Acculturative Stress

2.2.1 Acculturation

There are two fundamental concepts of acculturation. The first was addressed by anthropologists Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits (1936) as follows:

Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups (p. 149-150).

While acculturation was originally defined as a group-level phenomena, later Graves (1967) introduced a second concept of “psychological acculturation,” which is recognized as an individual-level phenomenon. At this level, acculturation refers to changes in an individual who participates in a contact situation with a dominant group while being influenced both by the external culture and by the changing culture of the minority group the individual belongs to.

The first concept focuses on the interaction between two cultures of people, and the mutuality of changes happening in either or both groups. The second concept points out that acculturation involves the power structure within society, which refers to a minority group, recognized as the culture of origin, interacting with a dominant group, recognized as the host culture. Usually, individuals who deal with acculturation are those from the non-dominant cultural group (Berry, 1997; Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987).

There are two terms which are similar to acculturation and need clarification:

adaptation and cultural adjustment. Adaptation is defined as the changes that take place in an individual or group in response to external demands (Berry, 2005). It also refers to the outcome of acculturation, including psychological adaptation (individual’s overall emotional and physical well-being) and sociocultural adaptation (how well an individual manages daily life in the new cultural context) (Berry, 2005).

As for cultural adjustment, Kagan and Cohen (1990) pointed out that there is no clear

distinction between this concept and acculturation. In addition, according to literature reviews, cultural adjustment is often found to be a substitute for acculturation (Arthur, 2004; Li, 2011). On the other hand, acculturation can also be viewed as a factor of the cultural adjustment process but there it still lacks clarification (Yeh, 2003). Therefore, in this study, cultural adjustment and acculturation are regarded as the same concept and are used interchangeably.

In this study, acculturation was viewed as a process. Research from this perspective usually considers a broad context and focuses on possible environmental and individual variables that may affect the outcomes on individuals experiencing a new culture (Kim &

Abreu, 2001 as cited in Wang & Mallinckrodt, 2006). For example, studies revealed that language proficiency may be an important indicator of acculturation level (Mouw & Xie, 1999). Moreover, a qualitative study of international students in Taiwan concluded that social support, both from their home country and the host culture, is an important factor of cultural adjustment (Tsao, 2013).

How individuals engage the acculturation process varies. To elaborate, Berry (1997) addresses the concept of acculturation strategies, and identified two major issues of how to acculturate: (1) cultural maintenance, a relative preference for maintaining one’s heritage culture and identity; and (2) contact/participation, a relative preference for having contact with and participating in the larger society along with other ethno-cultural groups. From the perspective of non-dominant groups, these two issues can be considered simultaneously and generally positive or negative orientations to these issues intersect to define four acculturation strategies (see Figure 2):

(1) Assimilation, referring to individuals not wishing to maintain their cultural identity and become absorbed into the dominant society

(2) Separation, referring to individuals emphasizing on holding on to their original

culture, and at the same time avoiding involvement with other cultural groups.

(3) Integration, referring to which there is some degree of cultural integrity maintained, and at the same time seeking to participate as an integral part of the larger social network, integration is the option.

(4) Marginalization, referring to which there is little possibility or interest in heritage cultural maintenance (often for reasons of enforced cultural loss) and little interest in having relations with others (often for reasons of exclusion or discrimination).

In short, when facing conflicts of cultural values during the acculturation process, individuals must choose between maintaining and letting go of their original culture, or to choose different attitudes and behaviors to interact with the host culture (Berry, 2005).

Figure 2. Acculturation Strategies. Adapted from “Immigration, Acculturation, and

Adaptation,” by J. W. Berry, 1997, Applied psychology, 46, p. 10.

To sum up, acculturation is the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members. (Berry, 2005). In this study, one of the focuses is the stress generated during the acculturation process, and how it relates to individual’s mental health and negative attitudes from the dominant group.

2.2.2 Definition of acculturative stress

There have been many studies suggesting that adapting to a new culture can be difficult and stressful (Mori, 2000; Sandhu & Asrabadi, 1994; Ying & Han, 2006).

Generally, stress is considered to be a set of a specific demands. Whether a particular demand produces stress depends on the individual's perception of the demand. If the individual does not have the physical, mental or emotional resources to meet the demand, the demand is perceived as a potential stressor. In this case, stress is seen as the result of an imbalance between demands from environment, and the adaptive capacities of the individual's mind and body (Fontana, 1989 as cited in Abouserie, 1996).

All college and graduate students need to adjust to new educational and social environments. However, besides the developmental issues that most students may have to face, international students encounter added stressors during culture adjustment.

Previous studies have also found that the majority of students who have studied abroad report the experiences to be stressful in some domains, such as schoolwork, communication, social relationships, financial difficulties, future plans, etc. (Ginter &

Glauser, 1997; Mallinckrodt & Leong, 1992; Misra, Crist, & Burant, 2003; Mori, 2000;

Tsao, 2013).

Therefore, the concept of acculturative stress is introduced as a broader idea of stress and adaption based on how individuals encounter and deal with acculturative problems over time. Generally, acculturative stress refers to a certain category of stress, in which the stressors are identified as resulting from the process of adapting to a new culture (Berry, 1984). In order to be conceptualized as acculturative stress, the stressor needs to be perceived as a problem that are encountered during cultural adjustment process and that cannot be dealt with easily or quickly by simply assimilating (Berry, 2005).

Symptoms of acculturative stress can include anxiety, feelings of alienation, or depression

(Berry, 2005).

Research has indicated that international students experience higher acculturative stress level than immigrants and ethnic groups do. This may be related to the temporary nature of their contact with their host society, the lack of a full-scale social network, their relatively young age, or to their student status (Berry et al., 1987). In Taiwan, even though international students’ frequency of acculturative stress was reported to be rather low, studies have pointed out some factors which make international students feel especially stressed and even distressed (Huang, 2008). Those stressors will be explained in section 2.2.3.

2.2.3 Common Acculturative Stressors

With regard to the process of acculturative stress, Berry et al. (1987) specifies three stages: acculturation experience, stressors, and acculturative stress. First, acculturation occurs in a particular situation, varying in degrees, in which individuals participate and experience when moving to a new culture. Second, stressors, defined by Thoits (1995) as environmental, social, or internal demands that cause an individual to adjust his or her behavior, may result from the experience of acculturation; for some people, almost all factors induced from acculturation can be seen as stressful, while for others, these may be seen as opportunities to enhance their life experiences. Last, varying levels of acculturative stress may become manifest as a result of acculturation experience and stressors.

International students need to adapt to their new culture as well as a new educational and social environment, which can be stressful to them. Brink and Saunders (1976, as cited by Ryan and Twibell, 2000), proposed five categories of stressors which require individuals to readjust themselves while adapting to new surroundings. The categories include: communication, mechanical/environmental differences, isolation, customs, and

attitudes/beliefs. A further review of sojourner adjustment studies by Church (1982) spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s, indicated that international students encountered

"language difficulties, financial problems, adjusting to a new educational system, homesickness, adjusting to social customs and norms, and for some students, racial discrimination" (p. 544). Similarly, Misra, Crist, & Burant (2003) reported four indicators that highly predicted life stress among international students: stress from adapting to a new culture and accompanying cultural adjustment, such as food, holidays, and social values; interpersonal stress; and academic concerns.

In sum, the major stressors international students encountered can be effectively categorized as language barriers to daily living, conflicts of cultural values and social norms, homesickness, and perceived discrimination/racism from domestic people (Sandhu & Asrabadi, 1994). Overall, international students have to overcome these unique problems as well as those typically confronted by indigenous students. These domains of stressors were included in the Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) used in this study.

2.2.4 Acculturative stress and microaggressions

There is no research that specifically addresses the relationship between microaggressions and acculturative stress. However, discrimination, as a boarder concept that includes microaggression, is often conceptualized as a unique stressor for ethnic groups. Research has documented that experiences of racial and gender discrimination are associated with stress that may negatively influence mental health for recipients (Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003). Studies also indicated that experiences of racism and perceived discrimination are a unique source of chronic stress for international students distinct from other general life stressors. (Wei et al., 2008; Harrell, 2000).

Furthermore, research has determined that discrimination is one of the stressors

encountered by individuals during the acculturating process. In the studies of sojourners and immigrants, perceived discrimination has been commonly referred to as a negative component of acculturation (Berry, 2005; Malcarne, Chavira, Fernandez, & Liu, 2006), and as the most influential predictor of psychological stress and poor psychological adaptation (Jasinskaja- Lahti, Liebkind, & Perhoniemi, 2006; Rudmin 2009; Zlobina, Basabe, Paez, & Furnham, 2006). In Sandhu and Asrabadi’s (1994) instrument development study of an acculturative stress inventory, among various types of acculturative stresses that the researchers identified (i.e., perceived discrimination, homesickness, fear, guilt, and perceived hatred), perceived discrimination was the most common and concerning stressor for international students during their acculturation processes.

Several studies imply a link between microaggression and acculturative stress. For example, Sue (2012) pointed out that microaggressions fulfill the criteria of being stressors. To be more specific, he introduced microaggressive stressors as race, gender, or sexual-orientation related events that threaten an individual’s biological, cognitive, emotional, psychological, or social well-being. Furthermore, Kim and Kim (2010) indicated that international students, especially those whose first language is not English, often experience microaggressions in classrooms, such as having professors and peers dismiss those students’ comments or questions, implying that they are unintelligent. These subtle but hurtful messages make the students feel a great amount of pressure to make impressive achievement at school in order to challenge the view of the host society. In addition, international students often reported being isolated from local peers both inside and outside the classrooms, conveying the hidden message that those students do not belong. Such sense of isolation refers to a social factor and a category of acculturative stressors that may hinder acculturation for those students (Brink and Saunders, 1976 as

cited by Ryan and Twibell, 2000; Kim & Kim, 2010). Thus, these examples of microaggressions can be seen as acculturative stressors which those students encountered during cultural adjustment.

To sum up, it appears that microaggressions, as a subtle form of discrimination, can be viewed as a type of acculturative stressor that occurs during an individual’s acculturating process. Therefore, this study assesses the correlation between these two variables in addition to the relation between these two variables and depression.