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Abstract

As migration becomes increasingly common around the world, there is a growing need to provide culturally-adapted assessments and interventions for migrants, who often experience higher levels of distress compared to locals but underutilize mental health services. Both cross-national and internal migrants undergo an acculturation process where aspects of their identity change due to prolonged immersion in the mainstream cultural context. This acculturation process plays an important role in migrants’ well-being; however, existing measures do not properly capture this fluid, multifaceted experience. Using an acculturation framework that considers conditions (contexts), orientations (attitudes), and outcomes (well-being), a mixed-method approach was adopted to further understand the process and create an assessment tool for clinical settings. In the first study, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Mandarin to understand the similarities and differences of the acculturation experience of cross-national Chinese migrants (N = 20) in Montreal and internal migrants (N = 10) in Beijing. Findings suggest that both groups experience a similar process of acculturation and share common thematic categories. Study 2 proposed a set of criteria for improving acculturation measurement in clinical settings, with the Acculturation Screening Questionnaire (ASQ) created using a bottom-up item generation approach from the interviews. The ASQ consists of four parts: (1) social network; (2) family; (3) acculturation stress; and (4) outcome. To test its generalizability beyond migrants of Chinese origin, the ASQ was validated with cross-national migrants in Canada from different countries (N = 238). In Study 3, the ASQ was translated and further validated with internal migrants in two major cities in China (N = 237). Quantitative analyses were conducted to investigate how acculturation conditions and orientations variables predict wellbeing respectively. Overall, the quantitative results in Study 3 are consistent with the qualitative findings in Study 1. Taken together, these three studies unveiled the integral role acculturation plays in cross-national and internal migrants’ well-being. The ASQ was created and validated as a potentially helpful screening questionnaire for both cross-national and internal migrants in clinical settings. These studies call researchers, policy makers and clinicians to attend to the needs of cross-national and internal migrants of Chinese origin and beyond.

Available Versions of this Item

• Addressing the Impact of Acculturation on Mental Health: A Mixed-Method Inquiry with Cross-national and Internal Migrants of Chinese Origin and Beyond. (deposited 27 Oct 2022 13:43)
  • Addressing the Impact of Acculturation on Mental Health: A Mixed-Method Inquiry with Cross-national and Internal Migrants of Chinese Origin and Beyond. (deposited 01 Dec 2021 13:57) [Currently Displayed]