The concept of acculturation is used in migration literature to refer to cultural changes resulting from encounters of heritage cultures of migrant children and/or their families
with those of their country of residence. Acculturation has been defined as a “phenomena which results when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups” (Redfield, Linton and Herskovits, 1936, p.149). Berry (1976; 1990a) argues that: Acculturation was originally conceptualised as a one- dimensional process in which retention of the heritage culture and acquisition of the receiving culture were cast as opposing ends of a single continuum (Gordon, 1964). According to this one-dimensional model, as migrants acquired the values, practices, and beliefs of their new homelands, they were expected to discard those from their own heritage. Since the early 1980s, migrant scholars have proposed that cultural attributes are not expected to be shed with increasing time in the host society but to interact with the traits of the host society, and be reconstructed and reinvented in the process (Berry, 1980; Phinney, 1990; Ward & Searle, 1991). Berry proposes an acculturation model with two independent dimensions underlying the process, which are an individual’s link to their cultures of origin, and their link to the cultures of their country of residence (Berry, 1980). Berry’s two-dimensional structure that considers to what extent acculturating individuals prefer to identify and maintain their heritage culture; and to what extent acculturating individuals have contact with others outside their own group and participate in the larger society are crossed to distinguish four ways of acculturating. 1) Separation strategy whereby individuals from the non-dominant group place a value on holding on to their original culture and seek no contact with the dominant group; 2) Integration strategy whereby individuals express an interest in maintaining strong ties in their everyday life both with their ethnic group as well as with the dominant group; 3) Assimilation strategy whereby individuals wish to have relations with the new culture but no longer value maintenance of own cultural values; 4)
Marginalisation strategy in which individuals lose cultural and psychological contact with both their traditional culture and the larger society (Berry, 1980; 1998; 2003). Berry’s acculturation model pays attention to cultural and psychological change that follows intercultural contact (Berry 1980, Berry & Sam, 1980, 1997, 1998, 2003).
Berry’s earlier work on the acculturation model focused on minority cultural groups and how they adjust in the cultural context of their country of residence, but his later work has paid attention to host cultural changes (see Berry et al., 2006).
Berry’s acculturation models are the most widely framework to conceptualise research with migrant children (Schwartz & Zamboanga, 2008). Psychological changes are theorised to include alterations in individual’s attitudes toward the acculturation process, their cultural identities, language proficiency and usage and their social behaviours in relation to their peer/groups contacts. Cultural changes are conceptualised to include alterations in a group’s customs, and in their economic and political life. The eventual adaptations are theorised to be characterised by core psychological features, including a person’s well-being and social skills that are needed to function in their cultural complex daily world (Berry, 1980, 1998). Berry’s theorisation of cultural changes in inter-cultural settings and how these impact on individual or psychological processes is pertinent to the current study. In particular an integration strategy, in regard to availing opportunities for African migrant children to draw social and cultural capacities and resources that are adaptive in Irish socio-cultural settings is a central focus in exploring the psychosocial well-being of the study population.
Berry’s acculturation model has received empirical support in numerous studies (e.g., Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006b; Schwartz et al., 2010; Schwartz & Zamboang, 2008). The bulk of acculturation research operationalises cultural dimensions at the
level of cultural behaviours and practices mainly: language and communication (proficiency in use of native or host country languages); social interactions (e.g., having ethnic or host country peer friendships and understanding social norms that govern relationships with peers and in institutions); and daily living habits (e.g., food preferences, entertainment, recreational activities). Acculturation measures have been developed measuring these cultural dimensions (e.g., Suinn, Ahuna, & Khoo, 1992; Szapocznik, Kurtines, & Fernandez, 1980). Increasingly, scholars are focussing on cultural identification by connecting the acculturation domain to the literature on ethnic and racial identity which examines the extent to which migrant children feel connected to their cultural heritage (see Helms, 1994; Phinney & Ong, 2007; Smith & Silva, 2011). Recent acculturation research has also connected the acculturation domain to cultural values including belief systems and world views casting the individualist- oriented Western cultural framework as the backdrop for the process of culturally collective oriented non-Western migrant children’s process of acculturation (Arends- Tóth & van de Vijver, 2006; Degni et al., 2006; Kim, 2007; Miller, 2010; & Ochocka & Janzen, 2008; Renzaho & Vignjevic, 2011).
Renzaho, McCabe and Sainsbury (2010b); Renzaho et al., (2010); Renzaho (2011) and Renzaho et al., (2010) and Renzaho & Vignjevic’s (2011) studies in Australia; Degni et al., (2006); Ochocka & Janzen’s (2008) studies in Canada and Stuart et al’s., (2010) in New Zealand have reported acculturative challenges resulting from post-immigration changes in family values, structure and dynamics faced by African migrant families settling in Western countries. These studies highlight acculturation challenges associated with weakened family child-rearing support networks, particularly extended members of the family that previously played a role in the nurturing of the child. Traditional cultural norms that govern child-rearing practices, parent-child relationships
and other modes of relating, were reported to have been unsupported in new cultural settings and parenting was couched within what they perceived as a complex legal and child protection system (Ochocka & Jansen, 2008; Renzaho et al., 2010). Canadian parents were perceived by migrant families to place less value on children’s respect for their elders and place more value on child’s independence; to be more permissive in their parenting style; and to have distant child-rearing involvement (Ochocka & Jansen, 2008). Migrant families also perceived Canadian laws as restricting their ability to control their children; and encouraging children to seek independence from their families while they were still too young. For these families, parenting was found to be oriented towards endorsing values of respect for elders and authority figures, importance of the family and a need to contribute to family life. They were also found to be oriented towards passing of traditional values rooted in religion and culture to their children. Authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles were evidenced among these families (as per Baumrind’s 1971 classification). Based on this classification, an authoritative (high in warmth and low in control) parenting style is generally viewed as most beneficial to the development of children in comparison with authoritative (low in warmth and high in control) and permissive (low in warmth, low in control) parenting styles for families.
It has been argued that the meaning associated with authoritarian or authoritative parenting is culturally bound and that, within an authoritarian culture, it may have only minor negative effects or perhaps even positive effects on the developing child (Dwairy & Menshar, 2006). Research has shown that mental health problems are associated with authoritative rather than authoritarian parenting in Egyptian adolescents (Dwairy & Menshar, 2006) and that authoritarian parenting is associated with higher academic achievement among Chinese children (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998) and African –
American single-parent families of low socio-economic status living in dangerous neighbourhoods (Baldwin, Baldwin, & Cole, 1990). Darling and Steinberg (1993) have differentiate between parenting practices (content) and parenting style (context). Practices refer to specific parenting behaviours and goals for socialisation (such as slapping a child, requiring children to do their homework, taking an interest in children’s activities). Style, on the other hand, refers to the emotional climate in which parenting practices take place (such as tone of voice, bursts of anger, and displays of empathy). Thus, for example within the African cultural family value system where parenting practices (such as strict monitoring of children’s activities) is in the context of a warm family environment, these parental practices may play a positive role on the psychosocial functioning of children. One can therefore appreciate the reported findings on the challenges faced by the African families acculturating in Western settings perceived to be unsupportive of their parental practices and styles (Ochocka and Jansen, 2008). Furthermore, for migrant families parental practices are nested within wider systems of migration-related influences that facilitate or impede effective parenting, making it necessary to disentangle cultural processes from migration-related processes.
Migration-related vulnerabilities such as stripped extended child-rearing support networks and favourable labour markets for women were reported to have created demands for men to take on or share in traditionally culturally scripted roles for women (Ochocka & Jansen, 2008) This was shown to have resulted in family conflict in cases where either of the parents did not adapt to their new roles or family harmony in the context of parental congruence in adapting to new roles. Family conflicts can be linked to parenting styles through conflict-related comprised parental responsiveness and consequent negative impact on parental-child relations (Juang et al., 2012). Harmonious family relationships, on the other hand, create an opportunity for nurturing warm family
relationships (Holroyd, 2005; Koh & Koh, 2008; K. S. Lee, 2010). The key point taken from the studies is that these families continue to draw on heritage cultural practices that structure family practices, roles and dynamics, that heritage cultural practices, norms and values are often unsupported in their country of settlement, and that cultural values, norms and practices that frame parenting practices and styles interact with migration-related vulnerabilities.
A theme that runs in the acculturation literature with regards to migrant families’ functioning is that of inter-generational family conflict. From a developmental perspective, moderate conflict with parents during adolescence is viewed as a healthy part of youth development (Laursen, Coy & Collins, 1998). It is viewed as serving developmental functions such as autonomy (Fuligni, 1998; Steinberg & Morris, 2001), and as providing an opportunity to revise and transform parent-adolescent expectations, roles and responsibilities so that parent-adolescent relationships remain developmentally appropriate (Laursen et al., 1998). Conflicts are also viewed as important in establishing and defining a value and a belief system contributing to adolescent identity development as they reflect, evaluate and construct who they are (Juang et al., 2012). Acculturation challenges are said to put migrant families at greater risk for family conflict resulting from a parent/child acculturation discrepancy (Kwak, 2003; Portes & Rumbait, 1996; 2001). Intergenerational acculturation discrepancy arises when parents continue to maintain values, norms and behaviours from their culture of origin and minimally endorse the norms, values and behaviours of their host culture (separation) while their children have embraced the cultural attitudes and behaviours of the host country (integration or assimilation) (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Fuligni, Tseng, & La, 1999; Kwak, 2003; Portes and Rumbaut, 1996; Stuart, 2008; Ying & Han, 2007). Portes and Rumbaut (1996) conceptualised the acculturation gaps
between immigrant parents and their children in a typology of “generational consonance versus dissonance”. Generational consonance occurs when parents and children both remain un-acculturated or both acculturate at the same rate, or both agree on selective acculturation. Generational dissonance occurs when children neither correspond to levels of parental acculturation nor conform to parental guidance, leading to role reversal and intensified parent-child conflicts. Portes and Rumbaut (1996) posit that when contextual factors are unfavourable, consonant acculturation enables immigrant children to lean on material or moral resources available in the family and immigrant community. On the contrary, dissonant acculturation severs ties between children and their adult social world, depriving children of family or community resources, which leads them farther away from parental expectations.
Portes and Rumbaut (1996) proposed that a large discrepancy between parents’ and children’s acculturation levels may put immigrant children at increased risk of unfavourable developmental outcomes due to the stress of living with the expectations and demands of one culture in the home and another one in socio-cultural settings of host countries. Family functioning may be disrupted due to increased family conflict resulting from acculturation discrepancy (Farver, Narang, & Bhadha, 2002) and parents’ use of unsupportive parenting practices (Kim, Chen, Li, Huang, & Moon, 2009). It has also been suggested that children may fail to turn to their parents with problems and concerns, believing that their parents do not know the culture well enough to provide them with good advice or assistance (Birman, 2006; Kim et al., 2009; C. Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001) or the parents themselves may feel ill-equipped to support their children in new socio-cultural settings (Costigan & Koryzma, 2011). Either way, both the child and the parent’s actions serve to increase the sense of alienation in the parent- child dyad. Family conflict and parent-child alienation are conceptualised in research as
the mediator in the relationship between acculturation and psychosocial well-being of migrant children (Formoso et al., 2000; Telzer, 2010). Acculturation discrepancy in this case therefore acts as a proxy that sets the stage for problem development.
Extensive research with various groups of migrant children has documented migrant children’s psychosocial problems associated with acculturation discrepancy among: Asians (Farver, Bhadha, & Narang, 2002; Ho & Birman, 2010; Lee et al 2000); Latinos (Martinez, 2006; Schofield et al., 2008; Smokowski et al., 2008), and sub-Saharan Africans (Renzaho 2011; Diego et al., 2006; Stuart et al., 2010).
Renzaho et al.’s (2011) qualitative Australian study that drew on a sample of sub- Saharan African parents and children (13-17 years) reported African migrants’ parental- child conflicts. These were associated with parents’ strict parenting through boundary setting, on-going close scrutiny of children’s behaviour in social-cultural settings, and adopting a hierarchical approach to decision-making while discouraging autonomy over their children who no longer shared similar cultural values and practices. African parents reported feelings of guilt when expectations based on heritage cultural parenting orientation were not met by their children.
While admitting that African parenting in Western social and cultural settings is difficult in general, the study sample was homogenous comprising of predominantly Muslim countries of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia, creating a possibility of interaction of African cultural and Muslim influences on family practices and/or parent/child relations. Besides as discussed above, parental practices interact with migration related vulnerabilities such as stripped child-rearing support networks. In African settings where parenting is couched within the context of a ‘family unit’ as encompassing extended members of the family, the demand on parents to strictly monitor the social
activities of children is lesser. The familiarity, certainty and trust within community members with shared collective consciousness maintain conditions in which monitoring of children’s social activities is undertaken. There is need to therefore consider these contextual variables under which inter-generational conflict occurs. Also, there is need to contextualise notions such as non-Western migrant’s children autonomy in cultural literature on cultural world view orientation at the broad level of collectivism and individualism (Kagiticibasi, 1997; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995; Oyserman et al., 2002). Renzaho et al.’s, (2011) studies document intercultural conflict associated with African migrant children’s autonomy. Once again, within the African’s social-cultural settings, although emphasis is placed on obedience and/or compliance, autonomy for young children is also recognised but couched through cooperation to safeguard inter-relational harmony (Boakye-Boaten, 2010). On the balance of probability, it can be theorised that there would be less African parental-child conflict associated with parental discouragement of a child’s autonomy, but with time and/or with erosion of cultural values or systems and networks that support nurturing desired developmental outcomes for children within an African cultural child-rearing framework, there would be an increase in intergenerational conflict associated with assertion of autonomy by children.
While acculturation stresses associated with migrant families’ adaptation in their host countries is well documented, acculturation literature has paid little attention to positive acculturation, a New Zealand study focussing on both harmony and conflict in acculturating families offers insight to positive acculturation. Stuart et al., (2010) interviewed thirty-nine parents and adolescents (age 12-18) from Asian, Middle Eastern and African backgrounds who had settled in the country within 1-10 years. The interviews focussed on three major topics: how the family had changed or stayed the
same during the process of cultural transmission; the areas of agreement and disagreement between parents and children; and current feelings concerning the family unit and aspirations for the future.
Findings indicated that some of the issues that emerged could be conceptualised within a normative universal developmental framework though immigration was hypothesised to have made the issues more salient. Of interest was the finding that parents and their adolescent children were in agreement regarding maintenance of ethnic traditions; religion; and ethnic identity. Another area of parent-adolescent agreement was that drinking, smoking and taking drugs was detrimental to individual and family health. Interviewed parents expressed inflexibility concerning restrictions they imposed on children in this regard and reinforced these values by modelling appropriate behaviour. In general the parents acknowledged the peer and media pressure that their children were under to engage in these health risk behaviours, but they reported that their children agreed with them about refraining from such behaviours. The emphasis on education also emerged in this study as an area of agreement in the family. Areas of parent-adolescent disagreements concerned: privacy; trust and relationships. Parental restrictions on adolescents created tensions since the young people felt as though their parents intruded on their personal space and did not allow them sufficient privacy. A sense of anxiety and insecurity reported by interviewed adolescents arose from what they perceived as lack of parental trust and confidence in their ability to behave appropriately, though this was moderated by their association parents’ emphasis on transparency, with protective motives. While young people linked the issue of privacy to trust, parents did not make the same connections viewing privacy as something that was condoned in the New Zealand culture but incongruent with their traditional family culture. From the parents’ view, such behaviours were viewed as children being
disrespectful. Parent-adolescent harmony was often maintained by young people keeping secrets from their parents of any information they deemed their parents would disapprove of. The desire for autonomy in this case was found to coexist with the desire for relatedness.
Other findings showed that although there were no parent-adolescent disagreements regarding ethnic backgrounds of friends, conflict arose around dating and intimate relationships, particularly for girls. Parental concerns revolved around the possibility of their children losing traditional cultural values and behaviours and consequently they were unwilling to allow their children the autonomy to make their own decisions about relationships. While some of the adolescents followed their parent’s advice on dating, others expressed the need for autonomy when it came to dating and this stance was reported to have created parental-child tensions.
The family was found to be a major source of support. Study participants expressed their love for and happiness with their families and remarked that these feelings were strengthened and reaffirmed, rather than undermined, by the transition to New Zealand. The growth and change experienced during the acculturation process seemed to increase the family’s capacity to function as a supportive unit. The authors concluded that even though cross-cultural transition posed different challenges for parents and children,