Never Mind the Acculturation Gap: Migrant Youth's Wellbeing Benefit when They Retain Their Heritage Culture but Their Parents Adopt the Settlement Culture

Home is Where the Heart is: Implications of Dyadic Acculturation for Migrant Couples' Personal and Relational Well-Being

Acculturation-the process through which people adopt the sociocultural values of their heritage and settlement cultures-is a complex experience, particularly within family structures. Although the consequences of acculturation gaps between parents and children have been studied extensively, the consequences for migrant couples are often overlooked. We propose that acculturation gaps in migrant couples are likely detrimental for personal and relational well-being. To test this, a study of 118 migrant couples with the same heritage culture and now living in the United Kingdom was conducted. Acculturation gaps in our studies were conceptualized as both within person and within couple, and their impact on personal well-being and relationship quality was tested using Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). Results suggest that although within-couple acculturation gaps negatively impacted personal well-being, they were not necessarily harmful to relationship quality. Interestingly, within-person acculturation gaps had dyadic consequences, with one person specifically contributing to their partner's personal well-being.

Caring for Undocumented Migrants: Significance of Recognition and Respect during Healthcare Encounters

Undocumented migrants are often in a position of extreme vulnerability and experience many barriers to accessing mental health care. It is crucial that health professionals understand this and quickly establish trust and respect. If the stressful living conditions that contribute to the distress of undocumented migrants are recognized, compassionate and trauma-informed care is enhanced. In this regard, it is important that health professionals understand the fear of being expelled from a country. This paper discusses problems that arise when health professionals interact with undocumented migrants and the need to quickly convey recognition to establish trust and respect. We argue that insights from Axel Honneth's social philosophical theory of recognition and disrespect can further enhance health professionals strategies to improve their verbal and non-verbal communication and thereby increase access to health care for undocumented migrants. We suggest ideas for codifying this knowledge in health care policies and guidelines.

Rebuilding life after migration: Research protocol of a mixed methods study on settlement experiences of refugee and migrant youth

Internationally, there is an urgent need to understand factors promoting successful settlement and integration of people with forced or voluntary migration experiences (i.e., refugee and non-refugee migrants). This paper provides a protocol of a mixed-methods investigation of contextual factors of successful settlement and service utilization of youth and their families, as young people could be at higher risk due to stressors associated with pre-migration trauma, post-migration settlement stressors, and adolescent development. This large-scale mixed-methods study will be conducted across three countries. A questionnaire survey will seek responses from 1200 youth aged 15-24 years residing in South Australia, Ontario, Canada, and California, United States of America. The qualitative component of the study will comprise 54 focus groups (324 participants) with youth and their parents/caregivers. The study design allows a range of important phenomena (e.g., different migration pathways and settlement countries) and key questions (e.g., regarding the intersection of migration, settlement, and wellbeing) to be addressed. It also allows for generalizability of findings to be tested across different communities and countries. Findings will support recommendations for policy and practice and may be generalized to advance research with youth and their families. This study is one of the largest, most comprehensive studies of youth settlement.

Beyond Children's Mental Health: Cultural Considerations to Foster Latino Child and Family Mental Health

Clinicians trained to assess and treat child psychopathology are facing an increasing need to expand their clinical expertise outside of traditional frameworks, which have historically focused largely on the child or the child-mother dyad. Clinicians treating children also need to be prepared to assess and address the systems of care that affect a child's mental health, starting with their family. There is a scarcity of Latino mental health providers and limited clinical opportunities or settings that serve this population by incorporating a developmental, cultural, and sociopolitical framework into high quality care of the whole family.

Reconsidering the "Acculturation Gap": Mother-Adolescent Cultural Adaptation Mis/Matches and Positive Psychosocial Outcomes among Mexican-Origin Families

Previous studies have linked parent-child cultural adaptation mismatches with adolescents' maladjustment without addressing how intergenerational mis/matches are related to positive aspects of adolescent development and parental outcomes. Using data from 604 Mexican-origin families (adolescent sample:54%female, Mage = 12.41, range = 11 to 15), response surface analysis was conducted to investigate how mother-child mis/matches in cultural adaptation (acculturation, enculturation, English and Spanish proficiency) are associated with adolescents' and mothers' resilience and life meaning. Adolescents and mothers reported greater resilience and meaning when they matched at higher, versus lower, levels of acculturation, enculturation and English proficiency; adolescents reported more resilience when they were more acculturated than mothers. The findings provide a strengths-based understanding of parent-child cultural adaptation mis/matches and elucidate how Mexican-origin families thrive in the cultural adaptation process.

Disentangling acculturation and enculturation intergenerational gaps: Examining mother-youth value discrepancies and mental health among Mexican-descent college students

OBJECTIVE

To test the acculturation gap hypothesis by examining mother-youth value discrepancies (both acculturative and enculturative) and their association with mother-youth acculturative conflict and youth mental health outcomes.

METHOD

Participants were 273 Mexican descent college students attending a large, public, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in West Texas (72% women). The participants' ages ranged 18-25 years (M = 19.33 years; SD = 1.54 years).

RESULTS

Three models assessed the relationship between mother-youth value discrepancies and mental health outcomes (suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, and depressive symptoms) as mediated by mother-youth acculturative conflict. Consistently, Mexican heritage cultural values were related to mental health outcomes while American cultural values were not.

CONCLUSIONS

The study found that increased mother-youth discrepancies on Mexican cultural values were associated with increased negative mental health outcomes. Our findings suggest that adopting or learning new mainstream American values does not substitute for the Mexican cultural values that protect against negative outcomes.

Experiences of cultural clashes at home and ethnic victimization in school: "I live between two cultures, and neither of them understands me"

The present study aims to examine the extent to which adolescents of immigrant background experience acculturative stress (i.e., cultural clashes with parents and ethnic victimization in school) in multiple contexts, and the reasons why such stress takes a toll on their psychological functioning and views of themselves. The analytic sample includes adolescents of immigrant background residing in Sweden (N = 423, M_age = 13.19, SD = 0.51). Cluster analysis revealed five distinct groups of adolescents, based on their reports of cultural clashes with parents and ethnic victimization in school: (1) low on both acculturative stressors, (2) average on both acculturative stressors, (3) high on cultural clashes only, (4) high on ethnic victimization only, and (5) high on both acculturative stressors. Mediation analysis showed that adolescents who experienced cultural clashes at home and who were also victimized by their peers in school reported higher levels of feeling in between cultures than adolescents in all the other clusters (except those high on cultural clashes only), and in turn reported higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of self-esteem. The present study highlights the importance of understanding immigrant youth's experiences across multiple contexts simultaneously in order to develop a holistic perspective on their adjustment and integration processes.