3.2.2 Acculturation
↳
Key Definitions
Acculturation: internalizing the norms of the dominant culture where you have migrated
Enculturation: internalizing the norms of your own culture of origin
Notes:
→ recognizing that the cultural influences in dominant and non-dominant groups are mutual, acculturation is now defined as the process of psychological and cultural change as a result of contact and interaction between cultures
↳ can result in changes of both cultures. not only the dominant one (Berry 2008)
→ Specific research studies usually use the simplified approach and focus on how individuals change because of migration
→Enculturation in this context refers to the ties with the heritage culture
→ Acculturation refers to adopting the norms of the host culture
Essential Understanding
Strategies of Cultural Change
↳ people can adopt four strategies of cultural change
→ each strategy is a combination of two independent dimensions:
↳ maintenance of heritage culture
↳ seeking relationships with other groups
→ can be seen in Berry (1997)
Limitation of Acculturation Effects
→ research into acculturation has a number of typical limitations like:
↳ reliance on self-report data
↳ correlational design
↳ fact that acculturation studies are biased in one direction (from poorer countries and more traditionalist to rich and liberal countries)
Acculturation and Health Behavior of MIgrants
→ research into the effects of acculturation on health of migrants has identified two interesting effects:
↳ healthy migrant effect
↳ negative acculturation effect
→ Acculturation contributes to unhealthy eating since migrants typically move to a culture that promotes less healthy eating behaviors than their own culture
↳ can be seen in Shah et al (2015)
→ Ishizawa and Jones (2016) showed that there are some protective factors that can serve as a buffer against developing obesity in migrants
→ Da Costa, Dias, and Martins (2017) showed that the length of residence is associated with growing obesity
↳In using such uni-dimensional measures as length of residence, this research ignores the complexities of acculturation strategies proposed by Berry (1997)
↳ another criticism is that it’s not the process of acculturation that seems to matter, but the culture to which one is acculturating
→ Other studies also didn’t show between risk of being overweight and duration of residence
Theory of Acculturation
Berry (1997)→ Two Dimensional Model of Acculturation
→ according to this, people can adopt four strategies of cultural change:
↳ Assimilation: people are open to change and not concerned about the loss of connection with their culture
→ adjust their behavior, attitudes, and beliefs to the norms of the dominant culture
↳ Integration: people preserve their original values and beliefs, but at the same time explore relationships with other cultures
↳ Separation: people value their original culture, are afraid of losing it, so they actively avoid contact with other cultures
↳ Marginalization: individuals don’t maintain their original culture, but neither do they seek contact with other cultures
→ These strategies can be visualized as a system of two independent dimensions:
↳ maintenance of heritage culture
↳ seeking relationships with other groups
→ In this way, the two dimensions can be thought of as enculturation vs. acculturation
↳ has far-reaching implications: means that enculturation and acculturation are not necessarily opposite processes and can act together to pursue a common goal if cultural diversity is accepted in the society
Typical Limitations of Acculturation
→ Acculturation is a process that occurs over a period of time, so it’s important to conduct longitudinal studies
↳ ideally, studies should take into account changes in both minority and the dominant culture
→ Since acculturation involves a wide range of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, the common method of choice is self-report measures (questionnaires)
↳ this is then naturally lends itself to a correlational design since it has a wide range of variables, but limited cause-effect inferences
→ Since the majority of research studies look at samples of migrants, there is another limitation that must be accounted for
↳ Most migration occurs from poorer countries to richer countries
↳ Most migration occurs from traditional to more liberal countries
→ Migration in the opposite direction is rarely studied due to limited availability of samples
→ So, acculturation is biased in one direction
How does Acculturation Affect Health Behavior of Migrants
→ Research in this area has found two effects:
Healthy Migrant Effect:
↳ people who recently migrated have a tendency to be healthier than their counterparts who stayed in country of origin
→ One potential explanation is that host countries are selective and prefer to select healthy immigrants
Negative Acculturation Effect:
↳ healthy migrant effect diminishes over time
→ migrants are becoming less healthy and more similar to their counterparts in the country of origin
→ One explanation is that the food environments in the migrant origin cultures tend to be healthier than food environments in the more “developed” host countries
Researches
Shah et al (2015)→ Obesity in South Asian workers in the UAE
↳key: acculturation contributes to unhealthy eating since migrants typically move into a culture that promotes less healthy eating behaviors
Aim: study the association between acculturation and obesity
Participants: Random sample of 1,375 South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) male migrant workers in the UAE
→ half had lived in the UAE for 6 or more years
→ common occupations were drivers, laborers, agricultural workers, and construction workers
—> there was also a comparison group of men of the same age in their culture of origin
Results:
↳ migrant workers in the UAE had significantly higher body mass index (BMI) than comparison group
↳ the longer they stayed, the higher the BMI
→ Prevalence of obesity was higher in migrants than in the comparison group
Ex: it was double among Pakistani participants, and at the same time prevalence of obesity and being overweight was higher than in Emirati men
Conclusion:
→ Acculturation may contribute to unhealthy eating behaviors, resulting in obesity and being overweight
↳ may be explained by the fact that migrants are moving into a culture that promotes more unhealthy eating behavior compared to country of origin
Evaluation:
→ One strength is the random sampling since it increases representativeness of the sample
↳ participants were selected randomly from the mandatory health visa screening center in Abu Dhabi
→ Years of residency is often used as an indicator of acculturation
(assumption is that the longer people live in a new country, the more they are acculturated to it)
↳ however, this is a crude measure susceptible to some bias
↳ doesn’t take into account individual differences in terms of people’s reaction to acculturative stress
→ Not a true experiment, causation cannot be inferred
→ Results may be specific to migrant men, and may not be applicable to South Asian women
Ishizawa and Jones (2016)→ Obesity in Asian migrants in the USA
↳key: there are some protective factors that can serve as a buffer against developing obesity in migrants
Aim: compare obesity rates among second- and third-generation Asian migrants in the USA and identify potential moderating factors of developing obesity
Method: correlational study
Participants: Asian migrants in the USA
Results:
↳ second- and third-generation had a higher likelihood of obesity than first-generation migrants or people from their country of origin
↳ however, there were moderating factors that protected against developing obesity including:
↳ living in a neighborhood with high migrant density
↳ living in a household that retained original language
Conclusion:
↳ retaining some time with the original culture may serve as a protective factor against developing obesity in migrants
Evaluation:
↳ the study took into consideration protective factors
↳ a strength because just postulating that migrant are becoming more obese with the course of time is not too helpful from the practical viewpoint
→ Knowing what factors can potentially protect them is practical because we can enhance those protective factors to create healthier populations
↳ results of the study are made in terms of causation (moderating factors that protect against obesity)
↳ but we need to remember that it’s still just an inference
→ It was observed, for example, that migrants who retained their original language were less likely to develop obesity with the course of time
↳ the conclusion of retaining the original language protects from developing obesity seems plausible, but it’s not certain
→ Like any other correlational study, there could be other factors influencing the association of these two variables
Da Costa, Dias, and Martins (2017)→ Obesity in migrants in Portugal
↳key: length of residence is associated with growing obesity
Aims: compare the prevalence of being overweight between immigrants and natives in Portugal; study the correlation between the length of residence and being overweight among immigrants
Method: correlational study
Participants: 31,000 people from Portugal, of whom 4.6% were migrants
Results:
↳prevalence of excessive weight was higher in the sample of native Portuguese men than in new migrants
↳ however, the length of residence positively correlated with the prevalence of being overweight in migrants (those who stayed longer had a tendency to be more overweight)
Conclusion:
↳ process of enculturation causes gradual changes in diet or lifestyle
↳ these changes cause migrants to become more similar to the native Portuguese in terms of eating behaviors
Criticism of Research into Effects of Acculturation on Health
→ As pointed out in Schwartz et al (2013), most studies of acculturation and health outcomes rely on a uni-dimensional understanding of acculturation
↳ accultured vs. non-accultured to the receiving culture, ignoring the second dimension proposed by Berry (1997)
↳ As a result, it’s not clear whether the observed effects of immigration on health are due to immigrants’ adaptation to the receiving culture, loss of connection with heritage culture, or both
→ Another criticism is that it is not the process of acculturation that seems to matter, but the culture in which one is acculturating
↳ there were other studies that didn’t show a significant correlation between the risk of being overweight and the duration of residence