Gail M. Ferguson

Remote acculturation: The “Americanization” of Jamaican Islanders:

Twenty-first century globalization forces of technology and trade transport cultures across territorial borders. Cultural exchange now occurs in the absence of first-hand continuous contact that accompanies population migration. We propose and test a modern type of acculturation—remote acculturation—associated with indirect and/or intermittent contact between geographically separate groups. Our findings uncover indicators of remote acculturation in behavior, identity, family values, intergenerational discrepancies, and parent–adolescent conflict among families from one culture (Jamaican Islanders) to a geographically separate culture (European American) that emulate traditional acculturation of emigrants from the same ethnic group (Jamaican Immigrants) now settled in that foreign nation (United States of America).

Adolescent Psychological and Academic Adjustment as a Function of Discrepancies between Actual and Ideal Self-Perceptions.

Actual-ideal discrepancies are associated with adolescent emotional distress and there is evidence that the size of discrepancies matters. However, the direction of discrepancies has not been examined, perhaps due to limitations of widely used self-discrepancy measures. Two hundred and twelve 7th, 9th and 11th grade students (59% female) in a public school in Jamaica described their actual and ideal selves in several different domains—friendship, dating, schoolwork, family, sports, and religion/spirituality—using a Pie measure. Students also completed measures of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and academic achievement. Discrepancies favoring the ideal self and those favoring the actual self were linked to depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, and poor school grades in the domains of friendship, dating, and schoolwork. Effects were stronger among older adolescents than among younger adolescents. Theories of actual/ideal self-discrepancies have focused on problems arising when the ideal self overshadows the actual self; however, the present study finds that self-discrepancies, regardless of their direction, are a liability. Implications for self-discrepancy measurement, adolescent development, and clinical practice are discussed.

Americanization in the Rainbow Nation Remote Acculturation and Psychological Well-Being of South African Emerging Adults

This article expands remote acculturation research by exploring the presence, vehicles, and well-being implications of Americanization in a racially diverse group of post-Apartheid emerging adults in Johannesburg, South Africa (N = 370, Mage = 19.8 years: 63% Black, 21% White, 11% Indian, and 5% Coloured). Cluster analyses revealed three Americanized South African clusters constituting 71% of the sample (i.e., African-Americanized, European-Americanized, and Multicultural-Americanized), and one culturally traditional cluster (29%). Receiving U.S. goods and consuming U.S. fast food were the primary vehicles of Americanization. European-Americanized youth had higher life satisfaction than Traditionals and lower psychological distress than African-Americanized youth, after controlling for race. However, remote acculturation was not linked to family values or family conflict. Taken together with prior research, the bicultural and multicultural patterns of remote acculturation profiles appear to be culture universals, although the form (e.g., remote culture targeted) and well-being implications of remote acculturation (i.e., psychological and family) appear to be culture-specific.

Tridimensional (3D) Acculturation: Culture and Adaptation of Black Caribbean Immigrants in the USA

Depending on the immigrant population, different lenses of acculturation are required to capture the acculturation experience appropriately. Black Caribbean immigrants in the USA experience tridimensional (3D) acculturation owing to three relevant cultural dimensions: Mainstream European-American culture (as presumed by the bidimensional [2D] model in psychology), African-American culture (as held by the segmented assimilation model in sociology), and their heritage Caribbean culture (both models). This chapter describes 3D acculturation among Jamaican immigrant adolescents and parents in the USA using empirical findings from variable-centered and person-centered analyses. Tricultural integration is the most common acculturation status, and youth are generally well-adjusted compared to their non-immigrant US and Jamaican peers. However, triculturalism is more advantageous than is biculturalism for some immigrant youth (girls) and in some domains (behavioral), where assimilation is disadvantageous. A 3D lens exposes a new dimension and adds depth to our perspective on acculturation for some immigrants, particularly minority immigrants settled in multicultural societies. Researchers and practitioners should carefully consider the best acculturation lens (e.g., 2D or 3D) to use in their work with immigrants within and across societies.

“Ayiti Cheri”: Cultural Orientation of Early Adolescents in Rural Haiti

Adolescents are an emerging population in Haiti, particularly after the deadly 2010 earthquake. The steady penetration of U.S. culture into this poor, disaster-prone country begs the question, Do today’s adolescents possess a similar fondness for their home country, culture, and traditional family values as did Haitians of old? Or are they more oriented toward U.S. culture? Early adolescents (N = 105, 52% female, M = 12.87 years, SD = .86) in rural Haiti reported their cultural orientation toward Haitian culture and U.S. culture as well as their family obligations beliefs. Findings revealed high Haitian orientation, very high family obligations (boys especially), and very low U.S. orientation, although adolescents who interacted more frequently with U.S. tourists and those who consumed more U.S. fast food had higher U.S. culture orientation. Despite severe challenges, rural Haitian early adolescents demonstrate remarkable allegiance to their home country, culture, and traditional family values.

Playing up and playing down cultural identity: Introducing cultural influence and cultural variability.

Objectives: Cultural variability (CV) is introduced as an overlooked dimension of cultural identity development pertaining to emphasizing and de-emphasizing the influence of a single cultural identity (i.e., cultural influence [CI]) on daily interactions and behaviors. The Cultural IDentity Influence Measure (CIDIM) is introduced as a novel measure of CI and CV, and hypothesis-driven validation is conducted in two samples along with exploration of associations between CV and well-being. Method: A multicultural sample of 242 emerging adults participated in a daily diary study (Mage = 19.95 years, SDage = 1.40) by completing up to eight daily online surveys containing the CIDIM, criterion measures (ethnic identity, other group orientation, ethnic identity salience and daily variability in salience, social desirability), and measures of personal and interpersonal well-being. A second validation sample (n = 245) completed a 1-time survey with the CIDIM and a subset of criterion measures. Results: Results using both samples show evidence of CI and CV and demonstrate the validity, reliability, and domain-sensitivity of the CIDIM. Further, CV made unique and positive contributions to predicting interaction quality after accounting for ethnic salience and variability in ethnic salience. An analytic approach utilizing standard deviations produced near-identical results to multilevel modeling and is recommended for parsimony. Conclusions: Ethnic minority and majority individuals make daily adjustments to play up and play down the influence of cultural identity on their social interactions and behaviors, and these adjustments predict interpersonal well-being. Cultural influence and cultural variability contribute to our emerging understanding of cultural identity as dynamic and agentic.

“I am Malawian, Multicultural or British”: Remote acculturation and identity formation among urban adolescents in Malawi

We aimed to better understand multidimensional remote acculturation to South African, United States of America (US), and United Kingdom (UK) cultures among 144 thirteen- to seventeen-year-old (M = 15 0.28, SD = 1.06; 43.1% female; 36.6% Black African, 23.9% Southeast Asian, 21.8% Multiracial, 16.2% White, 1.4% Other) urban adolescents in Malawi. Adolescents completed questionnaires measuring remote acculturation, cultural exposure, parent-adolescent relationships, and adolescent well-being. A hierarchical cluster analysis identified three remote acculturation clusters: Traditional Malawians (TMs), Westernised Multicultural Malawians (WMMs), and British Assimilated Malawians (BAMs). Clusters differed in their racial and ethnic makeup. BAMs had the lowest cultural exposure to Malawian food, media, communication, and transnationalism. WMMs had higher positive affect than BAMs; WMMs and BAMs reported higher parental autonomy support than TMs; and TMs reported the highest conflict with their mothers. Our findings highlight the significant positive role of remote acculturation in the identity formation and well-being of 21st century sub-Saharan African adolescents.

“Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up for Your Rights!” The Jamaicanization of Youth Across 11 Countries Through Reggae Music?

We investigated whether Reggae preferences are associated with similar values across cultures compared with its culture of origin—Jamaica. Remote acculturation predicts that Reggae listeners across countries will share similar cultural values with Reggae listeners in Jamaica regardless of their cultural or geographical distance from the Caribbean island. We analyzed the correlations between preferences for Reggae music and Schwartz’s 10 value types in university student samples from Jamaica and 11 other societies in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia (total N = 2,561). In Jamaica, preferences for Reggae music were most strongly correlated with openness to change values and self-enhancement values. Across the other cultures, openness to change was the value dimension most strongly correlated with Reggae preference. Results also indicate some variations in Reggae’s value associations and its similarity to the culture of origin. Reggae’s value associations were more similar to Jamaica’s in samples that are closer culturally in terms of Individualism/Collectivism scores, and closer geographically in terms of kilometers. In sum, results provide some support for remote value acculturation via Reggae listening across countries (i.e., “Jamaicanization”) moderated by cultural and geographical proximity.

Perceived Parental Remote Acculturation Gaps Among Divorced Coparents and Children’s Adjustment in Turkey

The possibility of differential remote acculturation to a distant culture is yet another chasm that divorced coparents must bridge as they raise their children in globalizing urban settings. This study explored the association between parental remote acculturation and perceived parental remote acculturation gaps in two acculturation domains (behavior, identity), in relation to children’s adjustment in Turkish divorced families. Altogether, 177 urban divorced mothers in Turkey reported their own and their ex-partners’ remote acculturation to U.S. and Turkish cultures, and their joint children’s internalizing (social withdrawal, anxiety) and externalizing (aggression) behaviors. Perceived remote acculturation gaps were operationalized with match:mismatch and interaction methods. Sequential regression analyses accounting for parental conflict resolution revealed that mothers’ perceptions of fathers’ American identity was positively associated with children’s social withdrawal. Regarding perceived acculturation gaps, one particular cross-dimension pairing—strongly U.S.-identified “AmeriTurk” mothers paired with strongly Turkish-identified fathers—predicted lower internalizing problems. Although having an Americanized father might confer some risk for children in divorced families in Turkey, having an “AmeriTurk” mother and traditional Turkish father may be protective, suggesting the benefit of integration as a family-level remote acculturation strategy. Taken together, parental remote acculturation and perceived remote acculturation gaps in identity (not behavior) predicted the socioemotional (not behavioral) adjustment of children above and beyond parental discord. Findings highlight the family repercussions of remote acculturation in Eurasia, underscore the importance of multidomain acculturation measurement, confirm the superior sensitivity of the interaction method, and extend its application to assessing cross-dimension pairings as a new type of acculturation gap.