Discussion

1. Results Vancouver Index of Acculturation. There wasno significant relationship between age of immigration and heritage score, B = - .15, t (52) = - .87, p = .386 and there was a marginally significant relationship between age of immigration and mainstream score, B = - .23, t (52) = - 1.69, p = .098. Preference for Uniqueness. There wasa marginally significant relationship between age of immigration and preference for uniqueness, B = .043, t (52) = 1.90, p = .064. Rule- Versus Family Resemblance-based Classification. There was no significant relationship between age of immigration and the choice of classification , B = - .05, t (52) = - .97, p = .334. However, there was a marginally significant relationship between age of immigration and length of time spent in Canada, B = - .19, t (52) = - 1.78, p = .082. Field Dependence. There was no significant relationship between age of immigration and performance in the rod-and-frame test, B = .00, t (52) = - .28, p = .778. Interestingly, we found that language version had a significant effect on the test performance, B = - 0.15, t (52) = - 2.28, p = 0.027 (See Figure 4). Introduction Minoura (1992) first suggested the sensitive period of acculturation in young Japanese immigrants in the United States. However, the effect of one’s age of immigration on acculturation is still not well investigated in the field of cultural psychology. We aimed to test the existence of a sensitive period for acculturation in another population: Hong Kong immigrants in Vancouver. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between acculturation and the age of immigration mainly by implicit measures. Our hypothesis is thatHong Kong immigrants who arrived to Vancouver at an earlier age will have a higher acculturation level than those who arrived at a later age. A Sensitive Period of Acculturation: An Exploratory Study of Hong Kong Immigrants in VancouverJesse H. Lo, Benjamin Y. Cheung, & Steven J. Heine Method We recruited 58 Hong Kong immigrants in Vancouver in this study (24 men, 34 women, M age = 30.7, age range: 19 - 61 years). This study included one online questionnaire in two languages, English and Chinese. In the questionnaire, we first asked participants’ ages of immigration, then we assessed their acculturation level by the following four measures. Vancouver Index of Acculturation. We asked 20 questions to measure participants’ identification with their own heritage culture and the American mainstream culture. e.g. “I am interested in having North American friends” and “I often behave in ways that are typical of my heritage culture”. Preference for Uniqueness. We asked participants to rank the unique and common subfigures in the order of their preference (from 1 = most favorite to 9 = least favorite) (see figure 1). One’s preference for uniqueness revealed one’s acculturation levels. Rule- Versus Family-based Classification. We measured whether participants categorized novel objects via rule-based classification or family-based classification (see figure 2). Different strategies of classification revealed different acculturation levels. Field Dependence. We asked participants to judge whether the orange rod appeared perfectly vertical or a few degrees off vertical regardless of the position of the frame (see figure 3). Different error rates among participants revealed differences in their acculturation levels. Future Direction Subjects Recruitment. As some of our results were approaching significance, recruiting more subjects would provide a clearer picture of the relationship between immigration age and acculturation. The regression analysis in this study would require about 200 subjects. Moreover, we would need to recruit more participants at a wider range of immigration age in order to have more variation in the independent variable in our future study. Collecting Data from Different Populations and Comparing Data Between Populations. We would collect data from European Canadians and Hong Kong non-immigrants as the reference groups. By comparing data from Hong Kong immigrants with the reference groups, we would be able to examine: (1) the trend of Hong Kong immigrants’ acculturation, and (2) the degree to which various psychological aspects of Hong Kong immigrants arriving at various ages mimic those of European Canadians, thus indicating acculturative success. Discussion The results were approaching to converging evidence about the relationship between age of immigration and acculturation from the four measurements. Such marginally significant results might due to the limitations of the study: Lack of Exposure to Mainstream Culture. Vancouver is heavily populated by Chinese. Especially in Richmond, 43.4% of population is Chinese (Statistics Canada, 2008). The high density of Chinese immigrants in town reduced immigrants’ opportunity to acculturate to Western culture. Cultural Change in Asian Society. Asian cultures are becoming more individualistic due to modernization (Pye, 1988). When immigrants are more westernized before they immigrate, the difference of acculturation level among immigrants at different ages would be minimized. Immigration Age Distribution. 75% of our participants immigrated to Canada before age 19 and less than 16% of participants who immigrated at their twenties and thirties. The uneven distribution of immigration age could diminish the significance level of our results. Reference Minoura, Y. (1992). A Sensitive Period for the Incorporation of a Cultural Meaning System: A study of Japanese Children Growing up in the United States. Ethos, 20(3), 304-339. doi:10.1525/eth.1992.20.3.02a00030 Pye, L.W. (1988). Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority. MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Statistics Canada. (2008, June 12). 2006 Census Profile. Retrieved from http://www.richmond.ca/discover/demographics/Census2006.htm Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3