Skip to main content
NCBI home page
NIHPA Author Manuscripts logoLink to NIHPA Author Manuscripts
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Psychol. 2017 Apr 18;15:195–200. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.020

Parenting in acculturation: Two contemporary research designs and what they tell us

Marc H Bornstein 1
PMCID: PMC5604855  NIHMSID: NIHMS869574  PMID: 28813262

Abstract

Massive population transfers are common today. To understand how immigrants negotiate variation and adjustment as they settle in a new culture, researchers have explored acculturation, the changes that individuals and groups undergo as a result of contact with a culture not their own. Parents have crucial roles to play in acculturation. Parenting is instantiated in cognitions and practices, and cognitions and practices of parents are multifaceted and influenced by many factors, including parents' own individual characteristics, their children, and their cultural experiences. This article describes, evaluates, and illustrates two unique research designs that are used today to study acculturation of parenting cognitions and practices. In one design, parenting in acculturating cultures in the same culture of destination are compared; in the second design, parents in a culture of origin, parents from that culture of origin acculturating to a new culture, and parents in that culture of destination are compared. Acculturation is one of the most prominent individual-difference constructs in contemporary psychology, and understanding parents' cognitions and practices is fundamental to understanding parenting and acculturation.

Keywords: acculturation, parenting, migrants, cognitions, practices

Introduction

Massive population transfers are common today. The United Nations (U.N.) Population Division reported that as of 2015 nearly 245 million people live outside the country of their birth or citizenship; that translates into roughly 1 in every 30 people on the face of the globe [1]. Absent backlash, the future portends more of the same. A Gallup survey reported that nearly 700 million adults would like to migrate to another country permanently. To understand how immigrants negotiate variation and adjustment as they settle in a new culture, researchers have explored the phenomenon of acculturation. Acculturation describes changes that individuals and groups undergo as a result of contact with another culture.

Parents have an especially crucial role to play in acculturation. For example, one quarter of children under the age of 5 in the United States have at least one foreign-born parent, and their ranks are expected to swell in the 21st century [2]. Parenting is instantiated in cognitions and practices, and cognitions and practices of parents are multifaceted and influenced by many factors, including (at least) parents' own individual characteristics, their children, and their cultural experiences [3]. Parenting cognitions include attributions, perceptions, goals, expectations, attitudes, and knowledge of child rearing and child development. Parenting cognitions are meritorious of study in their own right, and they are important to understand because they can influence parenting practices and children's development. Parents' practices often give expression to parenting cognitions and constitute a large measure of children's worldly experience. They span nurturant, physical, social, didactic, verbal, and material domains of caregiving.

It is informative to study parental beliefs and behaviors among immigrant groups because parenting beliefs and behaviors differ across cultural groups [4] and acculturate differently. For example, U.S. European American parenting tends to encourage children's interpersonal independence as well as interest in and exploration of the environment, whereas Argentine and Japanese parenting emphasizes interdependence between dyad members, and these parents tend to engage in more social interactions with their children. U.S. European American culture prizes individual effort, where mothers see parenting as a personal achievement. Consistent with virtues of Korean culture -- guan-sin (parental attentiveness to children), jung-sung (parental devotion to children and their care), and chek-im (parental responsibility for teaching children what they need to know) -- South Korean mothers report being highly invested in parenting. Immigrant parents or parents-to-be from these cultures arriving on U.S. shores can expect to acculturate. As a result of the differing world views in immigrants' countries of origin and destination, one might wonder what parenting is like for immigrants who were born and reared in one culture but who take up residence and must socialize their offspring to succeed in a different culture. This article describes and evaluates two unique research designs and some illustrative findings that are used today to study acculturation of parenting cognitions and practices.

Design

Compare parents in acculturating groups from different cultures of origin in the same culture of destination (e.g., Japanese American, Korean American, and South American parents in the United States); cultures of origin differ on psychocultural factors (e.g., representing Eastern and Western cultures with different histories, beliefs, and values), but parents are comparable on other sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., SES, age, education, parity, duration in the culture of destination, immigrants not refugees at the same historical point in time).

What the design can tell us

This design provides insight into the influence of cultures of origin and culture of destination on parenting beliefs and behaviors among different cultural groups. Recruiting more than one comparison group in a single study using a uniform methodology permits examination of generalities and specificities in the acculturation of parenting.

Illustrations

Parents' knowledge about child rearing and child development is relevant to pediatric practice, but little is known about immigrant parents' knowledge. Knowledge of developmental milestones is also important because early intervention is key to preventing long-term problems in children. If parents are unaware of normal developmental milestones, they will be less likely to recognize and raise problems with their child's pediatrician. One study compared parenting knowledge in Japanese and South American immigrant mothers of 2-year-olds and compared their data with European American mothers. Immigrant mothers scored lower than otherwise comparable U.S. mothers [5]. The majority of immigrant mothers did not know correct answers for 25% of items, a difference that remained when mothers' education level was controlled. Insofar as expectations or the actual attainment of developmental skills and behaviors or illness states differ among members of diverse cultural groups, awareness of such differences helps clinicians accurately interpret the significance of parents' reports about children's health and development.

Typically developing human infants are born with a capacity to learn language. What is in dispute is how experience and biology influence rates of language acquisition. One study examined the extent to which variability in maternal input influences children's language acquisition by comparing samples of bilingual immigrant children to their monolingual peers. By definition, monolingual children receive 100% of their input in a single language, and bilingual children receive complementary fractions of their input in each of two languages. As input matters to vocabulary acquisition, there should be individual differences in children's vocabulary acquisition as a result of differential input. The amount of input monolingual children receive in a given language is positively related to their vocabulary size in that language, and this same association obtains among children being reared bilingually from birth. One study investigated maternal language input for bilingual children's vocabulary development in Latin, Japanese, and Korean immigrant families [6]. Maternal degree of acculturation predicted the amount of maternal input in each language, which then predicted immigrant children's vocabulary size in each language. Maternal acculturation also predicted children's English-language vocabulary size.

Comments

This acculturation design is geared to identify which realms of parenting and child development change (and which do not) and which call for special attention and cultural sensitivity (and which do not) in the dynamics of different immigrant families. Parenting cognitions and practices alike should be taken into account when assessing immigrants' parenting.

Design

Compare immigrants' parenting cognitions and practices with parents still in their culture of origin and with parents in their culture of destination. The anchoring samples should differ in parenting cognitions and practices. On applied, cultural, and methodological grounds, it is also desirable to adhere to the other design characteristics as Design 1.

Design 1. Parenting in acculturating cultures in the same culture of destination.

Design 1

Open in a new tab

Attributions about successes and failures in parenting and self-perceptions of parenting were compared in Japanese American and South American immigrant mothers to the United States. South American mothers endorsed ability and task ease as causes of their parenting successes more strongly than Japanese American mothers, but no differences in mothers' attributions to mothers' effort or mood or child behavior emerged. South American mothers also reported that they were more satisfied with the parenting role than Japanese American mothers. As immigrant mothers became more acculturated to U.S. society their feelings of confidence and competence came to resemble those of European American mothers [3].

What this design tells us

Investigating parenting in an immigrant group and the nonimmigrant dominant groups in the cultures of origin and destination, respective, reveals how, and the extent to which, immigrant parents retain the cognitions and practices of their culture of origin and incorporate those of their culture of destination. Evaluating the acculturation of multiple parenting cognitions and practices in immigrants in more than one three-way comparison shows whether the acculturation of parenting cognitions and practices proceeds in a general or cognition- or practice-specific fashion and in a general or culture-specific fashion.

Illustrations

Japanese immigrant mothers' attributions and self-perceptions were more like those of mothers in their country of origin (Japan) or intermediate to those of mothers in their countries of origin (Japan) and destination (the United States). In contrast, attributions and self-perceptions of South American immigrant mothers in the United States were more like those in their country of destination.

In the United States, play is a stage and toys the objects of communication; in Japan and Argentina, play and toys predominantly mediate dyadic interaction for itself. U.S. mothers tend to highlight exploratory object play, whereas Japanese and Argentine mothers tend to stress symbolic play. In three-way studies of maternal play, South American immigrant mothers demonstrated and solicited more exploratory play than Argentine mothers, Japanese mothers solicited more symbolic play, and Argentine mothers demonstrated more symbolic play than immigrant mothers. The play of Japanese and South American immigrant mothers was more similar to European American mothers' play than to mothers in their respective countries of origin [8].

Comments

These results limit the generalizability of acculturation by parenting task, setting, and population, and acculturation should not be taken as stereotypical of all parents. A universal model of acculturation that dictates uniform patterns of acculturation for all cognitions and practices appears inappropriate. Instead, acculturation of parenting appears to be influenced by the cultural groups being compared and the cognitions and practices being evaluated, supporting specificity views of parenting and acculturation [9,10**].

Interpretations

Common responses observed in parents' cognitions and practices could reflect one or more sources, including native panhuman tendencies in parenting, triggered by a common evolutionary root of both parenting and child development; shared reactions to similarities in developmental experiences, intact nuclear families, or urbanized, industrialized, and developed societies; historical convergences in parenting; or an increasing prevalence of homogeneous parenting beliefs and behaviors resulting from exposure to education or mass media. These causes are related and not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Investigating acculturation at the group level, by comparing immigrant parents with parents in their cultures of origin and destination, leaves unresolved whether immigrant parents' cognitions and practices acculturated (i.e., whether they were similar to parents in their culture of origin prior to immigration and different from them afterwards) or whether immigrants might have differed from parents in their culture of origin before immigration. Differentiated patterns of results by culture discourage the latter explanation. One way to disentangle whether parents' beliefs and behaviors acculturate or were always different from that of parents who chose to remain in their culture of origin would be to study parenting beliefs and behaviors longitudinally, before and after parents immigrate.

Conclusion

Acculturation has risen to become one of the most prominent individual-difference constructs in contemporary psychology. It is hardly surprising that there has been a corresponding increase in studies occupied with where, how, why, and in whom acculturation transpires. The results of this burgeoning literature and its implications have now begun to refine our understanding of interculturals, their psychological functioning and well-being, as well as psychologies of their cultures of origin and destination. As we see, parents stand at the nexus of these dynamic forces.

Design 2. Parenting in a Culture of Origin, an Acculturating Culture, and a Culture of Destination.

Design 2

Open in a new tab

In a three-culture comparison -- native South Koreans, Korean immigrants to the United States, and native European Americans—of two types of parenting cognitions—attributions and self-perceptions--Koreans differed from European Americans on almost all attributions and self-perceptions (even after controlling for potentially confounding variables, such as social desirability, and demographic factors, including age, education level, and socioeconomic status), and the differences were largely consistent with the distinct cultural values of South Korea and the United States. Some Korean immigrant parenting attributions resembled those of European American parents in the United States, whereas other parenting attributions and all self-perceptions resembled those of Korean parents in South Korea [7].

Bullet Points.

  • Acculturation describes changes that individuals and groups in one culture undergo as a result of contact with a new culture.

  • Parents play crucial roles to in acculturation; they must socialize their offspring to succeed in a non-native culture.

  • Parenting is instantiated in cognitions and practices, which are multifaceted and influenced by many factors, including their cultural experiences.

  • Two unique comparative research designs include (1) parenting in acculturating cultures in the same culture, and (2) parenting in a culture of origin, an acculturating culture, and a culture of destination.

  • Acculturation of parenting cognitions and practices is likely a function of many moderators.

Acknowledgments

Preparation was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NICHD.

Footnotes

Conflict of interest statement: The author confirms that there are no known conflicts of interest.

Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

References

** of special interest

  • 1.United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migration Report 2015: Highlights (ST/ESA/SER A/375) 2016 Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/MigrationReport2015_Highlights.pdf.
  • 2.U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, annual social and economic supplement. 2013 Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/population/foreign/data/cps2013.html.
  • 3.Bornstein MH. Determinants of parenting. In: Cicchetti D, editor. Developmental Psychopathology: Risk, Resilience, and Intervention. Wiley; 2016. pp. 180–270. [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Bornstein MH, Lansford JE. Parenting. In: Bornstein MH, editor. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Developmental Science Part 1 Domains of Development across Cultures. Psychology Press; 2010. pp. 259–278. [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Mothers' parenting cognitions in cultures of origin, acculturating cultures, and cultures of destination. Child Development. 2004;75:221–235. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00665.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Cote LR, Bornstein MH. Productive vocabulary among three groups of bilingual American children: Comparison and prediction. First Language. 2014;34:467–485. doi: 10.1177/0142723714560178. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Cote LR, Kwak K, Putnick DL, Chung HJ, Bornstein MH. The acculturation of parenting cognitions: A comparison of South Korean, Korean immigrant, and European American mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2015;46:1115–1130. doi: 10.1177/0022022115600259. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Cote LR, Bornstein MH. Child and mother play in cultures of origin, acculturating cultures, and cultures of destination. International Journal of Behavioral Development. 2005;29:479–488. [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Bornstein MH. Children's parents. In: Bornstein MH, Leventhal T, editors. Ecological Settings and Processes in Developmental Systems Volume 4 of the Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science. Wiley; 2015. pp. 55–132. [Google Scholar]
  • 10**.Bornstein MH. The specificity principle in acculturation science. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2017;12:3–45. doi: 10.1177/1745691616655997. The Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science asserts that specific setting conditions of specific people at specific times moderate specific domains in acculturation by specific processes. Understanding acculturation depends critically on what is studied where, in whom, how, and when. This article defines, explains, and illustrates the Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science. Research hypotheses about acculturation can be more adequately tested, inconsistencies and discrepancies in the acculturation literature can be satisfactorily resolved, acculturation interventions can be tailored to be more successful, and acculturation policies can be brought to new levels of effectiveness if the specificity principle that governs acculturation science is more widely recognized. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

References

  1. Arends-Tóth J, van de Vijver FJR. Multiculturalism and acculturation: Views of Dutch and Turkish-Dutch. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2003;33:249–266. [Google Scholar]
  2. Arends-Toth J, van de Vijver FJR. Issues in the conceptualization and assessment of acculturation. In: Bornstein MH, editor. Acculturation and parent-child relationships: Measurement and development. Lawrence Erlbaum; 2006. pp. 33–62. **This chapter discusses conceptual and assessment issues in acculturation research in an attempt to integrate the growing literature in this field. The chapter focuses on conceptual issues in acculturation research the definition and historical roots of acculturation, and a framework of acculturation variables. [Google Scholar]
  3. Atzaba-Poria N. Internalizing and externalizing problems in early childhood: A study of former Soviet Union and veteran-Israeli children living in Israel. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2011;42:983–997. [Google Scholar]
  4. Birman D, Persky I, Chan WY. Multiple identities of Jewish immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union: An exploration of salience and impact of ethnic identity. International Journal of Behavioral Development. 2010;34:193–205. [Google Scholar]
  5. Bornstein MH. Form and function: Implications for studies of culture and human development. Culture & Psychology. 1995;1:123–137. **A given activity often has the same meaning in different contexts, but one activity can also have different meanings across contexts. Conversely, different activities can have different or similar meanings depending on context. A prime context for discussing relations between activity and meaning-that is, between form and function-is culture. The heuristic value of this perspective and its implications for studies of culture and human development are considered. [Google Scholar]
  6. Bornstein MH, Cote LR. “Who is sitting across from me?” Immigrant mothers' knowledge of parenting and children's development. Pediatrics. 2004;114:557–564. doi: 10.1542/peds.2004-0713. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Immigration and acculturation. In: Bornstein MH, editor. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Developmental Psychology. Psychology Press; 2010. pp. 531–552. [Google Scholar]
  8. Bornstein MH, Cote LR, Haynes OM, Suwalsky JTD, Bakeman R. Modalities of infant-mother interaction in Japanese, Japanese American immigrant, and European American dyads. Child Development. 2012;83:2073–2088. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01822.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Bradley RH, Pennar A, Glick J. Home environments of infants from immigrant families in the United States: Findings from the new immigrant survey. Infant Mental Health Journal. 2014;35:565–579. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21477. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Brüß J. Experiences of discrimination reported by Turkish, Moroccan, and Bangladeshi Muslims in three European cities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2008;34:875–894. [Google Scholar]
  11. Caudill W, Frost L. A comparison of maternal care and infant behavior in Japanese-American, American, and Japanese Families. In: Dryden Bronfenbrenner U., editor. Influences on Human Development. 1972. pp. 329–342. **American mothers, in contrast to Japanese, do more lively chatting to their babies, and that as a result, the American babies have a generally higher level of vocalization and, particularly, they respond with greater amounts of happy vocalization and gross motor activity than do Japanese babies. Because of different styles of caregiving in the two cultures, by three-to-four months of age the infants have already acquired culturally distinctive behaviors and that this has happened out of awareness and well before the development of language. Naturalistic observations were made on two consecutive days during 1961-1964 in the homes of 30 Japanese and 30 white American first-born three-to-four month old infants equally divided by sex and living in intact middle-class urban families. Data on the ordinary daily life of the infant were obtained by time-sampling. The behavior of the Japanese-Americans is apparently closer to that of the Americans than that of the Japanese. [Google Scholar]
  12. Caudill W, Frost LA. A comparison of maternal care and infant behavior in Japanese-American, American, and Japanese families. In: Lebra WP, editor. Youth, Socialization, and Mental Health. University Press of Hawaii; 1974. pp. 3–15. [Google Scholar]
  13. Chen SX, Benet-Martinez V, Bond MH. Bicultural identity, bilingualism, and psychological adjustment in multicultural societies: Immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation. Journal of Personality. 2008;76:803–838. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00505.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Chuang CS, Tamis-LeMonda CS. Gender Roles in Immigrant Families. Springer; 2013. [Google Scholar]
  15. Cote LR, Bornstein MH. Child and mother play in three U.S. cultural groups: Comparisons and associations. Journal of Family Psychology. 2009;23:355–363. doi: 10.1037/a0015399. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Cote LR, Bornstein MH, Haynes OM, Bakeman R. Mother-infant person-and object-directed interactions in Latino immigrant families: A comparative approach. Infancy. 2008;13:338–365. doi: 10.1080/15250000802189386. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Farver JM, Bakhtawar RB, Narang SK. Acculturation and psychological functioning in Asian Indian adolescents. Social Development. 2002;11:11–28. [Google Scholar]
  18. Farver JM, Bhadha B, Narang S. Acculturation and psychological functioning in Asian Indian adolescents. Social Development. 2002;11:11–29. [Google Scholar]
  19. Farver JM, Xu Y, Bhadha BR, Narang S, Lieber E. Ethnic identity, acculturation, parenting beliefs, and adolescent adjustment: A comparison of Asian Indian and European American families. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 2007;53:184–215. [Google Scholar]
  20. Farver JAM, Xu Y, Lonigan CJ, Eppe S. The home literacy environment and Latino head start children's emergent literacy skills. Developmental Psychology. 2013;49:775–791. doi: 10.1037/a0028766. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Fuligni AJ, Witkow M. The postsecondary educational progress of youth from immigrant families. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 2004;14:159–183. [Google Scholar]
  22. Goodnow JJ. Culture. In: Bornstein MH, editor. Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science. Psychology Press; 2010. pp. 3–20. [Google Scholar]
  23. Gordon MM. Assimilation in American Life. Oxford University Press; 1964. [Google Scholar]
  24. Gratier M. Expressive timing and interactional synchrony between mothers and infants: Cultural similarities, cultural differences, and the immigration experience. Cognitive Development. 2003;18:533–554. [Google Scholar]
  25. Grieco EM, Acosta YD, de la Cruz GP, Gambino C, Gryn T, Larsen LJ, Trevelyan EN, Walters NP. The foreign-born population of the United States: 2010. 2012 Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acs-19.pdf.
  26. Güngör D, Bornstein MH. Gender, development, values, adaptation, and discrimination in acculturating adolescents: The case of Turk heritage youth born and living in Belgium. Sex Roles. 2009;60:537–548. [Google Scholar]
  27. Güngör D, Bornstein MH, De Leersnyder J, Cote LR, Ceulemans E, Mesquita B. Acculturation of personality: A three-culture study of Japanese, Japanese Americans, and European Americans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2013;44:701–718. doi: 10.1177/0022022112470749. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Güngör D, Bornstein MH, Phalet K. Religiosity, values, and acculturation: A study of Turkish, Turkish-Belgian, and Belgian adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development. 2012;36:367–373. doi: 10.1177/0165025412448357. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Hernandez DJ. Jacobs Foundation. Resources, strengths, and challenges for children in immigrant families in eight affluent countries. In: Masten AS, Liebkind K, Hernandez DJ, editors. Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth. Cambridge University Press; 2012. pp. 17–40. [Google Scholar]
  30. Hernández D, Napierala JS. Children in immigrant families: Essential to America's future. Child and Youth Well-Being Index Policy Brief: Foundation for Child Development. 2012 [Google Scholar]
  31. Hoff E, Core C, Place S, Rumiche R, Señor M, Parra M. Dual language exposure and early bilingual development. Journal of Child Language. 2012;39:1–27. doi: 10.1017/S0305000910000759. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Kennedy JF. A Nation of Immigrants. Harper and Row; 1964. [Google Scholar]
  33. Kouider EB, Koglin U, Petermann F. Emotional and behavioral problems in migrant children and adolescents in Europe: A systematic review. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2014;23:373–391. doi: 10.1007/s00787-013-0485-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Lansford JE, Deater-Deckard KK, Bornstein MH. Immigrant Families in Contemporary Society. Guilford Press; 2007. [Google Scholar]
  35. Leyendecker B, Willard J, Agache A, Jäkel J, Spiegler O, Kohl K. The challenges of diaspora migration: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Israel and Germany. In: Silbereisen RK, Titzmann PF, Shavit Y, editors. The Challenges of Diaspora Migration: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Israel and Germany. Ashgate Publishing Co; 2014. pp. 289–304. [Google Scholar]
  36. Lin CC, Fu VR. A comparison of child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American parents. Child Development. 1990;61:429–433. [Google Scholar]
  37. Markus HR, Kitayama S. Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review. 1991;98:224–253. **People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the two. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. [Google Scholar]
  38. Matsumoto DR, van de Vijver FJR. Cross-Cultural Research Methods in Psychology. Cambridge University Press; 2011. **Cross-cultural research is an undeniable part of mainstream psychology and has a major impact on conceptual models of human behavior. Basic principles of social psychological methodology and data analysis are applicable to cross-cultural research, but a number of issues are distinct to it, including managing incongruities of language and quantifying cultural response sets in the use of scales. This collection provides state-of-the-art knowledge about the methodological problems that need to be addressed if a researcher is to conduct valid and reliable cross-cultural research. It also offers practical advice and examples of solutions to those problems. [Google Scholar]
  39. Moscardino U, Bertelli C, Altoè G. Culture, migration, and parenting: A comparative study of mother-infant interaction and childrearing patterns in Romanian, Romanian immigrant, and Italian families. International Journal of Developmental Science. 2011;5:11–25. [Google Scholar]
  40. Motti-Stefanidi F, Asendorpf JB, Masten AS. The adaptation and well-being of adolescent immigrants in Greek schools: A multilevel, longitudinal study of risks and resources. Development and Psychopathology. 2012;24:451. doi: 10.1017/S0954579412000090. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  41. Nauck B, Lotter V. Parenting styles and perceived instrumentality of schooling in native, Turkish, and Vietnamese families in Germany. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswiisenschaft. 2015;18:845–869. [Google Scholar]
  42. Nguyen AMD, Benet-Martínez V. Biculturalism and adjustment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2013;44:122–159. [Google Scholar]
  43. Phalet K, Schönpflug U. Intergenerational transmission of collectivism and achievement values in two acculturation contexts: The case of Turkish families in Germany and Turkish and Moroccan families in the Netherlands. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2001;32:186–201. [Google Scholar]
  44. Phalet K, Swyngedouw M. Measuring immigrant integration: The case of Belgium. Migration Studies. 2003;152:773–803. [Google Scholar]
  45. Place S, Hoff E. Properties of dual language exposure that influence 2-year-olds' bilingual proficiency. Child Development. 2011;82:1834–1849. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01660.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  46. Redfield R, Linton R, Herskovits MJ. Memorandum for the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist. 1936;38:149–152. **Recognizing the importance of the study of acculturation, and the varying points of view from which the problem has been approached, the Social Science Research Council appointed a Committee to analyze the work on the problem already done, to study the implications of the term “acculturation,” and to explore new leads for further investigation. This formative article outlines the first steps toward clarifying the problem and serves as an aid in classifying the extant literature. [Google Scholar]
  47. Rudmin FW. Critical history of the acculturation psychology of assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. Review of General Psychology. 2003;7:3–37. **Modern enculturation theories claim that ethnic minorities can favor either the dominant culture, or their own minority culture, or both, or neither. Between 1918 and 1984 68 such theories showed varied and inconsistent terminology, poor citation of earlier research, conflicting and poorly tested predictions of acculturative stress, and lack of logic (for example, 2 cultures in contact logically allow 16 types of acculturation, not just 4). This review addresses multiple construct and methodological issues in acculturation research. [Google Scholar]
  48. Rudmin FW. Review of Immigrant youth in cultural transition: Acculturation, identity, and adaptation across national contexts. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2008;39:230–233. **The International Comparative Study of Ethno-cultural Youth (ICSEY) reported psychometric data using 23 measurement scales and 150 questions in 42 samples of immigrant adolescents and matched samples of nonimmigrant classmates in 13 nations (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, German, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States). About half of the immigrant parents were also questioned. This article critically reviews the ICSEY report in the light of how future research on acculturation should proceed. [Google Scholar]
  49. Sam DL, Berry J. The Cambridge Handbook of Acculturation Psychology. 2nd. Cambridge University Press; 2016. [Google Scholar]
  50. Schwartz SJ, Unger JB, Zamboanga BL, Szapocznik J. Rethinking the concept of acculturation: Implications for theory and research. American Psychologist. 2010;65:237–251. doi: 10.1037/a0019330. This article presents an expanded model of acculturation among international migrants and their immediate descendants. Acculturation is proposed as a multidimensional process consisting of the confluence among heritage-cultural and receiving-cultural practices, values, and identifications. The implications of this reconceptualization for the acculturation construct, as well as for its relationship to psychosocial and health outcomes, are discussed. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  51. Song L, Tamis-LeMonda CS, Yoshikawa H, Kahana-Kalman R, Wu I. Language experiences and vocabulary development in Dominican and Mexican infants across the first 2 years. Developmental Psychology. 2012;48:1106–1123. doi: 10.1037/a0026401. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  52. Thomas WI, Znaniecki F. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Dover; 1958. Original work published 1918. [Google Scholar]
  53. Van de Vijver FJR. Acculturation. In: Bornstein MH, Arterberry ME, Fingerman KL, Lansford JE, editors. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. SAGE; [Google Scholar]
  54. Verkuyten M, Thijs J, Sierksma J. Majority children's evaluation of acculturation preferences of immigrant and emigrant peers. Child Development. 2013;85:176–191. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12111. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  55. Ward C. The A, B, Cs of acculturation. In: Matsumoto D, editor. The Handbook of Culture and Psychology. Oxford University Press; 2001. pp. 411–445. **This chapter, defines acculturation; distinguishes among the different types of groups of individuals who acculturation, such as immigrants, refugees, and sojourners; discusses the adaptive outcomes of acculturation, making the useful distinction between psychological and sociocultural adjustment; and synthesizes three major theoretical and empirical approaches that have dominated work in the field stress and coping, culture learning, and social identification. focusing on the affective, behavioral, and cognitive (A, B, C's) differences that each perspective provides. [Google Scholar]
  56. Yoshikawa H. Immigrants Raising Citizens: Undocumented Parents and Their Young Children. Russell Sage; 2011. [Google Scholar]
  57. Zhou Q, Tao A, Chen SH, Main A, Lee E, Ly J, Hua M, Li X. Asset and protective factors for Asian American children's mental health adjustment. Child Development Perspectives. 2012;6:312–319. [Google Scholar]

RESOURCES