Psychological adjustment and cultural identities of immigrant adolescents

1. Psychological adjustment and cultural identities of immigrant adolescents Evgeny Tartakovsky, Ph.D. Tel-Aviv University, The School of Social Work

2. Research objectives To formulate and test a developmental model of the immigrants’ psychological adjustment and cultural identities

3. Research design • Immigrant adolescents were studied at the pre-migration stage (1/2 year before emigration) • Two cohorts of immigrant adolescents were studied in the pre-migration stage (7 years apart) • Immigrant adolescents were followed during their first years in the new country (2.5 years) • Immigrant adolescents were compared to their non-emigrating peers in the country of origin

4. Immigrant population: the participants of the Na’ale program from Russia and Ukraine

5. Some information about the Na’ale program • The program was founded in 1992, and it has brought more than 15,000 adolescents to Israel (50% of all immigrant adolescents from the USSR in this age group) • Age at the beginning: 15 (10th grade) • Selection (about 60% accepted) • In 1999, 2451 adolescents completed the testing procedures; in 2006 only 918 adolescents took these tests • Immigrants from Russia and Ukraine represent about 80% of the Na'ale students and about 70% of all immigrants to Israel

6. Samples • Immigrants (from 40 cities in Russia and Ukraine): • Pre-migration stage (1999/2006): 654/243 candidates to the program • Longitudinal study in Israel (1999-2002): 211 -> 151 adolescents participating in the program • Non-Jewish adolescents in Russia and Ukraine studying in 10-11 grades (from 8 cities in Russia and 4 cities in Ukraine): • 2000: 468 • 2007: 740

7. Socio-demographic characteristics of the samples (2006/7) * p<.05

8. Psychological adjustment of immigrants

9. Measures of psychological adjustment • General Self-esteem – the Self-liking/Self-worth scale (Tafarodi & Swann, 1995): "Owing to my capabilities, I have much potential“ • Social competence –the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI) (Helmreich & Stapp, 1974): "I enjoy being around other people and seek out social encounters frequently" • School competence – 10 items from the multifaceted academic self-concept scale (Marsh, Byrne, & Shavelson, 1988): "Compared with my classmates, I must study more than they do to get the same grades". • Loneliness – a Short-Form Measure of Loneliness (Hays & DiMatteo, 1987): "I lack companionship" • Emotional and behavioral problems – Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991)

10. Self-esteem

11. Social competence

12. School competence

13. Loneliness

14. Emotional and behavioral problems

15. Factors affecting the immigrants’ psychological adjustment • The pre-migration indexes of psychological well-being (r=0.5-0.6 in the first year; 0.3-0.4 in the third year) • Perceived discrimination (-). Pre-migration vs. post-migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs. 2.05 (.65) • Perceived social support from peers (+) • Perceived social support from parents (some indexes) (+) • Perceived social support from teachers (some indexes) (+) • Family composition (some indexes) (- for single-parent families) • Parents’ education (some indexes) (+)

16. Theoretical inferences • Why euphoria in the pre-migration period: high expectations and/or self-selection? • The shattering assumptions hypothesis in immigration was refuted. • The U-curve hypothesis confirmed: high expectations increase psychological adjustment, social obstacles decrease, and successful coping increases • The morbidity hypothesis refuted, but why YSR did not improve? • The effect of social factors (immigrants’ cultural norms, e.g. alcohol and smoking; discrimination) • The effect of biological factors (no change in psychological well-being in Russia and Ukraine for the last 10 years)

17. Questions for further research • Is the found pattern of changes in the psychological adjustment universal for all voluntary immigrants or is it specific for adolescents immigrating in educational programs or for Diaspora immigrants? • How the psychological adjustment changes in the pre-migration period? • How the psychological adjustment changes across immigrant generations?

18. Practical recommendations • Immigrants’ selection • Preparation for emigration – strengthening the immigrants’ pre-migration psychological adjustment including social skills, and academic skills • Fighting discrimination in the receiving country • Strengthening social support, especially from the immigrants’ peers (A Finnish study on adults) • Should we strengthen the immigrant ghetto?

19. Cultural identities of immigrants

20. What do we know about cultural identities of immigrants? • Immigrants have a multifaceted system of cultural identities • The immigrants’ identity associated with their country of origin is more salient than their identity associated with the receiving country • Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, Jewish identity is the most salient, followed by Russian and Israeli identities • The relationships between the identities associated with the country of origin and the receiving country varied across immigrant groups, and may be negative, orthogonal, or positive • Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, a negative correlation was usually found between their Russian and Israeli identities • A stronger level of perceived discrimination was associated with a stronger ethnic identity and a weaker national identity of immigrants

21. The main objectives of my studies • To examine the relative strength of Jewish, Russian, and Israeli identities of the emigrants and the relationships between them in the pre-migration period • To compare Russian identity of emigrants with the matching group of non-emigrating adolescents • To investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on cultural identities of emigrants in the pre- and post-migration periods • To investigate the dynamics of changes in cultural identities in the post-migration period • To investigate the connection between the components of cultural identities and the psychological well-being of immigrants

22. Measures of cultural identities: Russian, Israeli, Jewish • Attitude towards a country: a 20-item scale (Tartakovsky, 2009) • I am proud of Russia/Ukraine • I feel comfortable in Russia/Ukraine • Identification with a nation and with an ethnic minority group (Roccas, 1997) • Being Russian is an important part of my self-definition • When I talk about Russians, I say ‘we’ and not ‘they’ • When Russians are criticized, I take it personally • It is important for me to think about myself as a Russian

23. Other instruments • Perceived discrimination: the 10-item Discrimination Questionnaire (Phinney, Madden & Santos, 1998) • Russian/Ukrainian students in my school are hostile towards me because I am Jewish • I feel that I am not wanted in Russian/Ukrainian society because I am Jewish • Perceived social support: a 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support from parents, peers, and teachers (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) • My parents really try to help me • I have friends with whom I can share my joys and sorrows • There is a teacher who is around when I am in need

24. Attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine among emigrants and non-emigrants

25. Identification with Russians/Ukrainians among emigrants and non-emigrants

26. Emigrants’ attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine and towards Israel

27. Emigrants’ identification with Russians/Ukrainians, Israelis, and Jews 4.08 4.07

28. Factors affecting pre-migration cultural identities of emigrants

29. Changes in the emigrants’ cultural identities 1999/2006

30. Correlations between the dimensions of emigrants’ cultural identity 1999/2006

31. Russian and Israeli identities are not contradictory

32. Russian and Jewish identities are not contradictory

33. Changes in attitudes towards Israel and Russia/Ukraine

34. Changes in identification with Israelis and Russians/Ukrainians

35. Factors affecting post-migration cultural identities • Pre-migration identities • Ethnicity (Jewish vs. mixed, but not the degree of the mix) • Perceived discrimination: (- Attitude Isr, Id Isr and Attitude R/U; + Id R/U) Pre-migration vs. post-migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs. 2.05 (.65) • Parental attachment

36. Discussion: Pre- and post-migration cultural identities • Emigrants are partially detached from their homeland and have a strong attachment to the country of provisional immigration • Self-selection or/and cognitive dissonance? • The pre-migration system of cultural identities is “anticipatory” (Merton, 1968); i.e., it is not based on a realistic comparison (?) • Jewish identity is very strong despite the fact that 96% of the adolescents were of mixed ethnic origin, and 61% had only one Jewish grandparent • Cultural identities are subjective constructs, which strength and relationships vary following social circumstances • In the post-migration period cultural identities change following adjustment difficulties and discrimination

37. Why cultural identities are important: they predict acculturation strategies

38. Why cultural identities are important: the are related to psychological adjustment

39. Receiving society wants assimilation or integration • Angela Merkel: “Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have utterly failed" • David Cameron: “Multiculturalism has failed in Britain” • Nicolas Sarkozy: “If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France”

40. Practical recommendations • The pre-migration cultural identities are positively correlated with the post-migration cultural identities (r = .22 - .43) • Immigrants’ selection: their pre-migration cultural identities are important; their ethnicity is of little importance • To reduce perceived discrimination • To strengthen the immigrants’ positive attitude towards the receiving country and their positive attitude towards the country of origin • To fight or not to fight ethnic identity of immigrants?

41. Further questions • How cultural identities are formed in the pre-migration period? • Cross-generation changes in cultural identities • Why identification with the ethnic group and the nation is not related to the psychological adjustment of immigrants?

42. Thank you!