Am J Community Psychol (2014) 53:60–72 DOI 10.1007/s10464-013-9614-2

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

A Life Domains Perspective on Acculturation and Psychological Adjustment: A Study of Refugees from the Former Soviet Union Dina Birman • Corrina D. Simon • Wing Yi Chan Nellie Tran



Published online: 17 December 2013 Ó Society for Community Research and Action 2013

Abstract The study articulates a contextual approach to research on acculturation of immigrants, suggesting that the relationship between acculturation and adjustment is dependent on the cultural demands of the life domains considered. Specifically, the study investigated the mediating effects of adjustment in occupational and social life domains on the relationship between acculturation and psychological adjustment for 391 refugees from the former Soviet Union. The study used bilinear measures of acculturation to the host (American) and heritage (Russian) cultures. Using Structural Equation Modeling, the study confirmed the hypothesized relationships, such that the positive effects of American acculturation on psychological adjustment were mediated by occupational adjustment, and the effects of Russian acculturation on psychological adjustment were mediated by satisfaction with co-ethnic social support. Psychological adjustment was measured in two ways, as psychological well-being, using a measure of life satisfaction, and as symptoms of depression and anxiety, using the Hopkins symptom checklist (HSCL). Life satisfaction served as a mediator between adjustment in occupational and social domains and HSCL, suggesting that it may be an intervening variable through which

D. Birman (&) University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected] C. D. Simon University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA W. Y. Chan Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA N. Tran University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

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environmental stress associated with immigration contributes to the development of symptoms of mental disorder. Keywords Acculturation  Life domains  Refugees  Immigrants  Psychological adjustment  Life satisfaction

Introduction Acculturation refers to the process of cultural change that individuals undergo as a result of cultural contact. For immigrants, this contact begins when they enter the new country, and the process of acculturation unfolds as they adjust to their new life in resettlement. The extent to which different styles of acculturation have an impact on psychological adjustment in resettlement has received considerable attention in the psychological literature. While researchers previously assumed that assimilation was the best way to acculturate, Berry (1994) introduced a typology of four acculturative styles, with integration or biculturalism characterized by high involvement in both the heritage and the host culture identified as most adaptive for all immigrants. Consistent with this position, a large number of studies and several recent meta analyses (e.g. Yoon et al. 2013; Nguyen and Benet-Martinez 2013) have searched for what kind of acculturative style is related to positive adjustment without taking into account the specific contexts within which immigrants live their lives (Birman and Simon 2013). The present study adopts a contextual perspective to the question of what acculturative style is best, as different ways of acculturating may be beneficial for adjustment in different contexts. Swindle and Moos (1992) articulated a life domains approach that considers stress and coping from the perspective of persons-in-context. Specifically, they

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suggested that ‘‘life stressors and social resources exist in specific domains and that individuals differ in their level of involvement in various domains (e.g., work, immediate family, neighborhood)’’ (Humphreys et al. 1995, p. 475). As a result, ‘‘individuals vary in terms of which life domains are most important for their personal well-being.’’ (Swindle and Moos 1992, p. 1). From this perspective in order to understand what type of acculturation is most adaptive, it is important to consider particular life domains, since it is possible for someone to be well adjusted in some domains (e.g. work) but not others (e.g. family relationships). Previous work has not been sufficiently precise in distinguishing life domains as they relate to the immigrant adaptation process. For example, a number of studies of immigrants have differentiated adjustment to include psychological and sociocultural domains (e.g. Schwartz et al. 2007). The psychological domain includes a broad range of mental health and emotional well-being outcomes, including self-esteem, depression, and life satisfaction, while the sociocultural domain is related to ‘‘behavioral competence’’ (Nguyen and Benet-Martinez 2013, p. 124) such as academic and career success and social skills. However, in this work, the sociocultural domain is much broader than as defined by Swindle and Moos (1992), because it can include adjustment in a wide range of contexts that vary in their adaptive requirements. For immigrants, a layer of complexity relevant here is that the settings in which they participate vary in cultural requirements, or the ‘‘acculturative press’’ they exert (Birman et al. 2005). In other words, different settings require different cultural skills. These different requirements shape the acculturative options available to individuals and exert pressures that determine which ways of acculturating may be most adaptive. Thus, a more differentiated life domains perspective on immigrant adjustment is useful in describing the role of acculturation in adjustment for immigrants. As Swindle and Moos (1992) suggest, which life domains are important varies across individuals and groups. For adult immigrants, the life domains of work and social relationships are particularly important and involve different kinds of acculturative press. For most immigrants the occupational life domain is likely to play out within workplaces where knowledge and understanding of the host (e.g. American) culture is an important personal resource that can facilitate occupational adaptation. In the social domain, however, adult immigrants tend to maintain important relationships with others from their heritage culture, including both family and co-ethnic friends. In these co-ethnic contexts, knowledge of and comfort with the heritage culture are important for adjustment. These two domains (occupational and co-ethnic social) provide a useful test of the assertion that acculturation to the heritage

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and host culture can both facilitate adjustment but in different life domains. Much of the prior literature on acculturation and adjustment has yielded inconsistent results, suggesting that acculturation to the host culture has a positive, negative, or no effect on adjustment, depending on the study (e.g. Escobar and Vega 2000; Rogler et al. 1991; Shen and Takeuchi 2001). While some suggest that acculturation to the host society is related to better psychological adjustment (e.g. Mehta 1998; Miranda and Matheny 2000; Neff and Hoppe 1993; Ngo et al. 2001) others suggest that it is associated with acculturative stress (Ahmed et al. 2011; Dinh et al. 2009; Negi 2013) because acculturation to the host culture can lead to internalization of damaging stereotypes, and alienate immigrants from traditional ethnic networks that provide them with social support (e.g. Burnam et al. 1987; Escobar and Vega 2000; Rogler et al. 1991). As a result of these contradictory theories and findings, some have questioned this line of research (e.g. Hunt et al. 2004), even recommending discontinuing measurement of acculturation in research, and suggesting instead that ‘‘objective variables (e.g., place of birth, age at arrival in the United States, years residing in the United Sates, primary language use including a measure of the proficiency of the second language), should be used either separately or in combination and tested as the initial predictors of outcomes of interest.’’ (Escobar and Vega 2000, p. 739). While the frustration expressed by these authors about the inconsistent nature of available evidence is understandable, we offer an alternative direction for future research. First, we argue for the importance of bilinear measurement of acculturation, as discussed in more detail below. Most importantly, we propose that host and heritage culture acculturation can both be beneficial because each provides skills and resources useful to immigrants in different life domains. Further, we suggest that adjustment in specific life domains (e.g. occupational or social relationships) may mediate the relationship between host and heritage acculturation and overall psychological adjustment. Attention to these variables as mediators can help articulate a cogent theory of why different kinds of acculturation contribute to the mental health of immigrants. In this paper we present data on acculturation, mental health, and adjustment in different life domains (occupational and social) for refugees from the former Soviet Union (FSU) resettled in the US The aim of the study was to provide evidence for the life domains approach by testing whether acculturation to both American and Russian culture would be related to better psychological adjustment, but through different pathways, depending on the life domain considered.

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Measurement of Acculturation Although most scholars today advocate for a bilinear measurement approach (Birman 1998; Ryder et al. 2000), most research continues to rely on unilinear1 measures that assume that individuals who become more acculturated to the host culture simultaneously become less attached to their heritage culture (c.f. Dinh et al. 2009; Negi 2013). These measures continue to be used in research despite consistent evidence that they produce misleading data about the acculturation process (e.g. Ryder et al. 2000). By forcing individuals to endorse attachment to one culture versus the other, these measures assume that high involvement with the host culture is synonymous with low involvement with the heritage culture. Studies that report that host culture acculturation has a negative impact on adjustment may in fact be confounding this process with lack of attachment to the heritage culture, and vice versa. There has also been much criticism of the ‘‘four-fold paradigm’’ (Rudmin 2003) approach, an alternative to unlinear measurement that categorizes individuals into the four acculturative types described by Berry et al. (2006). Although this approach considers the possibility of acculturation to both the host and the heritage culture, it sorts acculturating individuals into ‘‘types’’. As Rudmin (2003) points out, ‘‘typologies tend to reify traits and to view them as inherent in the individual or group and thus not easily changed’’ (p. 29). This approach contributes to the view of acculturation as akin to an individual’s trait, rather than as a way of coping invoked in different situations (Trimble, 1989). As a result, theory and research that argue that biculturalism is the best acculturative style (e.g. Berry et al. 2006; Nguyen and Benet-Martinez 2013) are likely to promote a context-free value-based interpretation of a behavior that is much more nuanced and situation specific (Birman and Simon 2013). Here, we suggest that a bilinear measurement approach is aligned with a more contextual conception of acculturation. It involves measuring acculturation to the host and heritage culture separately, and treating them as independent variables (e.g. Ryder et al. 2000). From a life domains perspective, acculturation to both cultures offers useful skills and resources that immigrants can call upon across the varied domains of their lives as suggested by several studies (e.g. Birman 1998; Nguyen et al. 1999; Oppedal et al. 2004; Schwartz et al. 2007). The second issue to which we call attention concerns the use of ‘‘proxy’’ measures to assess acculturation. While 1

A literature search was conducted in May 2013 using PsychINFO to identify studies that assessed the relationship between acculturation and psychological adjustment of immigrants from diverse backgrounds. This systematic search yielded only 22 studies that used bilinear measures to predict psychological adjustment (Simon 2013).

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we agree with Escobar and Vega (2000) that it is important to test the impact of demographic ‘‘objective’’ variables on adjustment, it is also important not to assume that they are synonymous with the psychological process of acculturation. While acculturation may be impacted by demographic markers, such as length of time lived in the host country and generational status, the mere passage of time in the US is not likely to result in uniform patterns of psychological acculturation for diverse individuals. Instead, theories of acculturation suggest that individuals adopt quite different acculturation styles depending on their preferences, skills, as well as opportunities provided to them in their local context. Further, demographic markers such as measures of acculturation are unilinear, assuming that the longer individuals live in the new country, the more they become attached to its culture, and the less to their native culture. Despite this, many studies have used such demographic markers in place of or have combined them with acculturation scales into a single index (see Yoon et al. 2010 for a review). In this study, we examine the unique contributions of both length of time in US as well as our bilinear measure of acculturation to adjustment to establish whether they are empirically as well as conceptually distinct. Mediators of the Relationship Between Acculturation and Adjustment Past studies suggest the importance of examining mediators of this relationship (e.g. Dinh et al. 2009). For example, Shen and Takeuchi (2001) in a study of Chinese Americans found that the level of American acculturation had both positive and negative indirect effects on mental health, depending on which mediated path was considered. On one hand, higher acculturation to American culture contributed to more stress, which in turn contributed to worse mental health. On the other hand, American acculturation was also associated with higher socioeconomic status, which had a positive effect on mental health. As a result, the authors concluded that it is important to assess mediators of the link between acculturation and adjustment: merely testing the direct relationship between acculturation and mental health outcomes may obscure the dual role that acculturation plays in psychological functioning. With opposing trends, the two main pathways from acculturation to mental health status may offset each other’s effect, thus resulting in the observation of a null relationship. (pp. 410–411). The mediational approach has particular advantages when acculturation to the host culture is assessed separately from acculturation to the heritage culture. With bilinear scales, a

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study can examine the possibility that different variables may mediate the relationship between acculturation to the heritage and host culture and psychological outcomes. For example, Oppedal et al. (2004) in a study of diverse immigrant students in Norway, found that the influence of heritage cultural competence on mental health was mediated by family support, whereas the influence of host cultural competence on mental health was mediated by support received in the classroom (i.e., a host culture-oriented context). Similarly, Birman and Taylor-Ritzler (2007) found that for Soviet Jewish adolescents in the U.S, American acculturation had a direct effect on distress, but the effect of Russian acculturation on reducing distress was fully mediated by its impact on improving family adjustment. The purpose of the present study is to further develop knowledge of factors that may mediate the relationship between acculturation and adjustment for immigrants, and to articulate and test a contextual life domains approach. The model is presented after a discussion of psychological adjustment of refugees from the FSU. Psychological Adjustment of Refugees from FSU Since the mid-1970’s, approximately 700,000 e´migre´s from the FSU have come to the US for permanent resettlement (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2010). This has been a highly educated group, with a high proportion of men and women having professional jobs prior to migration (Vinokurov et al. 2000). However despite this, studies have suggested that this group has faced difficulties in resettlement, as cultural differences between the former Soviet Union and Western nations pose particular challenges in adjustment and mental health (Aroian and Norris 2002; Markowitz 1994). Struggles to find employment represent an important stressor for most adult immigrants (Steel et al. 2002; Lipson 1992; Mirdal 1984). As other highly educated groups (Yakushko et al. 2008), e´migre´s from FSU have experienced underemployment and loss of professional status in resettlement. For Soviet Jews, employment in a similar specialty and status job as held prior to migration may be particularly important, as culturally one’s professional identity is strongly associated with sense of self (Vinokurov et al. 2000; Yost and Lucas 2002). Knowledge and comfort with American culture and language can ease the employment transition process. At the same time, the tightly knit family and community life of Soviet Jews (Markowitz 1994) suggests the need for strong ties to the ethnic community. Studies suggest that co-ethnic networks are linked to better mental health for immigrants (Simich et al. 2003), and acculturation to the heritage culture is associated with better relationships with the family and ethnic community (Birman and Taylor-

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Ritzler 2007; Oppedal et al. 2004). For Soviet Jews, Russian acculturation can serve as a resource in this regard, as involvement with family and co-ethnic friends provides access to a range of ethnic-specific resources, including supportive personal relationships. Based on these considerations, refugees from the FSU can benefit from both American and Russian acculturation, as tested by our meditational model. Mediational Model The hypothesized mediational model is presented in Fig. 1. We included both a measure of positive well-being (life satisfaction), as well as distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression), as they are conceptualized as related but distinct constructs by stress and coping models (Mcknight et al. 2002; Koivumaa-Honkanen et al. 2004). Both measures have been used in immigration research as indicators of successful psychological adjustment (Birman and Tran 2008; Fazel and Young 1988; Mollica et al. 2001) in the face of multiple stressors that typically accompany the immigration process. Such stressful life events have been found to be associated with life dissatisfaction (Suh et al. 1996). Further, longitudinal research suggests that life satisfaction may be an intervening variable between environmental factors and the onset of psychiatric symptoms (Koivumaa-Honkanen et al. 2004; McKnight et al. 2002), such that life satisfaction can lead to adaptive coping that can reduce onset of symptoms of mental disorder. Therefore, we expected that greater life satisfaction is an indicator of reduced stress and adaptive coping, which in turn would contribute to fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. We hypothesized that acculturation to the Russian and American cultures would both predict reduced symptoms of distress, but through different pathways. American acculturation was hypothesized to reduce distress through its positive impact on occupational adjustment (job satisfaction and job prestige), and life satisfaction. Russian acculturation was hypothesized to reduce distress through greater satisfaction with co-ethnic support (from two sources of support: family members living with them and Russian friends) and life satisfaction. Paths from several important demographic variables were modeled based on prior findings. Education was hypothesized to be related to occupational adjustment, and higher American and lower Russian acculturation (e.g. Shen and Takeuchi, 2001). Age was hypothesized to predict American acculturation negatively, as it may be more difficult for older adults to learn English and behaviorally participate in the American culture (Miller et al. 2009). Female gender was hypothesized to be associated with more distress, as in prior studies (e.g. Miller et al. 2009). Time in US was hypothesized to be associated with age and

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Fig. 1 Hypothesized model

to predict higher American acculturation (e.g. Birman and Trickett 2001a). We also anticipated that over time refugees would become increasingly successful professionally (occupational adjustment), and their ethnic networks would grow stronger and be more satisfying (satisfaction with coethnic support). As other studies found a link between time in US and symptoms of distress (e.g. Aroian and Norris 2002) we tested this path to assess the unique contribution of Time in US relative to measures of psychological acculturation.

Methods Sample The analyses included 391 refugees from the FSU who were employed at the time of the study.2 Forty-nine percent 2

Because occupational adjustment with current employment was a variable in this study, the sample of 436 was selected from the larger sample of 485 adults so that only those who were working at the time of the study and thus completed measures related to their current job were included. Additional 45 participants were removed because of missing data (a requirement of the AMOS bootstrapping module). The final sample of 391 was not significantly different from the 45

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(n = 192) were male. The vast majority of participants either came to the US with refugee status (94 %, n = 369) or received asylum once in the US after arriving on a different visa (4 %, N = 15). The rest were family members of someone with refugee status, either having immigrated to rejoin family or married after arrival. Participants’ average age was 46.06 (range 21–70; SD = 8.32) at the time of the study, and 40.45 years old when they arrived. They had lived in the US for an average of 5.9 years (SD = 3.14; range from 3 months to 11.4 years). The mean level of education was 3.43 on a 5-point scale (‘‘1 = high school’’, ‘‘5 = candidate or doctoral degree.’’), indicating partial college or higher. The majority of families immigrated from Ukraine (42 %) or Russia (29 %). The rest came from Belarus (14.4 %), Uzbekistan (5 %), Azerbaijan (3.9 %), Latvia (2.3 %), as well as Moldova, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, and Armenia. The sample was drawn from the Maryland suburbs of Baltimore and Washington DC. Both were middle class communities, with a large percentage of residents having college educated and professional jobs (Birman et al. Footnote 2 continued participants excluded as to age, gender, place of origin, time in U.S. or refugee status.

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2005). None lived in areas that can be characterized as ethnic enclaves, with the largest concentration of Russian speakers per census tract being 18 %, and only 11 % living in areas where concentration was more than 5 %.

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for this sample was .75, and the mean was 2.6 (SD = .46). The Russian Language subscale of the LIB is not used with immigrant adults, as they tend to rate their native language competence as perfect or near perfect on such measures (Birman and Trickett 2001a).

Procedure Co-ethnic Social Support The data were collected as part of a larger cross-sectional study examining psychosocial and work-related adaptation of Soviet Jewish refugees in Maryland (Birman and Trickett 2001b) in collaboration with the Maryland Office for New Americans (MONA). A stratified random sample was selected from lists of names provided by the state resettlement agencies that included all refugee arrivals from the FSU over the prior 10 years. Participants were contacted by telephone. Bilingual interviewers administered paper and pencil questionnaires in Russian in the participants’ homes. All measures were translated using established procedures including back translation and de-centering (Brislin 1986), and reviewed by native speakers for accuracy. The response rate was 86 %, and participants appear to be demographically similar to other samples of Soviet refugees resettled in Maryland (Birman and Trickett 2001b).

A 4-item scale adapted from Seidman et al.’s (1995) Social Support Microsystems Scales was used to assess the degree of satisfaction received from two sources of support within their ethnic community: Russian friends, and family members living with them. The items read ‘‘How much can you count on the support of the following people, when you need (1) to talk over private matters (2) help with public programs or with your job (3) money or other things’’ and (4) ‘‘How much pleasure do you get from your interactions with the following people.’’ Items were rated on a 3-point Likert scale ranging from ‘‘1 = not at all’’ to ‘‘3 = a great deal.’’ Separate subscales were computed for each of the two sources of support, and used as indicators of the latent variable called ‘‘Co-ethnic Social Support’’. Reliability of the scales were .78 for Russian friends and .88 for live-in family members. Sample means were 2.5 (SD = .45), and 2.7 (SD = .48), respectively.

Measures Occupational Adjustment American Acculturation The Behavioral and Language subscales from the Language, Identity and Behavioral Acculturation Scale (LIB; Birman and Trickett 2001a), previously used in several studies of immigrants from FSU (e.g. Birman et al. 2002; Miller et al. 2009; Roytburd and Friedlander 2008), were used as indicators of the latent variable of American Acculturation. The Language subscales consist of nine items asking respondents to rate their ability to speak and understand English. The Behavioral Acculturation subscales ask participants to rate the extent to which they engage in behaviors associated with American culture (e.g., language use, media, music, entertainment, food) in nine items. A four point Likert-type scale is used for each subscale ranging from ‘‘1 = not at all’’ to ‘‘4 = very well, like a native’’ for the Language, and ‘‘1 = not at all’’ to ‘‘4 = very much’’ for the Behavioral subscale. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were .95 and .75 for American Language and Behavioral scales, and the means were 2.60 (SD = .62) and 2.60 (SD = .48), respectively.

Two measures of occupational adjustment were used as indicators to construct this latent variable. First, the 1989 Socioeconomic Index of Occupations as recommended by Entwistle and Astone (1994) was used to determine participants’ occupational prestige. The index is derived from both educational attainment and income of job incumbents corresponding to the 503 detailed occupational categories in the 1980 census. Ratings are represented in scores ranging from 0 to 100 (lowest to highest status of job). For example, a heavy truck driver receives an approximate score of 32 whereas a physician received a 97. In this sample, the average score was 50.16 (SD = 20.14; range 22.68–93.34). Second, an 11-item measure of job satisfaction was used (Berkowitz, 2000). It assessed satisfaction with aspects of participants’ current jobs such as ‘‘salary’’, ‘‘working conditions’’, ‘‘work schedule’’, ‘‘the way of life which your salary affords,’’ and ‘‘medical insurance given by job.’’ Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘‘1 = not at all satisfied’’ to ‘‘5 = very satisfied.’’ Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was .88, and the mean was 3.36 (SD = .85).

Russian Acculturation

Life Satisfaction

The Behavioral subscale of the LIB was used to assess Russian Acculturation. It is parallel in structure to the American Behavioral Subscale described above. Reliability

Overall life satisfaction was assessed with the Russian version (Vinokurov et al. 2000) of the Perceived Quality of Life scale (Fazel and Young 1988). It contains 14 questions

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– .49*** .30***



.52***



11 10

-.24***

12

about how respondents evaluate aspects of their lives, such as health, family, house, job, and neighborhood. The Russian version uses a 5-point Likert scale representing ‘‘1 = good,’’ ‘‘2 = satisfactory’’ 3 = uncertain,’’ ‘‘4 = unsatisfactory,’’ ‘‘5 = poor.’’ These anchors were chosen as more culturally appropriate in pilot testing to replace the ones used in the original scale that ranged from ‘‘delighted’’ to ‘‘terrible.’’ In the present study, reliability of the scale was .88, and the mean was 3.70 (SD = .59).

-.38***

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-.16**

66

.22***

-.07 -.09 .14**



.06 .07

.22*** -.05

-.19***

.08

.28***



7

-.29***

– .30***

8

Results

.13*

9

The 21-item version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL; Green et al. 1988) was used to assess symptoms of depression and anxiety on a 4-point scale ranging from ‘‘1 = not at all distressing’’ to ‘‘4 = extremely distressing.’’ Reliability of the scale was .87, and the mean was 1.64 (SD = .41).

-.01

Symptoms of Distress

-.13** -.18** .14**

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001

Gender coded 0 = Male; 1 = Female

-.11* .13** 13. Hopkins checklist

.11*

.32***

.37*** .41***

.32*** -.05

-.05 .23*** .19***

.04

.17**

-.05 11. Job satisfaction

12. Life satisfaction

.23***

.36*** .46*** .02 .27*** .45*** -.08

.04 9. Live-in family support

10. Job prestige

.06 .06 -.01 .04

.18*** -.02 8. Russian friends support

.04

-.03

-.01



.12* -.02 .04

-.32***

.71*** .08

.10 -.09

.33*** .11* -.20*** 6. American behavioral

7. Russian behavioral

.38*** 3. Time in US

-.22***

.02 .40***

– .10* 2. Education

-.10 -.18***

– 1. Age

4. Gender 5. American language



.09

3 2

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1

The hypothesized model is presented in Fig. 1. To test our meditational hypotheses (not pictured), we drew direct paths from American and Russian Acculturation to both Life Satisfaction and HSCL to rule out significant direct effects. Similarly, direct paths were drawn between Occupational Adjustment and HSCL, and Co-ethnic Support and HSCL, to test the alternative hypothesis that Life Satisfaction mediated these relationships. Although initially direct paths were hypothesized and drawn between time in US and Occupational Adjustment, age and Russian Behavioral

Table 1 Intercorrelations of study variables

Assessing Model Fit

.01 .27***

4



.08

5



6

Correlational analyses among all the study variables are presented in Table 1. Three measurement models were run using AMOS 21 to assess the degree to which indicators of American Acculturation, Occupational Adjustment, and Co-ethnic Support loaded on their hypothesized latent constructs (see Fig. 1). With only 2 indicators per construct, all three models were under-identified. However, since each of these three latent variables correlated with at least one other variable in the SEM, it was reasonable to proceed with analyses (Kline 2005). The factor loadings for Occupational Adjustment were .85 for Job Satisfaction and .61 for Occupational Prestige; for American Acculturation, .90 for American Language and .77 for American Behavioral Acculturation; for Co-ethnic Social Support, .56 for Satisfaction with Support from Family Living with You and .45 for Russian Friends.

-.25***

Assessing the Measurement Model

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Acculturation, and age and education, they were not significant and were removed from the final model. The residual covariance matrix revealed relatively high correlations between the error terms of Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction, as well as between Russian Behavioral Acculturation and Social Support from Russian Friends. The Russian behavioral acculturation scale contains items about Russian friends. Because systematic error variance may have occurred on the two measures of satisfaction, as well as between the measures of social support from Russian friends and Russian behavior, the error terms of these two pairs of variables were allowed to co-vary in the model to improve model fit. After these changes, the final model did not vary significantly from the initial model (v2diff(3) = 4.888, p = .18). The final model is presented in Fig. 2. Chi square statistics, v2(57) = 97.417 (p \ .001) indicate a poor fit for the data. However, given the sensitivity of the Chi square test to a large sample size, the Chi square statistic was considered an unreliable measure of model fit, and we computed the v2/df, as suggested by Kline (2005). The v2/df ratio was 2.01 indicating a good model fit. The following additional indices were examined and indicate a good fit for these data (Hu and Bentler 1999): CFI = .96, TLI = .93, and RMSEA = .05.

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Structural Model Standardized direct path coefficients are illustrated in Fig. 2. Unstandardized coefficients for direct, indirect, and total effects for the final model are reported in Table 2, along with confidence intervals for indirect effects. The model accounted for 23 % of the variance in Symptoms of Distress. Bootstrapping (Preacher and Hayes 2008) with 2,000 bootstrapped samples and maximum likelihood estimation was used to test indirect effects of multiple mediators. Russian Acculturation The direct paths from Russian acculturation to life satisfaction, and Russian Acculturation to HSCL were not significant. The hypothesized indirect path between Russian Acculturation and Life Satisfaction through Co-ethnic Social Support was significant (.09, p \ .05), indicating mediation. The hypothesized indirect effect of Russian Acculturation on HSCL through Co-ethnic Social Support and Life Satisfaction (-.04, p \ .05) was also significant. Co-Ethnic Social Support had a significant indirect effect

Fig. 2 Mediational model (N = 391). Nonsignificant paths shown in grey. Not pictured significant paths: Education to American acculturation (.27); to occupational success (.34); to Russian behavioral acculturation (-.23). Age to American acculturation --.47); to time in US (.38)

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68 Table 2 Summary of predictive effects for SEM model on distress

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Unstandardized coefficients (B) Outcome

Determinant

CI

Total

Direct

Indirect

Indirect

American acculturation R2 = .43 -.032***

-.032***





Education

Age

.142***

.142***





Time in US

.106***

.106***





-.103***

-.103***





-.013* .022**

– .022**

-.013* –

-.028, -.005 –

.126*





-.653, -.417

Russian acculturation R2 = .05 Education Co-ethnic social support R2 = .12 Education Time in US Russian acculturation

.126*

Occupational adjustment R2 = .51 Age

-.525***



-.525***

Education

7.851***

5.519***

2.332***

1.674, 3.169

Time in US

1.733***



1.733***

1.394, 2.121





American acculturation

16.372***

16.372***

Life satisfaction R2 = .25 Age

-.008**



-.008**

-.011, -.004,

Education

.083***



.083***

.054, .116

Time in US

.042***



.042***

.032, .057

American acculturation

.243**

. 070

.173*

.097, .289

Russian acculturation Co-ethnic support

.093* .739***

.000 .739***

.093*

.020, .199





Occupational adjustment

.011***

. 011***





Hopkins symptom checklist R2 = .23 Age Education

Standardized coefficients of direct effects are presented in Fig. 2

.005***



-.048***



.005***

.003, .008

-.048

-.070, -.028

Time in US

.012

.038***

-.026***

-.036, -.017

Gender

.102**

.102**





-.097

-.074*

-.134, -.023

.080

-.042*

-.097, -.009

American acculturation Russian acculturation

-.173*** .038

Confidence Intervals presented for indirect effects

Co-ethnic support

-.333*

-.164

-.170***

-.340, -.076

Occupational adjustment

-.004*

-.001

-.002***

-.004, -.001

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001

Life satisfaction

-.23***

-.23***





on reduced distress on HSCL, with Life Satisfaction mediating this relationship (-.17, p \ .001). American Acculturation The direct paths from American Acculturation to Life Satisfaction, and American Acculturation to HSCL were not significant. The hypothesized indirect effect of

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American acculturation on Life Satisfaction through Occupational Adjustment was significant (.15, p \ .001), indicating mediation. The hypothesized indirect effect of American acculturation on HSCL was also significant (-.10, p \ .05), such that higher levels of American acculturation contributed to reduced distress through its influence on Occupational Adjustment and Life Satisfaction. In addition, Occupational Adjustment had an indirect

Am J Community Psychol (2014) 53:60–72

effect on HSCL (-.10, p \ .001) through Life Satisfaction, indicating mediation. Time in U.S Time in US predicted higher levels of distress on HSCL directly. However, there was also an indirect path from time in US to HSCL. Time in US was a significant predictor of American Acculturation, which in turn had an effect reducing symptoms of distress as described above. The indirect effect of Time in US on HSCL, through American Acculturation was in the opposite direction, to reduce distress (-.20, p \ .001). As a result, the total effect of time in US on HSCL was .09, and not significant.

Discussion The goal of this study was to test meditational hypotheses that acculturation to both the heritage and host cultures contributes to better mental health of refugees from the FSU, but through different paths. Findings support the hypotheses, and the life domains approach from which they were derived. American acculturation contributed to life satisfaction and reduced distress because of its effect on occupational success, as anticipated by the life domains perspective, and prior research (Vinokurov et al. 2000). Russian acculturation was also a significant predictor of life satisfaction and reduced distress, mediated by co-ethnic social support, consistent with prior research on the benefits of ethnic networks (Simich et al. 2003). The life domains approach illustrated here draws attention to the importance of considering the cultural demands of the specific settings where immigrant adjustment takes place in order to determine what kind of acculturation is adaptive. While both host and heritage culture acculturation were shown to serve as resources to immigrants and improve psychological adjustment, it is possible to imagine different patterns of relationships for immigrants living in different kinds of community contexts. In this case, the larger communities where the research participant lived cannot be characterized as ethnic enclaves. Yet life domains are themselves embedded in larger layers of context, including meso-, exo-, and macrosystems (Bronfenbrenner 1977) that also influence immigrant acculturation and adjustment both directly and indirectly (Birman 2011; Birman and Simon 2013; Miller et al. 2009). For example, acculturation to the American culture may be less important for immigrants working in a refugee-owned business supported by a surrounding ethnic enclave (e.g., see Gold, 1992 for a description of the Vietnamese refugee community in San Francisco). Acculturation to the heritage culture may be less of a resource for those immigrating without family and in the

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early stages of a migration wave when a co-ethnic community has not yet been established. Including such meso-, as well as exo-, system variables in future research can further articulate the levels of context that affect the acculturation and adjustment process. The Importance of Love and Work: Social Support and Occupational Adjustment The two life domains we selected for this study roughly correspond to Freud’s famous assertion that love and work are the two most important roles in adult life. Adjustment in these domains can be seen as ways of coping with challenges of immigration associated with ‘‘love and work.’’ Both proved important for psychological adjustment of refugees from the FSU. Co-ethnic social support was an important contributor to life satisfaction, and to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. Migrating to a new country severs important ties to sources of social support. While immigrant youth may develop extensive social networks with American peers, developing close personal relationships with members of the host culture may be more difficult for adults. Given that their identity is well established, their values well developed, and their language proficiency in the new language is unlikely to surpass their native language skills, adult immigrants may prefer to maintain close ties to people with shared culture and experience in their co-ethnic community (Arends-To´th and Van de Vijver 2004). As a result, Russian acculturation and co-ethnic support can lead to greater life satisfaction and reduced distress. Occupational adjustment also had both a direct effect on life satisfaction, and an indirect effect on distress. These findings stress the importance of occupational success for psychological adjustment in resettlement for immigrants, as suggested in the literature (e.g. Yost and Lucas 2002). Occupational adjustment is considered particularly challenging for refugees who immigrate because of push factors, rather than for better employment opportunities. Unlike voluntary migrants who are better able to be strategic about the timing of the move or location of resettlement, refugees who held professional positions prior to migration are likely to experience underemployment in resettlement. Finding employment commensurate with the level of education and status they held prior to migration is more difficult for Soviet Jewish refugees than for immigrant groups with less educated backgrounds, yet important for their sense of self (Vinokurov et al. 2000). Therefore, it is not surprising that occupational adjustment was linked to life satisfaction and reduced distress in this study. Taken together, assisting these refugees with successful adjustment in the domains of coethnic relationships and work may be important targets of intervention to prevent or reduce symptoms of distress.

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Mental Health and Mental Illness: Life Satisfaction and Symptoms of Distress The study also contributed to the literature on immigrant adjustment by exploring global psychological adjustment in two distinct ways: as life satisfaction, a measure of psychological well-being or mental health, and HSCL, a measure of symptoms of anxiety and depression that may be early markers of onset of a mental disorder. Embracing a community psychology perspective, we sought to include a strength-based measure of well-being, life satisfaction, to avoid defining mental health as merely the absence of mental illness. Further, in this study we tested the proposition that dissatisfaction with one’s life in response to stress is a mechanism through which symptoms of mental illness develop. We found that life satisfaction was a mediator of positive adjustment in the two life domains considered (occupational and co-ethnic social) and symptoms of mental disorder. Although based on cross-sectional data, our findings are consistent with prior longitudinal research that suggests that life satisfaction is an intervening variable in the relationship between stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety (e.g. McKnight et al. 2002). Our findings also serve as a reminder that immigration is a stressful event, and symptoms of mental illness may develop in response to stressors associated the resettlement process. Implications for Measurement of Acculturation Although not a primary focus of the study, our findings suggest the importance of using bilinear measures of acculturation that assess acculturation to both cultures. Had we used a traditional unilinear measure, we would not have discovered that in addition to American acculturation, Russian acculturation also had a positive indirect effect on psychological adjustment for our study’s participants. Studies that employ measures of acculturation only to the host culture miss the opportunity to discover such relationships. Coupled with measures of adjustment in specific life domains, bilinear measures helped us illustrate important mechanisms by which acculturation has an impact on psychological adjustment. This bilinear life domains approach also underscores that acculturation is not always a stressful process. A unilinear measurement of acculturation to the host culture can inadvertently promote an either/or perspective on acculturation to the host culture as inherently stressful (Dinh et al. 2009; Negi 2013), occurring at the expense of maintaining the heritage culture, synonymous with acculturative stress, and contributing to psychological problems (Ahmed et al. 2011; Negi 2013). However, acculturation to the host culture can also be viewed as a way of coping with

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the stresses of dislocation (Lazarus 1997). Acquiring new skills, such as learning English, can be ‘‘important and additive rather than subtractive to maintaining an ethnic identity’’ (Stritikus and Nguyen 2007, pp. 856–857). Combined with measurement of adjustment across life domains, the bilinear approach suggests a more differentiated and complex nature of the acculturation process. Our findings also highlight the potentially misleading nature of proxy measures when used to assess acculturation. As in other studies, here time in US was related to acculturation to American culture, a finding that is used as evidence that it can be used as a proxy for acculturation (Escobar and Vega 2000). However, in our study the relationship of time in US to psychological distress via the direct path was in the opposite direction than when mediated by American acculturation. Time in US had a direct negative impact on psychological adjustment, with more time in US related to more distress. However, when mediated through American acculturation, it had a positive effect, resulting in reduced distress. Had we used time in US as a proxy for American acculturation, we would have concluded that it is related to increased distress. However, when both measures were used, results revealed that if these refugees became more acculturated to American culture over time, their psychological symptoms decreased; and overall the total effect of length of time in US on distress was non-significant. Our findings demonstrate the kind of confusion that can result when studies employ proxy measures of acculturation, potentially yielding misleading results that are difficult to interpret. Limitations and Conclusion The study was cross-sectional, and it is important not to infer longitudinal effects from our correlational data. In particular, the direction of effects may have been reversed, such that better psychologically adjusted immigrants may be more successful occupationally and in their co-ethnic relationships, which in turn, can serve as a motivator for higher levels of acculturation to both cultures. Findings are limited to this well educated and economically successful group of immigrants who face many difficulties (Aroian and Norris 2002), including discrimination (Birman and Trickett 2001a), but not racism in their acculturation experience in the US. In this study, we chose to exclude participants who were unemployed, because the vast majority of this sample was employed, and our measure of occupational adjustment was based on assessment of their current jobs. Studies with other populations of immigrants where unemployment is more prevalent may need to include it in assessing occupational adjustment. Despite these limitations, the findings affirm the life domains perspective, suggesting that acculturation to both

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cultures is related to better psychological adjustment but through different paths. Based on our findings, we call for future research to employ bilinear measures of acculturation that rely on survey questions related to the construct of psychological acculturation, rather than demographic markers such as length of time in US or generational status. Importantly, contextual meditational models such as the one used in this study can allow the field to discern more complex acculturation patterns. Our findings suggest that the impact of acculturation on adjustment cannot be adequately understood without considering the cultural demands of the contexts within which immigrants function. Studies that use bilinear measures and take the contextual impact of varied cultural settings into account may help resolve the impasse in the literature on acculturation and adjustment, and solve the puzzle of what appear to be contradictory findings.

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A life domains perspective on acculturation and psychological adjustment: a study of refugees from the former Soviet Union.

The study articulates a contextual approach to research on acculturation of immigrants, suggesting that the relationship between acculturation and adj...
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