Julia Mirsky

The Impact of Familial and Environmental Factors on the Adjustment of Immigrants A Longitudinal Study

This study examined the impact of family interaction, perceived discrimination, stressful life events, and the hosting country on the adjustment of Israeli and German immigrants. Results show that changes in self-esteem between the 1st year of immigration and 2 and 4 years later were significantly related to family relations: the better the functioning, the greater the improvement. The patterns of relationships in the family, however, only partially explained changes in psychological well-being and language proficiency. Perceived discrimination explained discrepancies over time in psychological well-being among fathers and adolescents and the discrepancies in language proficiency among mothers: the lower the discrimination, the greater the improvement. Adult immigrants who experienced more stressful life events presented deterioration in their psychological well-being over time. Finally, adults who immigrated to Germany were more likely to acquire the new language than their counterparts who immigrated to Israel.

Ethnicity Versus Migration: Two Hypotheses about the Psychosocial Adjustment of Immigrant Adolescents

Study background and aims: This study investigates the psychosocial adjustment of immigrant adolescents and examines two hypotheses: the ethnicity hypothesis, which suggests that ethnic background determines the psychosocial reactions of immigrant adolescents; and the migration hypothesis, which suggests that the migration experience determines such reactions. Methods: The study compared four groups of respondents: first-generation immigrants (N = 63) and second-generation immigrants (N = 64) from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel; and Jewish (N = 212) and non-Jewis (N = 184) adolescents in the FSU. A self-report questionnaire administered to the respondents collected demographic, educational and psychological data using standardised scales. Results: Immigrant adolescents reported higher psychological distress, lower self-esteem and higher alchohol consumption than non-immigrant adolescents. Second-generation immigrants generally showed a higher level of functioning than first-generation immigrants. These findings favor the migration hypothesis. Conclusions: Our findings support the widely accepted view of migration as a potentially distress-provoking experience. They suggest that psychological reactions of immigrant adolescents, and in fact all immigrants, are best interpreted as reactive and are related to the universal stressful qualities of the migration experience. Further multiethnic comparative studies, however, are needed to confirm and refine these findings.

Bullying Gangs Among Immigrant Adolescents From the Former Soviet Union in Israel A Psycho-Culturally Determined Group Defense

This article describes and analyzes the phenomenon of bullying gangs, which emerged in groups of adolescents who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union (FSU) without their parents. Such gangs typically consisted of a number of youth organized hierarchically, who attempted to control other members of the group. They created a group structure and a defined set of rules that regulated the interactions between group members and those with the external environment. Bullying, physical violence, alcohol, drug consumption, and petty theft were among the behaviors typical to such gangs. It is suggested that the gangs be viewed as a defense mechanism employed in an attempt to regain control in an unfamiliar environment and in the absence of a reliable parental figure. Immigration and adolescence, alienating attitudes of the absorbing environment, and culturally determined models of behavior are discussed as factors that contribute to the creation of such gangs.

Psychological Independence Among Immigrant Adolescents from the Former Soviet Union

Numerous descriptive accounts suggest that Soviet society and child-rearing practices encourage more psychological dependency than do western practices. The present study attempted to test this hypothesis. Participants were 560 university students (250 females and 310 males) who immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) between 1989 and 1994. Subjects completed the Psychological Separation Inventory, a standard measure of psychological independence. Their results were compared with previously reported data on American college students and on adolescents in the FSU. Compared with American adolescents, ÈmigrÈ adolescents from the FSU in Israel were found to be less psychologically independent from their parents. However, they were more independent than their peers in the FSU and grew more psychologically independent over time. The findings are discussed in light of Soviet society and family processes associated with migration.

Food Insecurity and Mental Health: A Pilot Study of Patients in a Psychiatric Emergency Unit in Israel

The objective of this study was to examine food insecurity among psychiatric patients and as a concern for mental health practitioners. Food security and psychological distress were measured among 113 patients hospitalized in a psychiatric emergency unit. Of 113 respondents 67 (59.3%) enjoyed food security and 46 (40.7%) lacked food security. Food insecure respondents showed a higher level of psychological distress than food secure respondents. A large proportion of in-patients may be suffering food insecurity which is negatively associated with their psychological well being. Mental health practitioners need to be aware of the potential association of food insecurity and mental distress among psychiatric patients.

Social participation and psychological distress among immigrants from the former Soviet Union A comparative study in Israel and Germany

English The adaptation of immigrants to Israel and to Germany is compared. While in Germany immigrants were oriented towards the general society, in Israel they tended towards less social participation. Adolescent immigrants in Israel reported more stress than did their German peers, but no differences in the psychological stress were found among their parents. French Cette é tude compare la façon dont des immigrants en Israë l et en Allemagne se sont adapté s. Il en ressort que les immigrants en Allemagne ont é té , de façon gé né rale, davantage inté gré s à la socié té comparativement aux immigrants en Israë l, qui tendent à être moins engagé s socialement. Les immigrants adolescents en Israë l font é tat d’un plus grand stress que leurs pairs en Allemagne, alors qu’on ne relè ve pas de diffé rences chez leurs parents respectifs. Spanish La adaptació n de los inmigrantes a Israel y Alemania es comparada. Mientras que en Alemania los inmigrantes se orientan hacia la sociedad en general, en Israel ellos tienden hacia una participació n social baja. Inmigrantes adolescentes en Israel reportaron má s estré s que sus contrapartes alemanes, pero no se encontraron diferencias en el estré s psicoló gico entre los parientes.

Gaps Between Immigrant Spouses in Host Country Language Proficiency: Longitudinal Effects on Marital Satisfaction

ABSTRACT Research on immigration underscores the importance of language acculturation in successful adjustment to life in a new country. However, the profound impact of different levels of language proficiency between immigrant spouses on their married life is an understudied topic. The current study explores whether differences between immigrant spouses in host language proficiency predict marital satisfaction in their first four years in the host country. Using a three-wave longitudinal study, with intervals of one to two years, we collected data from 316 married couples who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel. Language proficiency and marital satisfaction were measured via self-report questionnaires. We conducted an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analysis to control for dyadic and time data dependencies. The results indicate that differences between spouses in their host language proficiency predict marital dissatisfaction, and that this effect is exacerbated over time. These associations held across gender and host country. The findings are discussed in light of the gap-distress model.

Job Security and the Perception of Unemployment among Immigrants Contribution of Government Policies and Cultural Factors

The article studies the occupational security and the perception of the economic situation of Russian immigrants in Israel and other Israelis. Similar rates of job security were found in the two groups. It is suggested that cultural factors and policies of integration of immigrants into the labor force affect these .ndings.

Immigrant Families Mothers’ and Fathers’ Proficiency in a Host-Country Language and Psychological Well-Being of Daughters and Sons

The study examined the association between immigrants’ adaptation—as reflected by host-country language proficiency (based on self-ratings)—and their children’s psychological well-being in two countries: Germany and Israel. The findings stressed the importance of children’s gender in the study of parent–child dyads. Our separate analyses of boys’ and girls’ subsamples revealed results that were undetected when we analyzed the subsamples of both genders together. Specifically, we found that self-reported paternal proficiency in the German language was positively associated with their daughters’ psychological well-being, whereas maternal proficiency in German was positively associated with their sons’ well-being. No association was found in our Israeli sample between immigrant language proficiency and their children’s psychological well-being during the first 3.5 years following migration. Further analyses demonstrated that in Germany, the quality of father–daughter communication mainly accounted for the association between paternal language proficiency and their daughters’ psychological well-being, while maternal psychological well-being mediated at least partially the association between maternal language proficiency and sons’ psychological well-being. The results are discussed in light of the differences and similarities in the settings of the two countries.

Working Through Countertransference Blocks in Cultural-Competence Training

The encounter with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds may stir in the practitioners intense counter-transferencial reactions, which if unexplored may obstruct the helping relationships and interventions. This article presents and demonstrates a cultural competence training where such countertransference can be worked through. The training applies a combination of narrative analysis that emphasizes the active participation of the listener in the sense-making process and of the exploration of group processes from a psychoanalytically oriented point of view. Presented are four vignettes that demonstrate different types of countertransference and of the group process.