Predictors and psychosocial outcomes of acculturation strategies among ethnic minority students

Abstract

A big challenge to ethnic minority students is acculturating to the host culture. Understanding the predictors and psychosocial outcomes of their acculturation strategies helps to identify ways to promote adaptive adjustment. This study aimed to identify the acculturation strategies adopted by the ethnic minority students in Hong Kong, the psychosocial adjustments associated with these strategies, and the predictors. The participants were 485 ethnic minority students from Grades 2, 5, 8 and 11. Using two-step cluster analysis, we identified four types of acculturation strategies: separation (maintaining the original culture and rejecting the host culture), marginalization (rejecting both cultures), integration (embracing both cultures), and proximate integration (similar to integration but to a lesser degree). The integrated students showed the best psychosocial adjustment (e.g., higher school engagement and better sense of school belonging), whereas the marginalized students showed the worst. Using stepwise discriminant analysis, we found that the acculturation strategies were predicted by the students’ social identity and perceived stigma in society. However, stigma was no longer a significant predictor when perceived teacher support was entered into the model. In other words, teacher support was such a powerful predictor that it outweighed the impact of the stigma at the society level.