Acculturation and the prevalence of problem behavior in immigrant youth in the Netherlands Gonneke S

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Acculturation and the prevalence of problem
behavior in immigrant youth in the
NetherlandsGonneke StevensInterdisciplinary
Social SciencesUniversity of Utrecht
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Presentation

• Previous research
• Prevalence of internalizing and externalizing
  problems in Moroccan immigrant, Turkish immigrant
  and Dutch native youth
• Acculturation patterns in Moroccan immigrant
  youth
• Relationship of acculturation to problem behavior
  in Moroccan immigrant youth
• Manuscript
• Gender and cultural specificity in patterns of
  psychological acculturation

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Sample

• 819 4-18-year-old Moroccan immigrant
• children, 2,227 Dutch native children, 833
• Turkish immigrant children
• Randomly selected samples from municipal
  registers
• response 70-80

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Prevalence of internalizing and externalizing
problems in Moroccan immigrant, Turkish immigrant
and Dutch native youth
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Problem behavior

• Parent, teacher and self-reports were
• obtained, using the Child Behavior Checklist,
  Teacher's Report Form and Youth Self-Report
• Internalizing and Externalizing

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Prevalence of internalizing and externalizing
problems
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Explanation for discrepancies

• True differences in children's behavior Moroccan
  children behave differently at school than at
  home
• Teachers perceptual bias
• Social desirability in answering patterns
  Moroccans
• Differences in thresholds for reporting problem
  behaviors

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Relationship of acculturation to problem behavior
in Moroccan immigrant youth
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Acculturation

• Different aspects behavior, attitudes,
  identification, belonging
• Uni- or bi-dimensional
• This study Adolescent's sense of emotional
  attachment and belonging to Dutch and Moroccan
  people (Tropp, 1999)
• Latent Class Analysis to test the appropriateness
  of Berrys acculturation strategies

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Psychological acculturation classes Moroccan
adolescents
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Relationship of psychological acculturation to
problem behavior in Moroccan girls
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(No Transcript)
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Cultural specificity in patterns of psychological
acculturation Sub-sample of Moroccan and
Turkish immigrant youth
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Ethnic differences in acculturation

• Migration history
• Socio-economic status ethnic group
• Cultural distance between culture of origin and
  host culture
• Rejection by host country
• Host country

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Differences/similarities in acculturation
Moroccans and Turks

• Similarities
• Host country
• Migration history
• Socio-economic status ethnic group
• Cultural distance between culture of origin and
  host culture
• Differences
• Cultural distance between culture of origin and
  host culture
• Rejection by host country
• Turks tight ethnic social infrastructure

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Psychological acculturation classes Moroccan and
Turkish youth
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Ethnic differences in class sizes

• 46 integrated
• (46 Moroccans, 46 Turks)
• 36 separated
• (35 Moroccans, 37 Turks)
• 18 ambivalently acculturated
• (19 Moroccans, 17 Turks).

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Explaining similarities in acculturation
Moroccans and Turks

• Similarities between Moroccans and Turks
• more important than differences
• General acculturation pattern (for adolescents)?

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Gender specificity in patterns of psychological
acculturation
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Psychological acculturation classes boys and girls
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Ethnic differences in class sizes for boys and
girls

• Boys
• 56 integrated
• (59 Moroccans, 54 Turks)
• 44 separated
• (41 Moroccans, 46 Turks)
• Girls
• 45 integrated
• (44 Moroccans, 46 Turks)
• 34 separated
• (33 Moroccans, 36 Turks)
• 21 ambivalently acculturated
• (23 Moroccans, 18 Turks)

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Conclusion and limitations

• Conclusion
• Three acculturation groups in two migrant groups
  an integrated,
• separated and ambivalently acculturated
• group
• Ambivalently acculturated group for girls only
• Limitation
• Focus on psychological acculturation
• Moroccan and Turkish group were too small to
  investigate gender differences in separate groups
• Moroccan and Turkish adolescents in Rotterdam and
  the Hague