Assimilation + Acculturation - Lueck & Wilson

Assimilation

• when an individual loses a sense of belonging to his or her heritage, culture and completely adopts and adapts to their norms and values of their new culture

Assimilation + Acculturation

• assimilation is one example of acculturation

• the process of adapting and changing as a result of living in a new culture

Acculturation

• the cultural and psychological change that happens as result of contact between two or more cultural groups

• one acculturation strategy is assimilation, when a person adopts the cultural beh and values of new culture

• if they do this while maintaining original culture, its called integration

Acculturative stress

• the contact between one’s own culture and the new culture could lead to acculturative stress

• the psychological, physiological, and social difficulties of acculturation, often resulting in anxiety or depression

• often experienced by immigrants when they move to a new country and try to balance the culture they were enculturated to and new culture they are trying to acculturate to

• also can be from acculturative gaps - differences between immigrant parents culture and childs own culture in new country

Lueck & Wilson aim

• to investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans

Lueck & Wilson method

• semi structured interviews conducted either online or face-to-face

• interviews measured level of acculturative stress, language proficiency, strength of family ties, and socioeconomic status

Lueck & Wilson results

• 70% of sample were found to have acculturative stress

• being bilingual resulted in lower acculturative stress

• higher levels of stress were found in Asians who did not know their native language well enough to discuss with family or community members

Lueck & Wilson conclusion

in conclusion, This study shows that Asian immigrants who had assimilated experienced higher levels of stress

Lueck & Wilson link back - assimilation

• those that had integrated experienced less stress

• asians who are able to use both languages equally with their friends are able to build up networks of support within and outside their community

• an important protective factor against stress

• assimilation may be a less healthy approach to acculturation than integration