LITERATURE REVIEW - The Relationship between Acculturation and Psychological Well-being with St

The major goal of this section is to review, evaluate and summarize the literature and theories that are relevant to firstly, History of Indian Immigration to Taiwan and Indian women immigration literature. Secondly, a clear understanding on the variables chosen for our study, the literature relevant to acculturation, psychological well-being, and acculturative stress was reviewed. Also, through this literature review, the relationship among the variables chosen for the study had been emphasized.

Internationals face different challenges when arrived to new countries to adjust and adopt the new environment. The conditions to adopt the problems vary from country to country of depending on their origin, ethnicity and race, proficiency in language, and climate conditions. And no matter an international arrived from either an individualist cultures or a collectivist cultures cultures (Constantine, Anderson, Berkel, Caldwell, & Utsey, 2005; Surdam & Collins, 1984). The adjustment challenges to be faced by the internationals may include 1) living accommodations, food and other daily life essential items, and getting authentic and perfect documentation works for their residence purpose; 2) adaptation to the academic culture by learning how to interact with faculty and other co-students, and diverse modes of teaching; and 3) showing interest in making new friends and developing a new social network system to support each other. All these challenges happened during their transition in the beginning and may even continue for long period.

Moreover, some internationals may come across some hurdles like language proficiency, discrimination experiences, group heterogeneity which are to be overcome. The psychological well-being of an internationals may be impacted by the adjustments of these kind of experiences (Sam, 2006).

The major goal of this section is to review and evaluate the literature on history of Indians and Indian women in Taiwan and to emphasize the theories that are relevant to Acculturation, Psychological well-being, and stress. The first part of this study focuses on history of Indians. The second part of this study focuses on Indian women. Third part of this study focuses on Acculturation process and its influence on Indian women in Taiwan. Fourth part of this study focuses on Psychological well-being. In last part, the content focuses on stress and its moderating effect with acculturation and psychological well-being. It will help to find the factor related to Indian women cultural experiences in Taiwan.

History of Indian Immigration to Taiwan

Since 1980s Indians have been coming to Taiwan mainly for as businessmen, as jewelers, and as scientists. The Indian community called “Sindhi traders” is the first to arrive to Taiwan.

This community includes about 200 families. But now, it has only 40 to 50 families because of migration of the main stream of them to China, primarily to Guangzhou. Another Indian group which is of similar sized early is from the families of precious stones and diamond traders who vend their goods to Taiwanese jewelers.

With the help of a foreign policy called "Look East", India has provided an access to build and cultivate extensive tie-ups with Taiwan relating to trade and investments and in as developing cooperation in science & technology, the issues of environment and exchanging people policies.

These people- people exchanging policies provide an opened gate for an Indians into Taiwan, in the form of small groups of Indian nationals by grabbing the opportunities in numerous areas near the Taiwan country’s superior universities, mostly in Hsinchu and Taipei. Currently, at the Academia Sinica itself which is a research organization at Nangang, there are almost about 100 Indian scientists. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indians_in_Taiwan).

Leonard-Spark & Saran, (1980) stated that India is composed of unusual combination of individualistic and collectivistic traits which are due to the influence of British. The individualistic traits are said to be self-preserving as these Indian immigrants were described as an achievement-oriented, materialistic, ambitious, and bringing up a great importance on formal education and priority to the success of an individual. Indian society is also said to be collectivistic which is evident from the Indian immigrants’ combinational nature to maintain traditional family values.

with the sustenance of the family extension, arranged marriages, obedience to elders, and traditional sex roles.

Indian Women Immigration

India is a diversified country. So as to familiarize the acculturation capabilities of Indian women residing in Taiwan, it is necessary to make aware of the rich diversified experiences within the Indian inhabitants residing in Taiwan. It is also required to get a mere wakefulness of the diversification pertaining to religion, generational status, family practices and the several cultural differences that occur within this immigrant residents (Seth, 1995). The roles of Women are

ingrained in the curtain of Indian culture and are marked in its customs, religious practices and principles contained by their families.

Having coming from the society of collectivistic and patriarchal zones, Indian women endure the sole concern to hold, teach, and transmit traditions of their culture, beliefs, and values to their own families (Bhattacharya, 2002). The base for the identity of an Indian woman was their family and the empathy provided by their family facilitates the continuousness of their culture and religion. The women’s role varies on different societal aspects like socioeconomic status, generation, the education level, and the caste system. For instance, family members of Indian women play a vital role in influencing and preserving the cultural traditions and also responsible for the major life choice decisions surrounding them such as marriage, education, friendships etc.

(Saran, 1985). There are more expectations on Indian women to be like obedient daughter-in-law, dutiful and well-behaved wives, loving and caring mothers. Mainly, they are the sole responsible for household duties and doesn’t seek anybody’s help. However, in recent times, there are numerous changes in the roles of Indian women. They have been cheered by their own families to carry on their education and reach to altitudes of their desire. Further, in order to get better standard of living, and to achieve economic necessities as of their desire, women are also encouraged to seek employment. Thus, women use to play both the roles of housewife and as an employed as well (Gupta, 1999). Always, Indian women plays crucial roles to bring the values, education, beliefs, the ideologies of the family, etc. from the society of India. The situations within an Indian society like the system in the family, homeland, and the roles of caste and religion were impacting seriously in the development of women. This is not exceptional even to the Indian women from the families of more liberal, urbanized, forwarded, accomplished, literate and westernized families still carry with them ‘cultural stuff’, as part of their weakness that required to be renegotiated and reassessed. When compared with the Indian women residing in India, in transition the Indian immigrant women were subjected to change forcefully (Naidoo, 2003). On the path at some critical point they find themselves a way to choose an effective strategies and mental ability to acculturate to the unique Taiwanese culture (Kankipati, 2012). This study explored the various approaches to be accepted by Indian women to gain coping capability of acculturation towards the Taiwanese cultural society.

Acculturation

“Acculturation is defined as a process of culture learning and behavioral adaptation that takes place when individuals are exposed to a new culture” (Martin et al., 2007). “Acculturation is the process of socio-cultural and psychological adaptation of an individual following intercultural contact” (Berry, 2003). “Socio-cultural changes include modification of an individual’s customs and their economic and political life. Psychological changes include modification of an individual’s attitudes towards acculturation” (Kankipati, 2012; Phinney, 2003).

To understand acculturation, the concept of culture had been reviewed as a basis. To conceptualize acculturation, some important implications were derived from the definition of culture. “Culture is the base from which acculturation derives its meaning and context” (Sam, 2006). The process of acculturation can be shown up as two cases. The first case is as long as the culturally diverse groups are interacted. Second case is when term for adaptation to live in culture takes longer time to the contact, resulting long-term accommodation among the groups which are in contact. This repeatedly demands some characteristics like, learning the languages of each other, food sharing, and adopting different kinds of dressing habits and societal interactions. Sometimes it is rather easy for these mutual adaptations which take place through some processes like culture shedding, sharing and learning. But, sometimes there may be chances to create culture disputes which results acculturative stress during the intercultural interactions (Kankipati, 2012).

Many researchers discussed about the Acculturation in different ways and also proposed some theories. For instance, the first and foremost proponent of a theory that dealt acculturation in the form bi-directional procedure is Berry (Adhikari, 2008; Kankipati, 2012). But, in those findings it was not clearly stated the Acculturation and its influence on Psychological well-being of a women. The literature studies revealed many important links and relations between an individual’s behavioral aspects in context to their culture of new origin. For example, the cultural adaptation of strangers to a new culture was examined and found that to get an outcome for an acculturation process, the prior process underlying is Communication (Lakey, 2003). The effect of general appearance, weight/shape, and ethnic have been studied in context of socio culture. For this, the researcher has chosen 74 women from South Asian America. The normal appearance, weight or shape, and ethnicity are the three forms of teasing methods. The internalization of thin-individuals, cultural disputes, acculturation, dissatisfaction towards the own body, and eating attitudes in

maladaptive manner are considered in this study. Results disclosed that all three types of teasing and cultural disputes were considerably related to ‘dissatisfaction towards the own body’ and

‘eating attitudes in maladaptive manner’. Cultural conflict or cultural disputes was he key elements found to mediate the relationship between ethnic teasing and body dissatisfaction. Both the thin-ideal internalization and acculturation was not significantly linked with both body dissatisfaction and maladaptive eating habits. But, the ‘body dissatisfaction’ plays as a mediating relationship between ‘weight or shape teasing’ and ‘eating habits maladaptive manner’ (Reddy & Crowther, 2007). The impact of acculturation versus culture clash on the development of eating behavior in women belonging to Chinese residing in Australia have been examined. The findings put forward that there are both resemblances and variances between the risk aspects that relates with eating behaviors between the women with acculturating ability and normal traditional women (Humphry and Ricciardelli, 2004). From all the above examples it is evident that the different acculturation patterns pertaining to different cultural atmosphere were need to be aware and to aquire the ability to be strong psychologically.

Psychological Well-being

From a psycho-social perspective, relocation is a stressful act. The life style is not normal.

A migrated individual should be pre-adaptive in both the levels of personal and collective as well.

This had been demonstrated in the research on the “acculturation of ethnic minorities in plural societies” (Berry, 1997). To achieve psychological well-being, a little life altering facilities, psychologically adjusting ability and satisfactory societal support is mere essential. Research by Ward and colleagues discovered that psychological adjustment was defined in terms of depression or more disturbance towards international frame of mind and is affected by changes in life, social support and personality factors (Ward& Kennedy, 1993). Psychological well-being is a broad concept replicating to both positive aspects (optimistic affect or optimistic well-being) as well as negative components (mental health issues, mental upsets or mental disturbances) (Parkinson, 2004). In other words, an individual with high psychological well-being not only bares greater levels of optimistic feelings and outlooks, but also, copes the tensions, harmful thoughts, notions and feelings more capably (Bhogle & Prakash,1995). Here mentioned some examples pertaining to different kinds of situations. Two batches of immigrants, taking 50 participants from Morocco and 55 participants from Peruvia were compared with another batch of Spanish women (n = 55) studied for the impacts of support from the society and controlling ability to attain psychological

well-being. From the result it was concluded that married morocco women were identified to attain less well-being than single, where as in the other two batches it is quite opposite (Garcia et al., 2002). In 1997, Nesdale et al. made an attempt to know the impact of migrant ethnic identity on the process of adjustment which disclosed that although the ethnic identity was significant it is not a solid interpreter of migrant suffering, via self-confidence. In all the above studies and even from the other studies from the literature, the researchers discussed about the psychological well-being as only psychological adjustment and mental health. Whereas, in this study, it was described as an interlinking aspect to the cultural adjustment and societal relations.

Acculturative Stress

The term stress has been using widely in the earlier literature drawn from psychological and medical zones (e.g. Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974; Lazarus, 1966, 1980; Selye,1976), and it has flashed substantial disputes as well (e.g., Antonovsky, 1979; Lumsden, 1984; Selye, 1975). For the purposes of this article, stress is considered to be a general concept. It is a psychological state of the entity which was introduced by the experiences of stressors in the surroundings. The functions of this stress can be reduced and normalized via process of achieving managing ability and satisfactory adaptation to the fresh situation (Berry, 1987). Secondary problems, such as the virtual prominence of the real stressor to perceived stressor, constructive to destructive nature of stress, and various adaptations, were also considered later in the discussion section.

Acculturative stress results when any one try to adjust and cope up with a new and unaware culture of the host country as of their own convenience. It happens when the procedure offending an appropriate work is elongated and still continuing. The whole process is painful and it was clear shown on the study about the South Asian women who have transferred to Canada (Samuel 2009).

Certainly, the acculturative stress can even be a calamity for any one’s life. This study investigated the features of acculturative stress such as discrimination, depression, and intergenerational conflict in a sample of women from India. This inquest also discussed the coping strategies that participants utilized and concluded with inferences for welfare of mental wellbeing (Samue, 2009).

The term ‘Acculturative stress’ is used in substitute to an earlier concept, ‘culture shock’

which is a worrying results from well-known indications of societal interaction (Berry, 1970). It is connected with the psychosomatic replicas of pressure and nervousness in reaction to the process of mingling and attachment. Berry and Anis (1974) claimed that normally immigrants are prone

to difficulties and pressures originating from the process of acculturation and have called this occurrence as acculturative stress. This study investigates characteristics of acculturative stress such as intergenerational global conflict, depression and discrimination by using a sample of immigrant women from different countries. This study explored the roles of ‘leisure participation’

to help international graduate students from China to cope with acculturative stress.The findings exposed that owing to the distinctive cultural influence and the eminence of worldwide students, the contributors faced distinct acculturative stressors. Although ‘leisure participation’ was an effective gadget in fighting acculturative stress, in some circumstances, it leads to a plethora of negative out comes (Zhou et al., 2017).

On the concept of the Acculturative Stress mostly it was defined both positive and negative terms in general. But, in this research, stress is tested for its moderating effect with acculturation and psychological well-being.

Relationship between the Variables Acculturation and Psychological Well-being

From the literature survey, it was known that certain coping behaviors are necessary for any migrant individual who must deal with difficulties of psychological wellbeing during acculturation which paves the way to lead a subsequent adaptation to the different culture (Kuo, 2014). To execute these coping behaviors certain theories were proposed. For instance, in Berry’s (1997) theory of acculturation and coping activities are defined in terms of specific aspects which mainly focus on problems, emotions and coping avoidance. In Castro and Murray’s (2010) ‘stress–

appraisal–coping model’, resilience coping behavior was conceptualized more pertaining to immigrant’s personal ability or talents which can allow them to reach their desired objectives. This includes immigrants’ capability to efficiently participate in decision-making, will power and self-regulation. From these theories it was evident that adopting capability (coping ability) and positive behavior patterns of any immigrant individuals towards the surrounding culture are necessary to lead a life of wellbeing.

Also, Schwartz et al (2013), designed a study to determine the relations between acculturation and wellbeing in initial and next generations of migrant American college students.

This study was guided by certain research questions which provide a clear picture of the relation between acculturation and wellbeing aspects. These research questions include the aspects of whether the acculturation related variables associated with wellbeing were consistent with the

domains of acculturation practices, values, identifications, cross gender, ethnicity, immigrant generation, and equivalence between college towns and urban/suburban or commuter settings. The literature pertaining to the above mentioned research questions reveals the availability of the advanced hypothesis that there is a positive association with ethnic distinctiveness with self-assurance (syed & Azmitia 2009; Umana-Taylor & Shin, 2007) and psychological well-being (Kenyon & Carter, 2011). As per hypothesis given by Schwartz et al. (2013), the tradition practices, morals, and empathies would be surely associated with wellbeing.

H1- Acculturation is positively correlated to the psychological well-being.

Acculturation and Acculturative Stress

There are several reports indicating that the acculturation was negatively related to Stress (Caetano, Ramisetty-Mikler, Caetano Vaeth, & Harris,2007; Vega, Gil, & Wagner, 1998) and the experiential studies of the acculturation have generally evaluated by fluency on language, knowledge on culture, social bonding and day-to-day living inclinations (Lara et al., 2005).

Acculturative stress was evaluated using an altered, ten-item concept of the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental (SAFE)—Revised Short Form (Mena et al., 1987). Participants responded to items evaluating their crucial experience of negative stressors relating to acculturation (e.g., “It bothers me that family members whom I am close do not understand my new American values”) using a five-point Likert scale which is ranging from 0 (not at all stressful) to 4 (very stressful).

As per Berry’s theory (1997, 2006), three types of cultural adaptation patterns were explained which involves ‘behavioral shift’, ‘psychopathology’ and ‘acculturative stress’. These patterns show the way for an acculturating individual, to reduce stress or intergroup conflict by making able to take on the ways of the leading culture and to overcome the unsuccessful coping which leads to high stress. The sources of this stress are commonly challenged by migrants, migrants and native people, when come in interaction with associates of the outside, dominating and leading batch of culture (Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok,1987). “Acculturative stress is characterized by negative behavioral and emotional reactions attributable to the process and experience of amending to a new cultural environment” (Berry et al.,1987). Berry (2006) found that to retort acculturative stress, an extensive variety of coping approaches were being used by individuals pertaining to tactics which can adapt and which cannot able to adapt. These coping

variability can show a way to variable stages of acculturative stress which are proficient by immigrants.

H2- Acculturation is negatively correlated to the Acculturative stress.

Acculturative Stress as a Moderator of Acculturation and Psychological Well- -Being

Referring to unique stressors of immigration, the term called acculturative stress have been found to be commonly used in the literature because the acculturation is major stressful experience

在文檔中 The Relationship between Acculturation and Psychological Well-being with Stress as the Moderator: A Study of Indian Women in Taiwan (頁 13-23)