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Psychological adjustment and cultural identities of immigrant

adolescents

Evgeny Tartakovsky, Ph.D.

Tel-Aviv University,

The School of Social Work

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Research objectives

To formulate and test a developmental model of the immigrants’ psychological

adjustment and cultural identities

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Research design

1. Immigrant adolescents were studied at the pre-migration stage (1/2 year before emigration)

2. Two cohorts of immigrant adolescents were studied in the pre-migration stage (7 years apart)

3. Immigrant adolescents were followed during their first years in the new country (2.5 years)

4. Immigrant adolescents were compared to their non-emigrating peers in the country of origin

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Immigrant population: the participants of the Na’ale program from Russia and

Ukraine

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Some information about the Na’ale program

• The program was founded in 1992, and it has brought more than 15,000 adolescents to Israel (50% of all immigrant adolescents from the USSR in this age group)

• Age at the beginning: 15 (10th grade)• Selection (about 60% accepted)• In 1999, 2451 adolescents completed the testing

procedures; in 2006 only 918 adolescents took these tests

• Immigrants from Russia and Ukraine represent about 80% of the Na'ale students and about 70% of all immigrants to Israel

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Samples

• Immigrants (from 40 cities in Russia and Ukraine):– Pre-migration stage (1999/2006):

654/243 candidates to the program – Longitudinal study in Israel (1999-2002):

211 -> 151 adolescents participating in the program

• Non-Jewish adolescents in Russia and Ukraine studying in 10-11 grades (from 8 cities in Russia and 4 cities in Ukraine):– 2000: 468 – 2007: 740

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Socio-demographic characteristics of the samples (2006/7)

Socio-demographic characteristics Emigrants Non-emigrants

Adolescents living in Russia/ Ukraine * 131/112 461/279

Females 60% 58%

Adolescents living in big cities * 37% 49%

Single-parent families * 35% 23%

Three generation families 20% 17%

Fathers with a tertiary education 55% 60%

Fathers' occupation (unemployed, manual or clerical, professional or managerial)

8%, 40%, 52%

8%, 36%, 56%

Number of children in the family 1.96 (1.01) 1.93 (1.07)

Number of rooms in the family apartment 2.70 (.79) 2.82 (1.11)

Mixed ethnicity 61%, 29%, 4%, 4%

14%

* p<.05

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Psychological adjustment of immigrants

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Measures of psychological adjustment

1. General Self-esteem – the Self-liking/Self-worth scale (Tafarodi & Swann, 1995): "Owing to my capabilities, I have much potential“

2. Social competence –the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI) (Helmreich & Stapp, 1974): "I enjoy being around other people and seek out social encounters frequently"

3. School competence – 10 items from the multifaceted academic self-concept scale (Marsh, Byrne, & Shavelson, 1988): "Compared with my classmates, I must study more than they do to get the same grades".

4. Loneliness – a Short-Form Measure of Loneliness (Hays & DiMatteo, 1987): "I lack companionship"

5. Emotional and behavioral problems – Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991)

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Self-esteem

3.6

3.7

3.8

3.9

4

4.1

4.2

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Imm

Non-Imm

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Social competence

3.453.5

3.553.6

3.653.7

3.753.8

3.853.9

3.95

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Imm

Non-Imm

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School competence

3.453.5

3.553.6

3.653.7

3.753.8

3.853.9

3.95

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Imm

Non-Imm

13

Loneliness

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Imm

Non-Imm

14

Emotional and behavioral problems

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

ImmNon-Imm

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Factors affecting the immigrants’ psychological adjustment

1. The pre-migration indexes of psychological well-being (r=0.5-0.6 in the first year; 0.3-0.4 in the third year)

2. Perceived discrimination (-). Pre-migration vs. post-migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs. 2.05 (.65)

3. Perceived social support from peers (+)4. Perceived social support from parents (some indexes)

(+)5. Perceived social support from teachers (some indexes)

(+)6. Family composition (some indexes) (- for single-parent

families)7. Parents’ education (some indexes) (+)

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Theoretical inferences

1. Why euphoria in the pre-migration period: high expectations and/or self-selection?

2. The shattering assumptions hypothesis in immigration was refuted.

3. The U-curve hypothesis confirmed: high expectations increase psychological adjustment, social obstacles decrease, and successful coping increases

4. The morbidity hypothesis refuted, but why YSR did not improve?

• The effect of social factors (immigrants’ cultural norms, e.g. alcohol and smoking; discrimination)

• The effect of biological factors (no change in psychological well-being in Russia and Ukraine for the last 10 years)

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Questions for further research

1. Is the found pattern of changes in the psychological adjustment universal for all voluntary immigrants or is it specific for adolescents immigrating in educational programs or for Diaspora immigrants?

2. How the psychological adjustment changes in the pre-migration period?

3. How the psychological adjustment changes across immigrant generations?

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Practical recommendations

1. Immigrants’ selection2. Preparation for emigration – strengthening the

immigrants’ pre-migration psychological adjustment including social skills, and academic skills

3. Fighting discrimination in the receiving country4. Strengthening social support, especially from

the immigrants’ peers (A Finnish study on adults)

5. Should we strengthen the immigrant ghetto?

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Cultural identities of immigrants

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What do we know about cultural identities of immigrants?

1. Immigrants have a multifaceted system of cultural identities2. The immigrants’ identity associated with their country of origin is

more salient than their identity associated with the receiving country

3. Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, Jewish identity is the most salient, followed by Russian and Israeli identities

4. The relationships between the identities associated with the country of origin and the receiving country varied across immigrant groups, and may be negative, orthogonal, or positive

5. Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, a negative correlation was usually found between their Russian and Israeli identities

6. A stronger level of perceived discrimination was associated with a stronger ethnic identity and a weaker national identity of immigrants

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The main objectives of my studies

1. To examine the relative strength of Jewish, Russian, and Israeli identities of the emigrants and the relationships between them in the pre-migration period

2. To compare Russian identity of emigrants with the matching group of non-emigrating adolescents

3. To investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on cultural identities of emigrants in the pre- and post-migration periods

4. To investigate the dynamics of changes in cultural identities in the post-migration period

5. To investigate the connection between the components of cultural identities and the psychological well-being of immigrants

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Measures of cultural identities: Russian, Israeli, Jewish

• Attitude towards a country: a 20-item scale

(Tartakovsky, 2009)• I am proud of Russia/Ukraine

• I feel comfortable in Russia/Ukraine

• Identification with a nation and with an ethnic

minority group (Roccas, 1997) • Being Russian is an important part of my self-definition

• When I talk about Russians, I say ‘we’ and not ‘they’

• When Russians are criticized, I take it personally

• It is important for me to think about myself as a Russian

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Other instruments• Perceived discrimination: the 10-item Discrimination

Questionnaire (Phinney, Madden & Santos, 1998)– Russian/Ukrainian students in my school are hostile towards me

because I am Jewish

– I feel that I am not wanted in Russian/Ukrainian society because

I am Jewish

• Perceived social support: a 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support from parents, peers, and teachers (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988)– My parents really try to help me

– I have friends with whom I can share my joys and sorrows

– There is a teacher who is around when I am in need

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Attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine among emigrants and non-

emigrants

3.57

3.98

3.50

3.65

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

Russia Ukraine

EmNon-em

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Identification with Russians/Ukrainians among

emigrants and non-emigrants

2.66

3.79

2.72

3.56

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

Russia Ukraine

EmNon-em

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Emigrants’ attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine and towards Israel

3.57

4.49

3.50

4.46

2

3

3

4

4

5

Russia Ukraine

R/UIsr

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Emigrants’ identification with Russians/Ukrainians, Israelis,

and Jews

2.66

3.66

2.72

3.59

2

3

3

4

4

5

Russia Ukraine

R/UIsrJews

4.08 4.07

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Factors affecting pre-migration cultural identities of emigrants

Number of Jewish grandparents

Jewish by the religious law

Perceived discrimination

Attitude R/U -.03 -.04 -.28*Identification R/U -.10 .04 -.06

Attitude Israel -.01 .07 -.03Identification Israel .04 .10 .20*

Identification Jewish .21* .13 .16*

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Changes in the emigrants’ cultural identities 1999/2006

3.02

3.54

2.37

2.69

4.47 4.474.24

4.07

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

AttR/U

IdR/U

AttIsr

19992006

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Correlations between the dimensions of emigrants’ cultural identity 1999/2006

Correlations 1999 2006

Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Identification with Russians/Ukrainians

.49* .36*

Attitude towards Israel – Identification with Jews

.48* .51*

Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Attitude towards Israel

-.09 .13

Identification with Russians/Ukrainians – Identification with Jews

-.32* .05

Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Identification with Jews

-.19* -.01

Identification with Russians/Ukrainians – Attitude towards Israel

-.24* -.01

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Russian and Israeli identities are not contradictory

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Russian and Jewish identities are not contradictory

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Changes in attitudes towards Israel and Russia/Ukraine

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

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Changes in identification with Israelis and Russians/Ukrainians

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

Time 0 Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

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Factors affecting post-migration cultural identities

• Pre-migration identities• Ethnicity (Jewish vs. mixed, but not the degree

of the mix) • Perceived discrimination: (- Attitude Isr, Id Isr

and Attitude R/U; + Id R/U)

Pre-migration vs. post-migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs. 2.05 (.65)

• Parental attachment

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Discussion: Pre- and post-migration cultural identities

1. Emigrants are partially detached from their homeland and have a strong attachment to the country of provisional immigration

2. Self-selection or/and cognitive dissonance? 3. The pre-migration system of cultural identities is

“anticipatory” (Merton, 1968); i.e., it is not based on a realistic comparison (?)

4. Jewish identity is very strong despite the fact that 96% of the adolescents were of mixed ethnic origin, and 61% had only one Jewish grandparent

5. Cultural identities are subjective constructs, which strength and relationships vary following social circumstances

6. In the post-migration period cultural identities change following adjustment difficulties and discrimination

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Why cultural identities are important: they predict acculturation strategies

Predicting variables

Separation Assimilation IntegrationMarginali

zation

Attitude Israel -.13 .03 .35* -.39*Attitude R/U .03 -.20* .19* -.03Identification Israel -.11 .31* .13 .09Identification R/U .35* -.17* -.03 .03R2 .20*** 22*** 21*** .15*

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Why cultural identities are important: the are related to psychological adjustment

Components

of cultural

identity

Emotional &

behavioral

problems

Self

Esteem

Social

compete

nce

School

compet

ence

Loneli

ness

Attitude R/U -.15* .31* .20* .19* -.20*

Attitude Israel -.26* .27* .32* -.07 -.42*

Identification

R/U.01 -.14 -.06 -.05 .11

Identification

Israel.09 .12 -.04 .06 .13

R2 .08* .20* .14* .03 .21*

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Receiving society wants assimilation or integration

• Angela Merkel: “Attempts to build

a multicultural society in Germany

have utterly failed"

• David Cameron: “Multiculturalism

has failed in Britain”

• Nicolas Sarkozy: “If you come to

France, you accept to melt into a

single community, the national

community, and if you do not want

to accept that, you cannot be

welcome in France”

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Practical recommendations1. The pre-migration cultural identities are positively

correlated with the post-migration cultural identities (r = .22 - .43)

2. Immigrants’ selection: their pre-migration cultural identities are important; their ethnicity is of little importance

3. To reduce perceived discrimination

4. To strengthen the immigrants’ positive attitude towards the receiving country and their positive attitude towards the country of origin

5. To fight or not to fight ethnic identity of immigrants?

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Further questions

• How cultural identities are formed in the pre-migration period?

• Cross-generation changes in cultural identities

• Why identification with the ethnic group and the nation is not related to the psychological adjustment of immigrants?

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Thank you!