The Role of an Intergenerational Acculturation Gap in the Adjustment of Immigrant Youth: a Meta-Analysis
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2013 The Role of an Intergenerational Acculturation Gap in the Adjustment of Immigrant Youth: A Meta-Analysis Min-Jung Jung University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Jung, Min-Jung, "The Role of an Intergenerational Acculturation Gap in the Adjustment of Immigrant Youth: A Meta-Analysis. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2584 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Min-Jung Jung entitled "The Role of an Intergenerational Acculturation Gap in the Adjustment of Immigrant Youth: A Meta-Analysis." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Child and Family Studies. Brian K. Barber, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Elizabeth I. Johnson, Hillary N. Fouts, Heid E. Stolz, John G. Orme Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Role of an Intergenerational Acculturation Gap in the Adjustment of Immigrant Youth: A Meta-Analysis A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Min-Jung Jung December 2013 Copyright © 2013 by Min-Jung Jung All rights reserved. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family, who supported and encouraged me throughout this long journey and who made this achievement possible. iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank all of those who have encouraged, supported, and helped me in completing my degree. First, the members of my dissertation committee have my utmost appreciation. I am ever grateful to my advisor and dissertation chair, Dr. Brian Barber, for his generous mentorship during a difficult transition in graduate school and for helping me to gain confidence in my abilities as an independent researcher. I also thank the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. Heidi Stolz, who inspired me to think more practically about how this study could benefit immigrant families and communities; Dr. Hillary Fouts, who provided deep insight into cultural diversity in families and who pushed me to have a cross-cultural view; Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, who gave me a broader developmental understanding of immigrant youth; and Dr. John Orme, who gave me great guidance and advanced my statistical knowledge. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the authors and researchers of the primary studies I utilized for the analysis. Their dedication and valuable perspectives have moved this research area in important directions and have inspired me. I am greatly appreciative of all of the Agraphites, who shared joy, hardship, food, and humor together with me over the last few years: Carolyn Spellings, who put forth great time and effort on helping me code data and who supported me with her cheer and big smile; Teri Henke, who willingly opened her house for fellowship and invited me to participate in various school events; Juli Sams, who has been a great listener and counselor and whose dedication for minority families inspired me to pursue my research topic; Karen Bluth, who introduced me to the idea of being mindful and who supported me with her endless positive energy; and Swapna Purandure, who has shown me sincere friendship and shared her knowledge to help me overcome obstacles. iv In addition, I thank Dr. Clea McNeely for her compassion and encouragement during difficult times. I also want to express my gratitude to members of the CFS administrative staff: Barbara Bright, Carole McDonald, Sonja Spell, Sandra Russell, and Scarlett Powell for their generosity and willingness to help me solve various issues encountered during my doctoral program. I thank my beloved friends, Jewon Lyu, who exemplified persistence and inspired me to finish, and Heejin Lim, who taught me about trusting myself and building my professional development. I must also acknowledge my wonderful family, without whom I would not have made it this far. I deeply appreciate my parents for providing me with the opportunities to pursue a higher education. I cannot thank them enough for their inspiration, encouragement, and unconditional love. My best friend and husband, Brian Kincaid, has encouraged me to overcome my struggles and has patiently waited for me as I have completed this degree. Your companionship and unconditional love made this possible. Thank you for being with me every step of the journey, and I look forward to starting this new path with you. Lastly, but most importantly, I thank God, who makes all things possible, and dedicate this dissertation to Him. v Abstract Rapidly increasing numbers of immigrant families with children in the U.S. have led researchers to study the dynamics of immigrant families, focusing particularly on discrepancies in the acculturation levels of parents and children. Many studies have found such an acculturation gap to be associated with problematic functioning, such as conflicts between family members and poor adjustment outcomes among immigrant youth. Other studies have found no such associations. In order to clarify this association, this dissertation conducted a meta-analysis of available studies. Literature searches identified 63 qualifying studies, in which 117 separate effect sizes were reported. Concentrating on main effects, the findings of the meta-analysis revealed small but significant average effects between an acculturation gap and each of three dependent variables: youth internalizing problems (r=.1), youth externalizing problems (r=.06), and family conflict (r=.15). Thus, the higher the acculturation gap, the higher the level of individual and family difficulty. Next, a series of moderator analyses were conducted to test the degree to which these main effects might be contingent on a variety of study and personal characteristics, as well on methodological features of how an acculturation gap is perceived, measured, and calculated. No significant moderation effects were found for age or country of origin. There were not adequate studies that reported separate effect sizes to test for youth gender differences. For internalizing problems only, the mean effect was higher for studies published in journals than in dissertations. The only significant finding from analyses using methodological features as moderators was that studies that assessed an acculturation gap in the specific domain of cultural values had a higher mean effect than studies that assessed the acculturation gap with a global acculturation index. vi In sum, the study confirms that within the currently available empirical literature, an acculturation gap between immigrant parents and children in North America is significantly associated with poorer family and individual youth functioning. These effects are systematic in that they held regardless of differences in various individual and study characteristics. Implications for application and research refinement are discussed. vii Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Controversies over the Effect of an Acculturation Gap .............................................................. 2 Purpose of the Present Study ....................................................................................................... 6 Chapter II: Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 8 Background: Acculturation ......................................................................................................... 8 Acculturation Gap ..................................................................................................................... 12 The Acculturation Gap-Distress Model ................................................................................. 12 Findings Relative to Acculturation Gap and Child Adjustment ............................................... 14 Interpreting the Inconsistency in Empirical Findings Relative to the Acculturation Gap ........ 16 Conceptualization of Acculturation ....................................................................................... 16 Measurement of Acculturation Gap ...................................................................................... 21 Characteristics of Immigrant Children .................................................................................. 25 Other Factors ......................................................................................................................... 30 The Present Study...................................................................................................................... 31 Research Question 1 .............................................................................................................