Define Acculturation

According to acculturation theory (Berry et al., 1987), the psychological experience of adapting to a new culture becomes manifested as acculturative stress for children. Acculturation theory identifies how immigrant children’s mental development is hindered as a result of acculturation stress. Acculturation stress that directly results from the acculturative process can appear as mental health problems. Since culture may influence an immigrant child throughout his or her entire life, reducing acculturative stress is important for them to live in the new home country. Understanding the role of acculturation in the lives of immigrants is an essential component to understanding the overall mental health of Asian American immigrant children.

The process of acculturation can exacerbate existing cultural stressors and lead to increased instances of IPV among Latina immigrants. According to Kasturirangan, acculturation, “refers to the adjustment process that takes place as an individual adapts to a new culture.” There are two modes of acculturation: integration and assimilation. Garcia describes integration as “a mode of acculturation in which the acculturating individual develops a bicultural orientation and successfully integrates cultural aspects of both groups and feels a certain sense of identification and comfort with both groups.” On the other hand, Garcia defines assimilation as, “a mode of acculturation in which the acculturating individual loses his or her original cultural identity as he or she acquires a new identity in a second culture.” Either of these modes of acculturation can result in acculturation stress, which, according to Caetano, “occurs when the acculturation process causes problems for individuals, that is, problems arising from conflicts between the immigrant

Pederson (7) explains that there are stages of culture shock, which he identifies as the honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation. In the honeymoon phase, a person is likely to get excited about being in a new place, meeting new people, tasting new foods, and acquiring new habits. However, as time passes by, they get into a phase of negotiation, where the differences between the culture one is used to and the one they find themselves in start to become apparent. Feelings of anxiety, anger, and frustrations start to take shape as unfavorable events perceived as strange come in the way of the person 's life, especially if a person does not feel accepted in the new culture (Mukherjee 273). Loneliness may set in, and the urge to go back to the familiar culture strongly comes into play. However, as time goes by, adjustment sets in, usually within six to twelve months, and one gets accustomed to the culture and also comes up with a routine. By this phase, one knows what is expected of them, and life once again becomes ‘normal.’

The chronosystem according to the Ecological Systems theory refers to the environmental patterns, social and cultural forces that shape the life of a person or population over a life time. Acculturation, as defined by Smith and Guerra (2006) is “the differences and changes in values and behaviors that individuals make as they gradually adopt the cultural values of the dominant society” (283). In order to capture the complex process of acculturation and consider all dimensions of acculturation, it is important to consider the influence of the factors that have already been explored in this brief: individual variations, family dynamics, parental and environmental factors; in addition to acculturative stress, adaptation process and generational status (Smokowski et al., 2014) which will be further explored. Although research has reflected inconsistent findings regarding impact of acculturation on mental health issues for Latinos’, when considered in the context described above, acculturation has been found to impact Latinos. Acculturative stress has resulted in negative mental health outcomes, specifically anxiety and depression, for Latinos’ especially when an individual’s culture and dominant culture conflict. (Hovey, 2000; Katagadda & Tidwell, 1998, Stein et al., 2012) Due to the individual adjustment process each family member goes through when

There’s various things that describes everyone, but there’s only a few things that make each and every one of us unique, which is, our cultural background. As far as cultural background, it defines the individual’s upbringing. The cultural background includes ones religion, race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, linguistic and values. These values can be shaped by family, friends, society, or authoritative level. This paper is a great way for one to define my identity or at least understand who I am.

Assimilation patterns differ in societies that are characterized by paternalistic race relations than in societies characterized by competitive race relations. According to the lectures and readings, assimilation is defined as a process by which minority and majority groups are merged into some total societal unit. There are also three different type of assimilation which are Anglo (or dominant group) conformity, the Melting Pot, and cultural pluralism. Some additional concepts that go along with assimilation are acculturation where the minority adopts the dominant culture, amalgamation the biological blending of the groups, and the transmuting pot where the dominant group selects aspects of minority culture and modifies it to fit the

language. Some positive outcomes of cultural brokering on immigrant families are increased self-esteem, better knowledge of English language, and feeling like one matters to their family. Some negative outcomes of cultural brokering on immigrant families are stress and depressive moods, embarrassment of parents, conflicts within the family, and parentification of the child. All of these outcomes of cultural brokering are products of the acculturation theory. Lastly, some strengths of the acculturation theory include the focus on immigrant experience, the fact that it emphasizes the strengths that immigrants bring, and that it provides understanding of immigrant experiences for individuals who might communicate or be in the workplace with immigrant

culture in order to fully become part of a different society (“Assimilate”, 2015). This type of

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

Acculturation also entails the changing of family roles which includes but is not limited to changes

Acculturation is the process of not only adapting to another culture but also accepting the majority group’s culture as one’s own. Because culture is complex, members of a cultural group may engage in many behaviors and habits unconsciously, making them difficult to explain to others (Pearson, p.1634, 2015).

Acculturation is a cultural alteration of an individual or group by adopting and adapting to, or borrowing attributes from another culture.

The identity of an individual is evident in a person from the things that they do about their culture. Some individuals with the knowledge that they have acquired from their culture are willing to carry out activities depicting their knowledge. A person’s identity can be known from the way they express themselves in relation to their culture, his notion brings about the aspect of one’s identity in relation to their culture. This aspect of culture shaping an individual’s identity experiences challenges in some given instances. Migration to another country with a different culture can be a big challenge to a person who is accustomed to a certain culture. This is because one may be unable to fit in the new environment because of the new culture. Factors that can cause lack of incorporation include

Chen Jenli made the selfless decision to move to New York for a few years to scope out a better life for both herself and her family. Good intentions do not always have good results. In her mind, Chen Jenli thought that this decision existed as a grand and noble one but, she fell into the trap of assumption. When she moved back home, she figured everything remained the same and all proved well again in her life. She stood blindsided and did not exercise mindfulness. She embodied acculturation and how it exists as “a process through which cultural patterns (e.g., values, beliefs, behaviors) change as a result of sustained

Acculturation is the process of how a person or a group of people adapt into another culture by taking small pieces of that culture into their own culture. It is the idea of blend in with another culture, other than your own. For example, my family and relatives came to the United States for a little over 10 years now and some of the family members have assimilated into the American culture by beginning to celebrate the holidays, during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Further, we are remaining embedded in the ethnic of being Hmong. Many of us decided to come to America to obtain a better lifestyle, and the America society has greatly impact our life to assimilate into the American culture.