16(2), 321-350
1993
This study was conducted to examine the timing of adolescent transitions. Its first aim was to investigate the hypothesis that cumulated family adversities during childhood would predict earlier transitions in domains such as behavioral autonomy and friendship formation during adolescence. Subjects (N1=1,631) were adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 and their parents came from two different parts of the country, the former East and West Germany. This population allowed for the study's second aim, to compare effects of adversities across parts of the country that for decades were governed under different political systems. Six classes of risk factors were assessed, covering the time period before the age of 9 had been reached by the study adolescents: loss of a parent (due to divorce or death), serious illness (own or rerson close to self), residence change, school problems (failing a grade), unemployment of parent, and unskilled occupation of father (or mother in single-parent families). The timing of eight issues of normative psychosocial development was assessed in the areas of behavioral autonomy, opposite-sex friendship, and aspects of identity. The results revealed that, as hypothesized, groups high in cumulated adversities at the prepubertal stage showed earlier transitions to more adult behaviors in various normative issues of adolescent development. This was true for both regions of the country. The differences between adolescents low and high in adversities were more prevalent and pronounced among females, particularly those from the East. (Contains 6 figures and 10 references.) (NB)