Acculturation Trajectories of Minority Adolescents: A Contextual and Dynamic Approach

• In Event: 2-125 - Developmental and Contextual Approaches to the Study of Ethnic-Racial Minority and Migrant Adolescents’ Dual-Cultural Adaptation

Integrative Statement

As societies become increasingly culturally diverse, adolescents from different cultural backgrounds come into sustained intergroup contact, and this results in changes in their cultural orientations, a process called acculturation (Liebkind, Mähönen, Varjonen, & Jasinskaja-Lahti, 2016). Following a well-established bi-dimensional model of acculturation, both minority and majority adolescents have orientations towards mainstream culture adoption, and minorities towards heritage cultural maintenance too, which are seen as two independent dimensions (Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006). In line with a contextual and dynamic approach of entwined acculturation and developmental processes in adolescence, the acculturation orientations of minority and majority adolescents change over time as a function of (inter alia) peer norms of acculturation in culturally diverse classrooms and schools (Hillekens, Baysu, & Phalet, 2018). The present study takes a more fine-grained person-centered approach of differential trajectories of acculturation and development (using multivariate latent growth curve models and multivariate latent growth mixture modelling) within their socio-cultural environment. We tested for differential trajectories of acculturation and predicted them by positive and negative (intergroup) contact experiences in the school context (using multilevel multinomial regression analyses). Furthermore, we used these trajectories to predict children’s school well-being and achievement (using multi-level structural equation models).
Drawing on large-scale school-based panel data (i.e., an accelerated longitudinal design with 3 waves and 3 cohorts, Mages 12, 13 and 14 at wave 1; Emonds, Meeus, Heikamp, & Meulemans, 2014), we compared two minority subsamples in Belgian secondary schools: most devalued Moroccan and Turkish minorities (N=1189) and less devalued European minorities (N=530). After obtaining ethical clearance from the school principal and parental and teacher consent, all eligible students in 67 randomly selected secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium participated in the field experiment during their class hours in three consecutive years. We tested how acculturation orientations towards both mainstream and heritage cultures changed over this three-year time period, distinguishing differential acculturation trajectories between and within minority groups.
Our findings showed differential linear trends for adoption and maintenance orientations across both samples. We differentiated three latent trajectories in the Turkish- and Moroccan-origin sample, and two latent trajectories in the European-origin sample. Results indicated that for Turkish- and Moroccan-origin adolescents, maintenance remained stable and their adoption changed over time; we identified a high decreasing, low increasing, and stable adoption trajectories in combination with high maintenance. For European-origin adolescents, adoption remained stable and their maintenance changed over time; we identified a high decreasing and low increasing trajectories in combination with high adoption. Follow-up analyses predicted these differential trajectories of acculturation as a function of discrimination experiences, school diversity climate, and cross-ethnic (i.e., majority) friendships in schools. Furthermore, these trajectories were also predictive of diverse school outcomes, like emotional and behavioral engagement, and school belonging (see Figures 1 and 2 for the final models for the Turkish-/Moroccan-origin sample and European-origin sample, respectively). To conclude, our findings document the dynamic and contextual nature of acculturation trajectories in minority adolescents, and highlight the importance of a supportive school environment in the development of minority adolescents’ acculturation orientations and beyond.

Authors

• Jessie Hillekens, KU Leuven
  Presenting Author

• Gülseli Baysu, Queen’s University Belfast
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karen Phalet, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author