Acculturation, stress and coping

In~rmot~onal Journd of Inrrrrulwral

Relations. Vol. 5, pp. 301-328. 1981

0147-1767/81/040301-28102.00/O Copyright 0 1981 Pergamon Press Ltd

Prmted I” the USA. All rqhts reserved

ACCULTURATION,

Some Implications

JAMES

A.DYAL

STRESS

AND COPING

for Research and Education

and RUTH

Y. DYAL

University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada ABSTRACT. Acculturation processes are conceptualized as requiring a multivariate model with variables operating atfourpsychosocial levels: cultural. ethnic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Examples of changes in mental health status, social networks, cognitive style, social orientation and child rearing values consequent to immigration are considered. Theprimaryfocus is on the delineation of several approaches to the study of acculturative stress and coping. These include stressful life events, chronic role strains, and Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal model. The implications of the model for research emphasize the importance of multivariate, multi-method, multi-level approaches involving both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of situationalandprocess variables. Since the school is a critical acculturation context, an intensified analysis of the strains, stresses and coping responses in that context is required. Promising approaches to such an analysis include parent and teacher cultural sensitivity training, classroom restructuring in order to reduce devaluation of immigrant children by the dominant ethnic group, and stress-inyoculation training specifically designed to help children to learn to cope more effectively with the stresses of the school environment.

Homo sapiens is a migrating animal. From earliest origins in Asia (or Africa) mankind has migrated in search of a better life. Historically, the migrations have affected hundreds of millions of people. For example, during the 19th and 20th centuries approximately 65 million Europeans left their country of origin. During a 40-year period in which Dutch and British imperialism supported an industrial worker system, millions of Asians were transported from India and China to new cultures throughout the world. As Portions of this article were presented as an invited address at the 5th Annual Meeting of SIETAR in Mexico City, March 1979. Requests for reprints should be sent to James A. Dyal. Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario NZL 3G1, Canada.

301

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James A. Dyal and Ruth Y. Dyal

noted by Bohning, “the repercussions of this stream of partly desperate, partly forced immigrants are still with us . . . from the Tamils of Sri Lanka, through the East African Asians now knocking at Britain’s doors, to the turbulent politics of Guyana and Fiji . _ . (1978, p. 15).” The contemporary guest worker system in Europe, the pathetic plight of Southeast Asian refugees, the “normal” legal and illegal migration which still numbers in the millions, all testify to socio-political and economic factors which motivate movement from one’s home. We know much more about these political, social and economic factors which are related to migration than we do about the psychological processes which are attendant upon adaptation to the new culture (cf. Melendy, 1977). It is the purpose of the present paper to provide a heuristic framework for future research on the acculturation processes which are being experienced by millions of migrating homo sapiens throughout the world. DIMENSIONS Perspectives

OF ACCULTURATION

on Acculturation

Acculturation Contexts. Several types of acculturation situations may be distinguished. First, there is the case of an emerging contact culture resulting from a dominant invading culture impinging upon an aboriginal culture. Examples of this acculturative context are numerous throughout the world; the aboriginals of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand and Polynesia, the Ainu of Japan, the Gonds of India, and the Indians of the Americas. Second, there are acculturative changes which result from emigration from one culture to another. Probably no country has zero emigration or immigration and within the American context Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico are notable in the number of migrants which they have contributed to the United States. Third, there are acculturative changes which are attendant upon movement within a culture. Particularly relevant here is the ubitquious rural to urban migration. Fourth, although perhaps less extensive than the foregoing, acculturation changes take place among temporary sojourners to new cultures. The most obvious examples here are international students in higher education and the personnel of multinational corporations who may spend years in foreign contexts. Fifth, we should note that many of the same culture-learning processes are

Acculturation,

Stress and Coping

303

involved in the social change process called “modernization.” Clearly one of the major tasks of future research is to determine similarities and differences in psychosocial dynamics which modulate change in these different acculturative contexts. Examination of the acculturation literature reveals that until very recently contribution of psychologists to the understanding of acculturation processes have, with some rare exceptions, been notable by their absence.’ As recently as five years ago two psychologically-oriented anthropologists, Nancy and Ted Graves, wrote a review paper on the “Adaptive Strategies in Urban Migration” and their bibliography of 145 papers contained not a single paper published in a psychological journal (Graves & Graves, 1974). In spite of the fact that a large number of papers dealt with social-psychological topics, the research was conducted by sociologists or anthropologists. These two disciplines, along with economics and political science, have staked out and established claim to much of the domain of acculturation research. Papers from these disciplines are often quite sophisticated in their use of multivariate statistics and in their sensitivity to a variety of methodological issues. In spite of the demonstrable relationships between demographic characteristics and certain measures of acculturation (e.g., Goldlust & Richmond, 1974) as psychologists this information leaves us wanting to know more about the psychological structures and processes which lie behind this connection between gross demographic variables and acculturated behaviors. A Model of Acculturation

Processes

Overview. We conceptualize the acculturation process as requiring a multivariate model with variables operating at four psychosocial levels: cultural, ethnic, interpersonal and interpersonal.* Figure 1 presents examples of variables which are involved in the enculturation processes in the home country and which have served to make the migrant the sort of person that (s)he is. Some of the general conditions associated with migration which may influence the way in which acculturation occurs in the host ‘We would recommend the chapter on “Social and Cultural Change” by John Berry in Vol. 5 of the Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (Trlandis Kc Brislin, 1979) as one of the best broad-scope summarles of the literature. *A complete model would require the addition of a biological level which could include both constitutional (e.g.. skin color) and functional characteristics.

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James A. Dyal and Ruth Y. D_val

A.

Cultural characteristics 1. Degree of eco-socio-political stratification 2. Pluralistic vs. homogeneous 3. Language(s) 4. Ideologies (e.g., political or religious) (a) centrality (b) transportability (c) modifiability (d) diversity 5. Pressures to migrate

6.

Ethnic characteristics 1. Type and level of economic activity 2. Loose or tight social units 3. Language(s) 4. Norms and values 5. Religious salience 6. Intergroup relations 7. Socialization characteristics (a) conformity vs. autonomy oriented

C.

Interpersonal characteristics 1. Networks (a) family (b) friends (1) ethnic composition (2) structural/functional (c) occupational 2. Social status 3. Social roles 4. Socialization experiences

D.

characteristics

Intrapersonal characteristics 1. Ethnic identification 2. Social distance attitudes 3. Self esteem motivation 4. Achievement motivation 5. Assimilation (competition-cooperation) 6. Social orientation 7. Relative deprivation 8. Feelings of control 9. Cognitive styles 10. Coping styles 11. Stress tolerance FIGURE

1. Some Characteristics Which Are of Potential

of the Enculturation Context (Home Relevance to Acculturation Processes.

Culture)

Acculturation,

Stress and Coping

30s

culture are represented in Figure 2, while Figure 3 indicates some of the potentially relevant characteristics of the host culture. Some of the major psychological (intrapersonal) dimensions along which change is likely to occur as a result of acculturation demands/ opportunities are presented in Figure 4. Taken together these four figures represent a skeleton check list for a multivariate model of acculturation processes. Some of these variables have already received considerable empirical and theoretical attention and each would merit exploration in theoreticallyguided concatenations of multivariate sets. Needless to say the host of exciting research challenges embedded in these checklists cannot be fully explored in a research career let alone a review paper.

1.

Migration pressures (a) Forced vs. voluntary

2.

Social network characteristics (a) alone (1) sponsored (2) unsponsored (b) with group (1) family (2) friends

3.

Demographic (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

status characteristics

age sex marital status education cohort social class

4.

Commitment to host culture (a) sojourners vs. immigrants

5.

Dominant motivations and expectations (a) economic (b) political (c) personal/familial

6.

Extent and accuracy of knowledge

of host culture

FIGURE 2. Some Conditions of Migration of Potential Relevance to Acculturation Processes.

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James A. D.vai and Ruth Y. D_val

1.

The match or fit between the home culture and the host culture regard to each of the characteristics noted in Figure 1.

2.

The host

3.

Degree to which the host environment economic and occupational mobifity

4.

The characteristics

5.

The degree to which tion vs. pluralism.

6.

The degree to which informal social structures positively value ethnic pluralism vs. a national ideal (e.g., the “All American boy”).

environment’s

attitudes

of the support official

FIGURE 3. Some Characteristics

toward

immigrants.

affords

networks

government

with

opportunity

which

policy

for social,

are available.

encourages

assimila-

of the Host Country Which May Influence Acculturation.

1. Changes in cognitive differentiation of physical ment (i.e., learning one’s way around).

and social

environ-

2. Affective change accompanying the cognitive differentiation (e.g., from exciting, strange, anxiety arousing, stressing to acceptance as commonplace. 3. Changes in cognitive bility, etc.). 4. Development

styles

of specific

(e.g., field dependence,

skills (e.g., language,

5. Changes

in values in some domains

6. Changes

in self-esteem.

7. Changes

in feelings

a. Changes

in motivational

9. Changes

in social orientation

of control

in roles, status.

11. Changes

in friendship

12. Changes

in ethnic

identification.

13. Changes

in coping

techniques.

flexi-

occupational).

(e.g., child raising

values).

and competence.

structure

10. Changes

reflection,

(need for affiliation,

achievement).

(cooperation-competition).

networks.

14. Changes in the relationships among these dimensions (e.g., changes in the way in which self-esteem is related to competition or ethnic identification). 15. Feelings of strain and stress associated with each of the above. FIGURE 4. Some Dimensions

Along Which Change is Likely to Occur As a Result of Aecuituration Processes.

Accuituration,

Stress and Coping

307

However, we cannot leave this larger context without noting at least a few of the problems that seem to be particularly appealing. Cu~~ura~and Erhnie Levels. It is commonly assumed that the greater the differences between the home culture and the host culture the greater will be the problems of acculturation. While this is a reasonable conjecture. We are not aware of any systematic efforts to test this hypothesis which have in fact scaled immigrant groups on the degree of difference between the host culture and the home culture and then compared the groups on measures of acculturative stress. Such a test is possible however by systematically establishing the relationship between some index of cultural complexity of the home cultures such as Naroll’s Social Development Index (Tatje & Naroll, 1973) and indices of acculturative stress of immigrants from those cultures. Ideally the study would include parallel samples of immigrants in a variety of host cultures. There are, in addition, potentially important differences among host countries which seem likely to contribute to acculturative stress variance. One such variable is the degree to which official government policy as well as informal social pressures are predicated upon a multicultural pluralistic philosophy of inter-group relations or upon an assimilationist melting pot ideology. Research by Murphy (1973) has shown that Canada differs substantially from the United States and Australia in the rate of mental health problems of immigrants. With appropriate controls for age, ethnicity and other demographic differences Canadian immigrants were less at risk than non-immigrant Canadians while American and Australian immigrants were at greater risk than the nonimmigrants. He suggests that these differences (which were based upon data obtained in the late 1950s and early 1960s) may be related to the different implicit intergroup ideologies which were operating in the three countries. As Berry has aptly observed: In the case of a pluralist society, large real cultural differences may exist with little acculturative stress being apparent, while in an assimilationist society, even small real cultural differences may be associated with high levels of acculturative stress. If this general hypothesis is borne out by future research, then the clear policy implication for multi-ethnic societies ties in the pursuit of cultural pluralism [Berry, 19741 assuming that low levels of acculturative stress are preferable to high ones. (Berry, 1975)

Murphy’s research is also relevant to the ethnic level since he found considerable variation among ethnic groups in the ratio of

308

James A. D_vaiand Rurh Y. D-vat

immigrant to local-born rates of first admission to mental hospitals. He interpreted the pattern of the data to indicate that the greater the proportion of the ethnic group in a jurisdiction the less the immigrants were at risk compared to local-borns of the same ethnicity. That is, if you are an immigrant the more folks you have around who are like you in ethnic origin the less vulnerable you are to mental disorder. Interpersonal Level. At the interpersonal level one critical dimension is the nature and quality of social networks to which the migrant is connected. In a recent study of acculturation and social networks of American immigrants to Israel, Katz (1974) demonstrated two important points. First, that there were two types of networks, bounded and unbounded. The bounded network was typical of the less acculturated immigrant who remained American Jewish and restricted his intimate network to other American immigrants. The networks of more acculturated immigrants were more loosely knit and cosmopolitan in orientation. Second, and most important, Katz data suggested “that it is the individual’s social network strucfure wjhich remains conslam in dlyferent cultures. The structure of the network, particularly its boundaries, determines the participation of the individual in his society, and subsequently determines his acculturation. (Katz, 1974)

Also at the interpersonal level several aspects of sex role stress and psychopathologic symptoms of adolescent Cuban refugees have been evaluated by Naditch and Morrissey (1976). They found that it was primarily ambiguity in role evaluation, that was associated with subjectively reported anxiety, depression and maladjustment. The relationship was particularly strong for adolescent females who were discontented with their achievements. This study raises the broader question regarding the importance of lack of clarity in evaluative feedback on role performance for the adjustment of immigrants. Clarity in feedback can be obscured by communication barriers, both verbal and non-verbal as well as by restriction of the communication network. The immigrant needs people not only to help him know what to do but to tell him how he is doing. Interpersonal feedback and social comparison may be even more important for immigrants than for natives in a culture. Intrapersonal

Change.

There

are a host

of important

research

Acculturation,

Stress and Coping

309

problems embedded in Figure 4. Three of these which may be briefly reviewed by way of illustration are acculturative changes associated with cognitive style, social orientation and child rearing values. The specific cognitive sfyZe which we have been exploring in some of our research is field-dependence-independence (Witkin, 1962). The concept refers to a person’s tendency to solve perceptual or cognitive problems in either an analytic manner or a more global or field sensitive manner, On theoretical grounds it was expected that child raising practises which emphasized independence training would foster an analytic, field-independent cognitive style whereas socialization which emphasized obedience and compliance would interfere with this analytic approach and foster a more fielddependent global style. Numerous studies have compared various cultures or ethnic groups differing in socialization practices and found differences which could be interpreted as supportive of the socialization hyp0thesis.j For example in an extensive longitudinal study Holtzman, Diaz-Guerrero and Swartz (1975) have shown Texan children to be more analytic in cognitive style than Mexican children. Several studies have been conducted on Jewish immigrants and have found that Jewish immigrants from MiddleEastern countries were more field-dependent than Jewish immigrants from Western countries (e.g., Amir, 1972). Similarly, in a study which was conducted with four colleagues at the East-West Center, we found Filipino immigrants to Hawaii from the province of 110~0s were more field-dependent than second-generation Hawaii-born Ilocanos (Dyal et al., 1980). The question of whether or not this cognitive characteristic tends to acculturate in the direction of the culturally dominant groups in the host society is still unresolved. A recent study from our laboratory indicated a significant positive relationship between the number of months that Portuguese immigrant children had lived in Canada and their level of field-dependence-independence. The longer they had been in Canada the more field independent they were (McDougall, 1978). Two intergenerational studies have been reported and they have yielded conflicting results. Buriel (1975), studying Mexican-Americans, had expected a change over generations approaching the field-independence norm of Anglo-Americans. To his surprise he found that while the second generation Mexican-Americans were more field-independent than the first ?ee Wltkin and Berryf 1975)foragenerallysupportivereview. a much more crztxal stance and regard the relationship

Kaganand Burielf 1977)take as not demonstrated.

310

James A. Dyal and Ruth Y. Dyal

generation, the third generation was more field-dependent than the first. Buriel proposed that the barrio had become a strong socialization force; i.e., by virtue of failure to move with the mainstream society, the values and socialization practices of the barrio had been reaffirmed. However, doubt is cast on the replicability of these findings by a similar study by Knight et al. (1978) who found a tendency for third-generation MexicanAmericans to perform between second-generation and AngloAmericans. It should be noted that although both studies were conducted in traditional communities, Buriel’s subjects were semirural while Knight’s were urban. Nonetheless, Buriel’s study requires us to remain open to the notion long advocated by cultural anthropologists that acculturation is not necessarily a linear process in which new cultural elements are substituted for old (see Berry, 1979; Keifer, 1974; Connor, 1977). Rather it often involves adding new behaviours that are context or situation specific and thus permit individuals to “shift back and forth between cultural idioms depending on the requirements of the immediate situation”(Keifer, 1974, p. xxi). Whether or not such cultural code-switching is possible in the domain of cognitive style is unknown at the present time. However the assumption of cognitive style differences between Mexican and Anglo-Americans and the further assumption that both styles could be either inhibited or fostered by the schools provide the key pins for Ramirez and Castenada’s (1974) proposal for “bicognitive” teaching/ learning programmes in the schools. However, it should be said that this whole cognitive style area is beset by empirical contradictions and theoretical confusions that are carefully documented in an exhaustive review of that literature by Kagan and Buriel (1977). Another dimension along which change may take place is noted in Figure 4 as social orientation. A large research literature has demonstrated that Mexican-American children are less individually competitive, more cooperative and altruistic than Anglo-American children (Kagan, 1977). The results of an intergenerational study by Knight and Kagan (1977) demonstrated a change in social orientation in the direction of the Anglo-American majority such that the third generation is less oriented toward altruism and group enhancement and more oriented toward rivalry. However, in a more extensive review of the social motive research Kagan asserts that “the cooperativeness of Mexican-American children is also robust in its resistance to the melting-pot pressures of accultura-

Acculturation,

Stress and Coping

311

tion . . .” (1977, p. 11). Nevertheless, as pointed out by Keifer “acculturative changes are to some extent cumulative, and the process therefore cannot be viewed as entirely reversible” (1974, p. xxi). These considerations raise the question of whether the shift in competitive behaviour over generations is a situation-specific change which could remain compatible with a code switching biculturalism or is a more pervasive transituational personality change. This important question remains to be answered by future research. A final research programme that I wish to mention prior to discussing acculturative stress and coping has just been completed by Lambert and his colleagues (1979). They compared 10 different nations on child rearing values using a taped voice of a child saying such things as “I don’t want to play this game anymore, it’s stupid and you are too, Papa.” By asking parents in each country what they would do if their chitd said such a thing, or asked for emotional support, or hit a sibling, or asked for help on a task, they obtained a pattern of child rearing values which typified each country. They also studied immigrants to the United States from those countries and found that in every case after IO-15 years residence in the U.S. the child rearing values moved significantly in the direction of the American value pattern. Now, of course not all values changed but those that did moved in the direction of the American norms.

ACCULTURATIVE

STRESS

AND COPING

While we have only skimmed the surface of the past and future research problems embedded in Figures 1-4, we now wish to move to the final dimension enumerated in Figure 4, namely, the problem of stress associated with acculturation and some of the new directions which research on acculturative stress and coping could take. The phenomenon of acculturative stress has for too long been the exclusive domain of anthropologists and sociologists. It is our view that the field could profit from being more firmly embedded in the mainstream of psychological research on stress and coping. Review of that literature reveals three related research strategies which should be explored. These are the stressful life events of the Dohrenwends and others, the chronic role strains approach of Pearlin and Schooler, and the cognitive appraisal and coping approach of Lazarus.

312

James A. Dyal and Ruth Y. Dyal

Stressful Life Events During the past decade the importance of stressful life events as predictors of mental health status has been strongly asserted by researchers from several disciplines which are concerned with public health research (c.f., Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974). While there are many methodological problems, both psychometric and conceptual, which still plague the “stressful life events” approach it is now clear that this approach offers promise in evaluating life changes as they relate to psychological stress. The application of this approach to the study of acculturative stress is likely to be fruitful in increasing the explanatory value of our theories. In the only study which has thus far been reported using this approach with immigrants, Roskies, Iida-Miranda and Strobe1 (1978) used the Social Readjustment Rating Scale developed by Holmes and Rahe (1967) to study the adjustment of Portuguese immigrants to Montreal. The most salient aspect of their results was that the relationship between life change scores and illness was much stronger for women than for men. However, it should be noted that the Holmes and Rahe instrument is not likely to be sensitive to the special stresses associated with immigration and thus a new instrument is necessary. Spradley and Phillips (1972) have previously developed a Culture Readjustment Rating Questionnaire and applied it successfully to differentiate Peace Corp volunteers, Chinese students and U.S. students on judgments of amount of readjustment required by specific events. We are currently preparing a cultural readjustment scale for use with Chinese students in Canada. Chronic Role Strains A different but related approach points away from life change events as stressors and focuses upon the chronic role strains which may result in continuing stress. Chronic role strains may be defined as those enduring or recurrent problems associated with a given role which have the capacity for arousing stress. Pearlin and Schooler have presented an analysis of the structure of coping with such chronic role strains which in our view is destined to be one of the seminal and classic papers in the area (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). All too often the psychological literature on stress has focused on the undesirable events and the failure of adjustment to these events

Acculturation,

Stress and Coping

313

without proper attention to the specific coping responses which help to moderate the effects of undesirable life events or chronic and recurrent role strains. Pearlin and Schooler conducted structured interviews with a representative sample of 2,300 adults in Chicago in order to determine some of the major strains which occur in their lives. They found three factors in the marriage domain, three related to parenting, one to household economics and four factors related to occupation. Stress in each of these four role domains was measured by the use of a restricted adjective checklist which required intensity judgments, such as “When you think of the pleasures and problems of your daily life with your spouse, how (blank) do you feel (1) unhappy (2) frustrated (3) tense, etc.” The ways in which the subjects reported that they coped with these strains were also factor analyzed and yielded 17 specific factors which could be further conceptualized into three types. These are: (1) coping responses which modify the situation (e.g., negotiation in marriage); (2) responses that function to control the meaning of the problem (e.g., positive comparison or selective ignoring responses); and (3) responses which serve to manage the stress (e.g., passive acceptance, withdrawal or controlled reflectiveness). In addition to analysis of the specific coping response, Pearlin and Schooler recognized that enduring characteristics of the person may modulate the impact of specific role strains. They operationalize three aspects of these enduring psychological resources with scales measuring self-esteem, self-denigration and feelings of mastery. Through the use of regression analysis they were able to show that some coping responses and psychological resources are more effective than others and that their effectiveness depends upon the role domain. Coping responses and psychological resources were more generally effective in interpersonal domains of marriage and parenting and least effective in reducing stress resulting from occupational strains. They also were able to show that “the sheer richness and variety of responses and resources that one can bring to bear in coping with life strains may be more important in shielding oneself from emotional stress than the nature and content of any single coping element” (p. 14-15). And lastly they were able to show that sex, age, education and income are all powerful prior determinants of what coping responses will be utilized in the several role domains; the important substantive implication being that men, the educated and the affluent, make greater use of the more efficacious coping modes. Conversely, it is the groups which are

314

James A. D_val and Ruth Y. DJlal

most exposed to strain in these domains-women, the uneducated, and the poor which are the least equipped to deal with the strain by virtue of efficacious coping responses and positive psychological resources. It is these latter two findings, the importance of an extensive repetoire of coping responses and the fact that the most stressed segments of the population are also the least equipped to deal with it, that have the most obvious implications for the adjustment of immigrants. First, no matter how effective their coping ability prior to immigration it is reasonable to expect that their effective repetoire will be reduced, at least temporarily, in the new environment. Second, these data highlight one of the findings which we have presented in the potpourri of facts about acculturative stress (Figure 5) namely that women are more at risk than men. Pearlin and Schooler’s approach appears to have direct application to the study of the strains, stresses and coping strategies of immigrants. Application of this methodology to immigrant populations would permit answers to such questions as: Do ethnic groups differ in the amount of role strain that they report in various role domains? Do they differ in the availability of psychological resources for coping? And of major importance, do they differ in the efficacy of the coping responses which they are most likely to use in the various role domains? In addition it would be desirable to extend the approach by including measures of social resources which were not utilized by Pearlin and Schooler. At the very least, this would include a simple network analysis. It should also include the determination of the degree to which family and friend networks are perceived as resources to reduce the strain of role problems and the degree to which friends and relatives are in fact used as coping supports in specific role domains. Of course ethnic differences in the structure of the social networks and in their utilization as coping adjuncts is a question of both practical and theoretical interest. Cognitive

Appraisal

and Coping

Lazarus S Model. Richard Lazarus and his students and colleagues at Berkely have been leading the way in empirical and theoretical analysis of stress and coping for 20 years. The linchpins of this theoretical scheme are the concepts of cognitive appraisal and coping. Cognitive appraisal is simply the process of evaluating an event or situation with regard to its significance to the individual’s

Acculturation.

315

Stress and Coping

1. The more upwardly mobile the new immigrant is in occupation the more likely he is to suffer from occupational stress as indexed by job dissatisfaction, anxiety and neurotic symptoms (Eaton & Lasry, 1978). 2. Among Japanese-Americans, the most acculturated group had a coronary heart disease prevalence 3 to 5 times that of the least acculturated. The rate for the least acculturated approximated the low rate for Japan itself whereas the most acculturated approximated the high rate for the U.S. This difference could not be accounted for by differences in usual major coronary risks factors such as diet, smoking, blood pressure, etc. (Marmot & Syme, 1976). 3. Cuban immigrant females are more at risk to anxiety, depression and emotional maladjustment than immigrant males (Naditch & Morrissey, 1976). 4. Portuguese immigrant females are more sensitive than males to stressful life events as indicated by the correlation between life events and psychoneurotic symptom scores (Roskies, lida-Miranda, & Strobel, 1978). 5. Portuguese immigrant females show no decline in psychoneurotic symptoms as a function of time since immigration; men show a significant decline (Roskies, 1978). 6. In New York the Puerto Ricans who were the most geographically mobile, and who thus segregated themselves from others of this ethnic group, had the highest rates for psychiatric breakdown @role et al., 1962). 7. Mexican-American women who are more acculturated to AngloAmerican society remain in psychotherapy longer (5 or moresessions) than Mexican-American women who are less acculturated (1 or 2 sessions) (Miranda & Castro, 1977). 6. “The effect of acculturation on Chicanos is not fully understood. Some data suggest that individuals who either retain their cultural values or wholly ascribe to theveluesystem of the majority culture manifest less psychopathology than those in the midst of assimilation” (Fabrega, Swartz & Wallace, 1968; Senour, 1977, p. 33). 9. “Acculturation accounts for only a part of the generation gap in the Japanese-American community, a large portion of it is derived from historical and developmental differences between generations that result in different interests and resources” (Keifer, 1974, p. 236). 10. “for the immigrant Portuguese male the changes inherent in immigration are usually freely chosen and in the service of a desired goal. The woman on the other hand experiences the full pain of immigration with less of the rewards . . . she is thrust into unfamiliar and uncomfortable roles . . . is often forced to mediate between rebellious children and a husband who is determined to maintain old ways . . . Inevitably, there is the potential for family conflict. And as the wife becomes more aware of Canadian norms with time, the conflicts are more likely to intensify than to abate” (Selyan, 1978). FIGURE 5. A Potpourri of Facts Regarding Acculturative

Stress.

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James A. Dyal and Rulh Y. Dval

well-being (primary appraisal) or the evaluation of the coping resources or options which are available (secondary appraisal). The importance of cognitive appraisal is that it permits us to focus on the fact that stress does not depend on the objective situations but upon how the individual subjectively evaluates the situation. Some features of the model are presented in Figure 6 where it may be seen that the primary appraisal of the situation may result in a judgement that it is irrelevant, or that it is positive or that it represents potential/ actual harm/ loss, threat or a challenge and is thus stressful. The secondary appraisal may result in a judgment of “I’m OK, I can handle it,” or”This is a problem. I’m in trouble.” If it is judged as a stress then a coping response is chosen and acted upon. Three general types of coping responses are indicated: information getting, direct action/ inhibition, and intrapsychic. Each may serve a variety of functions such as altering the stress by changing the situation (problem solving) or controlling or palliating the stress-related emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, dispair, guilt, etc., or perhaps serving to increase stress tolerance, or to keep up morale or to keep options open for possible future solutions even though the problem cannot be solved now i.e., maintain flexibility. The coping attempt is made and a reappraisal of the situation then takes place. The reappraisal based on positive or negative feedback may be either accurate or defensive. As noted in the model even positive feedback may result in a defensive reappraisal. For example, if the person’s self-image contributes the cognition that “I’m not very good at this kind of problem,” then when combined with an attributional control style that assigns responsibility to external agents, the cognition becomes “Boy was I lucky that time, I’ll never be able to do it again.” These little mind reading scenarios are fun to play with and this model permits one to write a rich variety of scenarios for any given troubled transaction between the individual and his environment. However, we believe that they are more than just fun; they provide a framework for conceptual clarification of ongoing coping activity. It should be noted that there is no implication that all of the processes are necessarily conscious. Indeed one of the purposes of cognitive behaviour modification training such as the stress innoculation procedure of Meichenbaum is to bring these processes under conscious cognitive control (Meichenbaum & Novaco. 1978). fntrraction

and

Transaction.

It is important

to distinguish

two

E”“iW”m.3”td SbYE1”ms

FIGURE

---------

_--_,__--

----

--_--_--_,__________

6. A Hueristie for Thinking About Cognitive Appraisal and Coping Based on Lazarus’ Theoretical

---_

Model.

318

James A. &al

and Ruth

Y.

@al

approaches to conceptualizing the relationship between the environmental and the individual. First is interactionism. This approach asserts that behavior is some interactive function of the characteristics of the individual and the behaviorally relevant characteristics of the environment to which the individual is responding. Now this notion is so intuitively obvious that only academic psychologists immersed in a simple-minded situationism could possibly have doubted that it was so. However, because many psychologists were fitted with behavioristic blinders when they entered graduate training, it came as something of a surprise to some of them to have the reality of the interaction demonstrated so forcefully (Bowers, 1973; Endler & Magnusson, 1976). The thrust of these arguments is to show that if you have measures of personality traits and you manipulate some situational characteristic, more behavioral variance is accounted for by interaction than by either traits or situations independently. The logic of both “stressful life events” and “chronic role strains” approaches to stress rests upon this interaction model. While not actually using analysis of variance techniques the logic in both approaches is to allocate sources of variance to situations, traits and their interactions. This interactional approach is firmly embedded in a linear deterministic causal model and deals with the structural relationships among variables. (It is no accident that Pearlin and Schooler’s seminal paper is entitled The Structure of Coping.) At no point do these approaches actually study theprocess of coping. They are static models in which processes are all inferred from structural characteristics. As a consequence the application of this approach tells us relatively little about actual process. An alternative approach which has grown out of the Lazarus model is predicated upon the distinction between interaction and transaction. By viewing the troubling stressfu’i situation as a transaction, that is, “an ongoing feedback flux between the individual and the situation”(Lazarus & Launier, 1979) we focus on the continuing processes involved in cognitive assessment and coping. Some impression of the dynamic feedback-processes involved in the model is perhaps communicated by the greatly oversimplified representation in Figure 6. The goal of this approach is accurate phenomenological description as well as causal analysis of antecedant and consequent relations. The potential utility of a transactional approach will be discussed in the more general context of the implications for future research on acculturation processes.

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IMPLICATIONS Implications

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FOR RESEARCH

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AND EDUCATION

for Research Methodology

Multivariate, Multimethod, Multilevel Research. To be most useful models of acculturation processes will need to incorporate multiple variables at the cultural, ethnic, interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. Although not included in the model represented in Figures 1-4, the understanding of acculturative stress cannot be complete without consideration of the physiological level as well. The necessity for a multilevel, multivariate approach to a comparative analysis of learning has been argued previously (Dyal & Corning, 1973) and Campbell’s arguments for multitrait, multimethod approach in cross-cultural comparison are well known (Campbell & Fiske, 1959). Situational Analysis. Increasing attention needs to be paid to the more precise measurement of situational characteristics at the cultural, ethnic and interpersonal levels. At the cultural level Berry (1975) has demonstrated the importance of ecological characteristics in determining aspects of perceptual-cognitive functioning and he implicates these cognitive styles as possible modulators of acculturative stress (c.f., Rempel, 1978). Also at the cultural level we must take seriously Cole and Scribner’s (1974) view that the most important problem within cross-cultural psychology is to develop a theory of situations. We are only now beginning to evolve methods which will permit us to formulate a taxonomy of situations (e.g., Moos, 1975). Cross-sectional (Structural) Research. The current revival of an interactionist perspective in personality research can only be applauded; what is surprising is that the perspective was ever subverted in the first place (c.f., Murphy, 1947; Lazarus & Launier, 1979). Furthermore with increased potential for measuring and/ or manipulating environmental dimensions, future cross-sectional research should increasingly be designed so as to apportion sources of variance to situation, trait, and interaction components (Endler & Magnusson, 1976). Process Research. While the interactive processes associated with structural variables are of considerable research interest it is even more important that future research come to grips with the fact

that our basic problem in studying acculturation is to detect change in psycho-social behaviors and to describe the processes which mediate this change (Dyal, 1978). Lazarus et al. (1979) put this point nicely as follows: The essence of adaptation is change. That is, when confronted with a dangerous or demanding situation, the person copes, thus altering the stressful personenvironment relationship . . . . Research into the relationships between stress and adaptational outcomes must be designed to allow us to determine flux and change as well as stability. What is called for is a new type of assessment technology, namely, the measurement of process in contrast to most current practices of sampling traits or environmental conditions on a single occasion and assuming this will be stable over time or across occasions.“(Lazarus, Cohen, Folkman. Kanner & Schaefer, 1979)

Ipsative Embedded Research. The new approach suggested by Lazarus while straightforward is also difficult and expensive. It combines large scale cross-sectional analysis with repeated in-depth evaluations of small sub-samples. By including multiple-cohorts which are evaluated at several points in time this design helps to differentiate cohort effects from developmental effects, from acculturation effects. Reigel (1978) has argued that it is only by the simultaneous combination of cross-sectional, longitudinal and time-lag designs that the effects of age, cohort and historical time differences can be unconfounded.4 In addition to utilizing the large scale cohort designs for the purpose of making inferences about change it should be emphasized that the ipsative embedded design will include the in-depth tracking of a few selected individuals who are also embedded in the large scale cohort design. This procedure can provide more direct data regarding the actual processes which are occurring across time; these data in turn provide critical information for the interpretation of the changes which are inferred from the cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Lazarus and Cohen (1976) have stated the advantage of such designs as follows: A compromise, however, could permit us to study sufficient numbers of subjects, and at the same time give us the in-depth information we would need to describe and analyze the processes of stress and coping. In such a compromise, the strategy of large cohorts and survey methods for statistical analysis could be retained, 4Adam

critique of Schaie’s (1965) original decision rules for that even these designs will not unambiguously and time of testing effects which “are indeed inextricably confounded.”

(1978) has made an incisive

separating these effects and concludes separate

age, cohort

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while at the same time selecting limited subsamples for more intensive study. Research designs should be ipsative, that is, the individuals studies intensively would be observed time and time again, over many life contexts and encounters. By such ipsative or repeated study of the same individuals, the ongoing processes involved in reacting to and coping with stressful transactions . . . .” (Lazarus & Cohen, 1976)

Needless to say cross-sectional designs have been most frequently used in our research literature. We have already seen that the strength of this design is to get at within-group structural stability and group differences in structure. Longitudinal designs appear in the literature far less frequently although within the past few years several such efforts have been published (e.g., Jessor & Jessor, 1977). Combined longitudinal and cross-sectional designs are more rare. The effects of Holtzman, Diaz-Guerrero and Swartz (1975) provide a model of what can be done with this design in a crosscultural context. Designs which have attempted to differentiate cohort efforts out from other effects are even more rare in psychology generally (Baltes, 1968; Schaie, Labouvie, & Buech, 1973; Schaie & Labouvie-Vief, 1974) and non-existent in research on acculturation processes. Practical

Research Implications

It seems clear that the foregoing methodological considerations have some practical implications for research in the area of acculturation processes. First, as noted these research designs will require that social scientists become considerably more sophisticated in multivariate techniques. Second, the research will involve larger culturally representative samples rather than the usual samples of convenience. Third, the research must be programmatic and continuing rather than episodic one-shot efforts. Fourth, the research should be conducted by teams that are both interdisciplinary and multicultural. It is particularly important that representatives of the target cultural group not only be involved at the professional level but that they be utilized as informant/critic/colleagues. Similarly the multilevel approach requires the sophistication and complementary perspectives of anthropologists, sociologists, educationists and psychologists. Fifth, and as a consequence of the foregoing, acculturative process research will be much more expensive than in the past. This necessitates that we should do some serious educational work with granting foundations and government agencies to convince them that if they are to make good on

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their stated desire to assist immigrants and native peoples to become full participants in society, social science research on problems of migrant adaptation can not only pay off in guiding policy formulation but that the alleviation of acculturative stress makes good economic sense. Implications

for Education

It seems obvious that the school is one of the most critical contexts in which acculturation takes place for the children of immigrants. Thus an intensified analysis of the strains, stresses and coping responses in that context is required. First among the many problems associated with the school is the fact that the school, all too often, serves to undermine the integrity and value of the immigrant’s home culture and thus contributes to parent-child conflicts. While it is the case that some bilingualbicultural programmes help to ease these conflicts, it seems to us that additional efforts directed toward helping the parents cope better with the generation conflicts caused by differential rates of acculturation would be profitable (c.f., Manansala, 1976). Second, we obviously need to develop more adequate approaches to increasing the cultural sensitivity of teachers. We have had experiences in teacher’s workshops in New Zealand and in Canada which convince us that the teachers are still, all too often, prime generators of acculturative stress by virtue of their conscious and unconscious assimilationist attitudes. Third, both formal research and informal experience has helped us to identify two of the factors in the typical multi-ethnic classroom which serve as stressors for minority group children. These are its highly competitive structure and devaluation by members of the dominant ethnic group. A new technique pioneered by Eliot Aronson and his colleagues looks promising here (Blaney et al., 1977). It restructures the learning environment into small interdependent learning groups in which group members must interact cooperatively with each other in order to learn the material. The results from several rather large scale studies have shown that this approach reduces school anxiety and increases self-esteem for the minority group child; furthermore, academic performance is at least as good and sometimes better than the conventional classroom. However, as valuable as this approach appears to be it is only one side of the coin, we also need explicit training programmes to help

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the children learn to cope more effectively with classroom stressors since such factors as competition will not and perhaps should not disappear from the school environment. Of relevance here is a technique developed by our colleague at the University of Waterloo, Donald Meichenbaum, who has pioneered what he calls stress inoculation training techniques. The purpose of the training is to help the person learn to identify likely stressors, examine alternative ways of attributing meaning to the stressor and alternative ways of coping which may be either intrapsychic or problem solving in their orientation. We cannot go into details of the stress inoculation training procedure but we believe that it needs to be incorporated into pilot programmes specifically designed to help children-both immigrant and non-immigrant-to learn to cope more effectively in the school environment. In addition, Meichenbaum’s stress inocculation technique could be usefully combined with reattribution training based on a reality therapy approach to accultration problems of foreign student sojourners. Likewise, Pedersen’s approach to role learning as a coping strategy deserves further empirical efforts and application (Pedersen, 1977). However, we aIso want to recognize that many of the acculturative stresses are inevitable no matter how successful we are in manipulating the environment or in teaching new roles. Thus the importance of intrapsychic palliative techniques should not be underestimated. These palliatives may be offered through stress innoculation packages, through traditional counseling, meditation, exercise, religion and other positive addictions. Transcendental meditation and various forms of Zen have been found to be effective ways to prevent or reduce the effects of stress. Similarly, religion in both its social and moral ethical dimensions offers the possibility of a culturally approved coping strategy, through providing palliative attributions, maintaining hope, and building seIf-confidence within a compatible social network. Finally, we need to keep in mind that efforts toward better understanding of acculturative stresses must be set in the broader social context of social and cultural change. In that context we can no better than conclude with a comment by CIive Beck in a book called Education of Immigrant Students: The issue is not one of integrating immigrants into an already established culture and people, but rather one of trying to develop, in conjunction with immigrants, a radically diverse and much more satisfactory culture and way of life that is as yet beyond our reach. The task is not to etiminate differences, but to develop a society

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in which the basic human problems of all of us can be solved and the diversity that is essential to the well-being of all people, immigrant and non-immigrant, can be accommodated. (Beck, 1977)

REFERENCES ADAM, J. Sequential strategies and the separation of age, cohort, and time of measurement contributions to developmental data. Psychological Bulletin, 1978, 85, 1309-1316. AMIR, Y. Inter- and intraethnic comparisons of intellectual functions in Israeli and Middle Eastern populations. Abstract. Guide Twentreth International Cong. Psychology, 1972, 175-l 76. BALTES, P.B. Longitudinal and cross-sectional sequences in the study of age and generation effects. Human Development, 1968, 11, 145-171. BECK, C. Is immigrant education only for immigrants? In A. Wolfgang (Ed.), Education of immigrant students: Issues and Answers. Toronto: Ontario Institute Studies in Education, 1977. BERRY, J.W. Ecology, cultural adaptation, and psychological differentiation: Traditional patterning and acculturative stress. In R.W. Brislin, S. Bochner, W.J. Lonner (Eds.), Cross-culturalperspectives on learning. New York: Sage Publications, 1975. BERRY, J.W. Social and cultural change. In H. Triandis & R. Brislin (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (Vol. 5). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1979. BLANEY, N.T., STEPHAN, C., ROSENFIELD, D., ARONSON, E., & SIKES, J. Interdependence in the classroom: A field study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1977, 69, 121-128. BOHNING, W.R. International migration and the western world: Past, present and future. International Migration, 1978, 16, 1 l-22. BOWERS, K.S. Situationism in psychology: An analyusis and a critique. Psychology Review, 1973, 80, 307-327. BURIEL, R. Cognitive styles among three generations of Mexican-American children. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 1975, 6, 417-429. CAMPELL, D.T., & F1SKE;D.W. Convergent and discriminant validation by the multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 1959, 56, 81-105. COLE, M., & SCRIBNER, S. Culture and thought. New York: Wiley, 1974. CONNER, J.W. Tradition and change in three generations of Japanese Americans. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1977. DOHRENWEND, B.S., & DOHRENWEND, B.P. (Eds.). Stressful hfe events: Their nature and effects. New York: Wiley, 1974. DYAL, J.A. Acculturation, stress and coping. Paper presented m symposium “Multiculturalism: Policy and Research Implication,” Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, 1978. DYAL, J.A., & CORNING, W.C. Invertebrate learning and behavior taxonomies. In W.C. Corning, J.A. Dyal & A.O.D. Willows (Eds.), Invertebrate learning (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum, 1973. DYAL, J.A., ECKERMANN, A.-K., CHAN, G., RAl, N., & LUM, J. Cognitive style and attitudinal variables differentiating immigrant and Hawaii-born

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ABSTRACT

TRANSLATIONS

AdaptaCibn cultural, tensitin y enfrentamiento: para la enseiiaza e investigacio'n.

algunas implicaciones

Los procesos de adaptacio'n cultural (acculturation processes), se pueden conceptualizar mcdiante un modelo multivariado que opera en cuatro niveles sicol6gicos: cultural, Stnico, interperson. e intra-personal. Ejemplos de cambios en estados de salud mental, relaciones sociales, estilo cognocitivo, orientacibn social y valores aprendidos por el niCo coma consecuencia de inmigracio'n son considerados. El enfoque primordial es en la delinacio'n de formas para el estudio de tensio'n y enfrentamiento en 10s procesos de adaptacio'n cultural. Estas incluyen: eventos de tensi& en la vida, cargas emocionales debidas a roles cro'nicos y el modelo de medicidn cognocitiva de Lazarus. Las implicaciones de1 modelo para la investigaci&, enfatiza la importancia de1 use de t&nicas multivariadas, multimetodoldgicas y de niveles mfiltiples que envuelven ana'lisis longitudinales y de secciones cruzadas de variables situacionales y de proceso. Dada que la escuela es un context0 crftico de adaptacicin cultural, un ana"lisis intensive de. las cargas emocionales, tensiones y respuestas a modes de enfrentamiento en este context0 es sequerido. Modes de ataque prometedores para este ana'lisis, incluyen entrenamiento de la sensitividad cultural de padres y maestros, reestructuracibn de1 salo'n de clases para lograr una reduccio'n de la devaluacih de 10s niiios inmlgrantes por el grupo Stnico dominante y entrenamiento para la inoculacidn de la tensio'n especfficamente diseiiado para ayudar a 10s ni?ios aprender coma enfrenrarse de una manera efectiva con las tensiones del ambiente escolar.

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L'Acculturation, le Stress et des Facons de s'y Faire Face: Implications Pour la Recherche et 1'Education.

Quelques

Les processus de l'acculturation sont concus comme ayant besoin d'un mod&e de variations multiples avec des variables qui opkent 2 quatre niveaux psycho-socaux: soit culturel, ethnique, interpersonnel ou intrapersonnel. Des examples de changements dans l'e'tat de la santE mentale, dans des r&eaux sociaux, dans le style cognitive, et dans les valeurs de la faGon d'e'lgver les enfants immigre's sent consid&&. Ce qui es d'importance principals est la d6lin8ation de plusieurs mgthodes de 1'Btude du stress et de l'acculturation. Cellesei comprennent des circonstances qui engendre la stress,,la pression chronique SW le role de l'enfant dans un environnement particulier, et le modElla d'&aluation cognitif de Lazarus. Les implications du modele pour la recherche soilignent 1' importance des approches de variations multiples, de methodes multiples, et de niveaux multiples qui impliquent des analyses de coupes transversales et longitudinales des variables des situations et des processus. Puisque l'e'cole est un endroit critique dans l'acculturation, une analyse intensifige des pressions, du stress et des faccons de s'y faire face dans ce milieu est requise. Des m6thcdes prometteuses pour une telle analyse comprennent l'enseignement aux parents et aux enseignants la sensibilits aux cultures etrangkes, une r&organisation dans l'kole pour rdduire la d&alorisation des enfants immigr6s par le groupe gthnique dominant et, l'enseignement de moyens de combattre le stress; des moyens spdcifiquement concus pour aider les enfants 1 faire face plus Qfficacement aux pre*,sions du milieu scolaire.