The Relationship between Acculturation and Psychological Well-being - Annotated Bibliography Example

Flaskerud, J.H. & Uman, G. (1996). “Acculturation and its effects on self-esteem among immigrant Latin women. Journal of Behavioral Medicine (BEHAV MED), 1996 Fall; 22(3): 123 This article talks about acculturation and its effects on self-esteem among immigrant Latina women. Uman and Flaskerud carry out a research on Relationships in the stress-process model, examining level of acculturation, social support, marital status, religion, education, and ethnicity associated with self-esteem in 491 immigrant women from Latin America at baseline. The study is carried out for a year then the moderating effects of social support, marital status, religion, and education on the relation between level of acculturation and self esteem were analyzed. Findings, based on correlations and various multiple regression analyses, showed that the Latina immigrant women experienced increases in both level of acculturation and self-esteem. The findings in this article are quite specific and can not be used by a large audience, this limits the areas for which this information can be used as far as acculturation and psychological well being is concerned. Pan, J.Y. Wong, D.F.K. Joubert, L. Chan, C.L.W. (2007) “Acculturative stressor and meaning of life as predictors of negative effect in acculturation: a cross-cultural comparative study between Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong.” Journal of Psychiatry 2007; 41:740_750 In this article, the authors carry a study to compare the predictive effects of acculturative stressor and meaning of life, on negative effect in the process of acculturation between Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong. Looking at the scope of information provided by this article, it is clear that it will be very limiting for it to be used in carrying out detailed studies on, the relationship of acculturative and psychological well-being. The authors reach to a conclusion that acculturative stressor is a critical risk factor for negative effect in acculturation for Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong. A good study was carried out on the subject matter with credible information being reviewed but from my point of view the article cannot be used when it come to gathering information in relation to the topic of study but outside Australia. Mui, A.C & Kang S.Y. (2006). “Acculturation Stress and Depression among Asian Immigrant Elders.” Social Work, 2006; 51(3): 243-255(13) The authors of this article, Mui and Kang take a look into, association between acculturation stress and depressive symptoms, in a regional probability sample of six groups of Asian immigrant elders. From their findings they found that multiple regression analyses indicated that acculturation stress caused by elders' perception of a cultural gap between themselves and their adult children was associated with high depression levels. It covers the Asian immigrant elders which gives it a bit of a limitation when it comes to the whole population. But still this is a very informative article which provides a deep understanding of acculturation. The article is well illustrated with the research information and a wide selection of reference materials; also with a sample of six groups it is diverse enough to be credible for research. This would probably be a good source for gathering information the subject of acculturation. Yeh C.J., Okubo, Y., Winnie Ma, P.W. Shea, M., Dongshu O. & Pituc T.S. “Chinese immigrant high school students' cultural interactions, acculturation, family obligations, language use, and social support.” Family therapy. 2008 Fall; 5: 210 In this article the authors assess information and write about the Chinese immigrant high school students' cultural interactions, acculturation, family obligations, language use, and social support. The study investigated whether the association between Chinese immigrant high school students' English fluency, academic and career/college help-seeking, multidimensional acculturation, family responsibilities, and social support, predicted their intercultural competence. While the results of the study appear valid the survey is limited in its scope to a small population.  A comparison of a similar survey conducted in a work place would be a valuable addition to this study. While the authors’ conclusion that importance on increasing English proficiency in order to lessen students' concerns about adjusting to a new cultural setting. More opportunities need to he offered for students to practice using English in real-life situations decisions is perhaps stating the obvious; this article provides a good starting point for additional research on the topic. Glazner, L.K. (2006). “Cultural diversity for health professions.” A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation. 2006; 26(3): 297-302 This article helps focus attention on why clinical health professionals need to be concerned about cultural diversity. It is not intended to be an exhaustive report on cultural diversity. Rather, attention is focused on the practitioner and how this provider can and should use and understand cultural diversity. While most of the examples in this article come from the press in the United States, the information has a much broader, universal and global implication. The introduction to this article clearly gives its limitations making it a very narrow source of information to make it helpful in carrying out research or as a referencing point in carrying out data. Although credible information on cultural diversity can be gathered from it which can give a good head start into carrying out your own comprehensive research in cultural psychology. Im, E. & Yang, K. (2006). “Theories on Immigrant Women’s Health.” Health Care for Women International, 27:666–681, 2006. The purpose of this article is to review theories critically that have been used to explain immigrant women’s health based on 4 case studies of Korean immigrant women’s experiences in the United States and suggest directions for future development of theories on immigrant women’s health. In this article the subject of psychological well being provides the main basis for study which leads to a good coverage and understanding of psychological health of the immigrant women. Although an emphasis has been put into psychological well being its relation to acculturation has not been brought out in qualitative details. The study is carried out on women alone. This narrows the extent to which this information can be applied in carrying out conclusive summary of a large mixed population group. Yang and Im have provided some good information in this article that can be a good source of referencing although it needs some more working on. Furman, R., Negi, N., Iwamoto, D.K., Rowan, D., Shukrafi, A. & Gragg, J. “Social Work Practice with Latinos: Key Issues for Social Workers.” Soc Work. 2009, l; 54(2): 167–174 This article elucidates key issues and knowledge, such as immigration and migration concerns; discusses how to assess for levels of acculturation; examines cultural values; and highlights salient work issues and health disparities that Latinos experience. The information provided from this article is comprehensive enough although a bit biased especially in the case that we are looking into the general population. But as a general sample there is very credible information in the article that can be of great use when it comes to cultural issues in psychology, the article has a good basis for relating psychological well being and acculturation. This controversial essay has been tremendously influential in recent discussion of multicultural education but has received by no means universal assent. Quraishi, S. & Evangeli, M. (2007). “An investigation of psychological well-being and cultural identity in British-Asian female university students.” Mental health, religion & culture. 2007; 10(3): 293–300 Evangeli and Quraishi from the department of psychology, university of London carried out a study to determine whether cultural identity was significantly related to well-being in a sample of British Asian female University students. Using a cohort, co relational design, and noted that on all the measures of psychological well-being, no statistically significant relationship between identity and well-being was found. The findings of this study conflict with a number of other studies carried out , but the presentation of data and even table s provided and a clear explanation on how the conclusion was arrived at from the various studies carried out by the authors provides tangible evidence to ascertain the information. This is useful article with relevant information that can be used as a basis for study into cultural psychology. Yafen Lo, Y. (2010). “The Impact of the Acculturation Process on Asian American Youth’s Psychological Well-Being.” Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Volume 23, Number 2, pp. 84–91 Yafen an assistant Professor, Department of Child and Family Studies, California State University, provides an overview of acculturation, its correlates, and psychological well-being of Asian American youth. He notes that parent–child relationships during acculturation predict Asian American youth’s psychological outcomes. The information in this article is comprehensive enough with no notable bias. It can form a good reference for study in acculturation related issues and their impact on the society in general. Yafen concludes that familial ethnic socialization is mediated by demographic variables, parents’ attitudes, and parent–child relationships. Although the author did not include a variety of data collection tools in his study good work was done and the article is credible enough and relevant in explaining the case study. Berry, J.W. (2005). “Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 2005; 29: 697–712 This article uses a study on conflict and negotiation; Berry takes an example of these issues, and examines the cultural and psychological aspects of these phenomena that take place during the process of acculturation. The article further explains how during acculturation, groups of people and their individual members engage in intercultural contact, producing a potential for conflict, and the need for negotiation in order to achieve outcomes that are adaptive for both parties. Later Berry concludes that there are large group and individual differences in how people go about their acculturation in how much stress they experience, and how well they adapt psychologically. And at the end of it, useful information can be drawn from it because of its comprehensive study into the cultural issues in psychology and has been able to identify the relationship between acculturation and psychological well being. Berry, J. W., Kim, U., Minde, T. & Mok, D. (1987). “Comparative studies of acculturative stress.” International Migration Review, 1987; 21: 491–511. This article is based on data collected from a series of studies of acculturative stress is reported, involving immigrants, refugees, Native peoples, sojourners and ethnic groups in Canada. Acculturative stress is defined as a reduction in health status (including psychological, somatic and social aspects) of individuals who are undergoing acculturation, and for which there is evidence that these health phenomena are related systematically to acculturation phenomena. This is another work of Berry where he took a total of 1,197 individuals of whom he used to study in the last decade and a half, using a common indicator of acculturative stress, for which reliability and validity indices are presented. Berry’s results indicate substantial variation in stress phenomena across types of acculturating groups, and across a number of individual difference variables (such as sex, age and cognitive style), and across a number of social variables (such as contact, social support and status). This was a good study into the understanding of acculturation although not mentioning directly psychological well being; it can be induced from the variables that were used during the study to relate. Cuéllar, I., Arnold, B. & González, G. “Cognitive referents of acculturation: Assessment of cultural constructs in Mexican Americans Issue.” Journal of Community Psychology. 1995; 23(4): 339–356 This article is looks into the relations among behavioral measures of acculturation and five cultural constructs were explored in a sample of 379 persons varying across five generation levels. The sample was mostly (89%) of Mexican origin. The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II) was used as the measure of acculturation. The findings support Acculturation Theory, which postulates that psychological acculturation takes place at least along cognitive and behavioral domains. The information in this article is heavily based on statistical findings which make it a useful source to gather information in acculturation and gain a better knowledge of the psychological acculturation theory. The findings are discussed with regard to understanding cultural differences within the Mexican-American population, and the role that such factors may have in the experience of illness, help-seeking behaviors, and in the provision of culturally competent mental health services. Liebkind, K., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2000). “Acculturation and Psychological Well-Being among Immigrant Adolescents in Finland.” Journal of Adolescent Research. 2000; 15(4): 446-469 In this article a study investigated the effects of acculturation on the psychological well-being of immigrant adolescents. The respondents were 11 to 20 years old, To gain an understanding of the complexity and specificity of the relationship between acculturation and psychological well-being. The information from this article is quite useful when it comes to the relationship between acculturation and psychological well being. The only limiting factor is that the article’s facts are all based on adolescents. In the article it is stated that a large range of existing psychological well-being scales measuring acculturative stress, behavioral problems, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and sense of mastery were used as dependent variables. By this it can clearly be seen that wide range data was analyzed in relation to the subject of study thus making this quite a useful source of information on the cultural issues in psychology. Reference: Flaskerud, J.H. & Uman, G. (1996). “Acculturation and its effects on self-esteem among immigrant Latin women. Journal of Behavioral Medicine (BEHAV MED), 1996 Fall; 22(3): 123 Pan, J.Y. Wong, D.F.K. Joubert, L. Chan, C.L.W. (2007) “Acculturative stressor and meaning of life as predictors of negative effect in acculturation: a cross-cultural comparative study between Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong.” Journal of Psychiatry 2007; 41:740_750 Mui, A.C & Kang S.Y. (2006). “Acculturation Stress and Depression among Asian Immigrant Elders.” Social Work, 2006; 51(3): 243-255(13) Yeh C.J., Okubo, Y., Winnie Ma, P.W. Shea, M., Dongshu O. & Pituc T.S. “Chinese immigrant high school students' cultural interactions, acculturation, family obligations, language use, and social support.” Family therapy. 2008 Fall; 5: 210 Glazner, L.K. (2006). “Cultural diversity for health professions.” A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation. 2006; 26(3): 297-302 Im, E. & Yang, K. (2006). “Theories on Immigrant Women’s Health.” Health Care for Women International, 27:666–681, 2006. Furman, R., Negi, N., Iwamoto, D.K., Rowan, D., Shukrafi, A. & Gragg, J. “Social Work Practice with Latinos: Key Issues for Social Workers.” Soc Work. 2009, l; 54(2): 167– 174 Quraishi, S. & Evangeli, M. (2007). “An investigation of psychological well-being and cultural identity in British-Asian female university students.” Mental health, religion & culture. 2007; 10(3): 293–300 Yafen Lo, Y. (2010). “The Impact of the Acculturation Process on Asian American Youth’s Psychological Well-Being.” Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Volume 23, Number 2, pp. 84–91 Berry, J.W. (2005). “Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 2005; 29: 697–712 Berry, J. W., Kim, U., Minde, T. & Mok, D. (1987). “Comparative studies of acculturative stress.” International Migration Review, 1987; 21: 491–511. Cuéllar, I., Arnold, B. & González, G. “Cognitive referents of acculturation: Assessment of cultural constructs in Mexican Americans Issue.” Journal of Community Psychology. 1995; 23(4): 339–356 Liebkind, K., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2000). “Acculturation and Psychological Well-Being among Immigrant Adolescents in Finland.” Journal of Adolescent Research. 2000; 15(4): 446- 469 Read More