Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Black Caribbean Immigrants (BCIs) migrating to the US face the particularly difficult challenge of managing their racial and ethnic identities in relation to the subordinate African American (AA) culture and racial group as well as the dominant White American (WA) culture and racial group. Formal theories of acculturation have not focused on the adaptation of Black immigrants to both a low-status racial group (e.g., Blacks) and ethnic culture (e.g., African American) in the US. The acculturation literature usually has evaded the topic of race and the racial literature has not addressed Black immigration or ethnicity. Furthermore, when investigations of acculturation of BCIs have occurred, consumer habits, behaviors, and cultural expressions have been used as proxies for racial and ethnic identity. Moreover, virtually no research has investigated the BCI-AA acculturation experience from the perspective of BCIs. Hypotheses derived from an integration of Berry’s (1997) theory of acculturation and Ferguson et al.’s (2012) tridimensional model of minority-status ethnicity were that BCIs’ acculturation involves the intersection of two dimensions: (a) joining or not joining AA culture versus maintaining one’s own ethnic culture and (b) Black racial integration versus separation. When responses to each dimension are assessed, four possible acculturation outcomes were proposed: (a) Separation, (b) Integration, (c) Assimilation, and (d) Marginalization. The sample for the present study was Black Caribbean immigrants from the English and French speaking West Indies. I used narrative theory and analysis of participants’ interviews to assess the fit of participants’ stories about their ethnic/racial identity and acculturation process to the model. Findings indicated that maintenance of their ethnic culture rather than joining AA culture was more important for most of the interviewees than their Black racial identity (i.e., Separation). / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Internationalisation is an important worldwide phenomenon, and amongst others, presents as a major trend in higher education and continues to be on the agenda of higher education providers worldwide. It is significant for the sustainability of higher education at a national level, and subsequently, the contribution that higher education makes to the development of a nation, its people and its ability to compete in the global market. Internationalisation within universities continues to develop apace as institutions move from equating international strategies with international student recruitment to developing mature internationalisation agendas that incorporate recruitment, research collaborations and capacity-building.

Background: Refugees find it difficult to integrate and assimilate in their host country because of a myriad of challenges. Mobile phones have become one of the main tools for promoting their wellbeing and supporting the integration of refugee communities on the margins of society. Mobile phones can contribute towards reducing isolation and loneliness, and assist in improving interpersonal relations and fostering processes of assimilation. The purpose of the research: The main objective of this study was to examine how the use of mobile phones by refugees in South Africa contributes to their social connectedness. To this end, the study discusses the role of mobile phones in the process of acculturation, in creating a sense of belonging, and in maintaining relationships. Design/methodology/approach: This research employed a qualitative method and an interpretivist epistemological perspective. A conceptual framework was developed on the basis of a literature review. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and WhatsApp group chats, and analysed using thematic analysis. The interviewees comprised 27 refugees living in South Africa, and the WhatsApp group had 15 members. Findings: The findings demonstrate that the refugees face a multitude of obstacles, including language and culture barriers, the challenge of obtaining legal status, physical separation from their friends and family, and feelings of being judged, insecure, and excluded. Mobile phone usage offers refugees several benefits, especially through their affordances that include accessing information, pursuing economic and institutional opportunities, enabling communication, and developing linguistic and cultural knowledge of the host country. At the same time, mobile phones enable refugees to maintain connection with their country of origin. Refugees nevertheless considered it difficult to develop a sense of belonging through their use of mobile phones. Research contribution: This study adds to perspectives on utilising mobile phones to achieve social connectedness for two categories of refugees: newcomers and old-timers. The study contributes to theory by proposing a framework for understanding and analysing the relationship between social connectedness and mobile phones. The study contributes to knowledge through the investigative approach of using WhatsApp group chat to collect data. The findings can contribute to enabling non-profit organisations and UNHCR to develop strategies and processes for providing interventions for refugees.

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This study aims to test the acculturation theory by researching the case of Russian-speaking female immigrants in Sweden. Special attention is given to the role of religious and spiritual practices in the acculturation and adaptation processes. The research is based on data collected during semi-structured interviews with nine Russian-speaking females residing in Sweden. The findings affirm that acculturation strategies chosen by Russian-speaking female immigrants corroborate the data received in previous equivalent studies. The correlation between language proficiency, employment, and length of stay with the choice of integration or assimilation was confirmed. It can be seen from this small sample that cultural context plays an enormous role in the choice of the strategy and the ability to accomplish it. Psychologically Russian-speaking women demonstrated a high level of tolerance and capability to resign themselves to the inevitable, implementing nevertheless their chosen strategy and not resigning. The study showed that religion or spirituality served as no barrier to integration or assimilation. Previous religious beliefs (if the woman had them) remained for private life and never interfered with the integration process which can be partially explained by the very nature of religiosity in Sweden described by the Swedish religious scholar David Thurfjell as “private religiosity”.

The figure of Ntsikana, both as a man of history and as an historical symbol, is the focus of this study. I argue that change may come about by giving new meanings to old forms and images or by taking the new forms and content and filling them with the old, and that these two sets continue to exist side by side for a long time. Cumpsty's "Model of Religious Change in Socio-Cultural Disturbance" is used to identify the dynamics in the process and to explore the nature of the dialectic between innovation and assimilation of the new on the one hand, and continuity with the old on the other. The Ntsikana tradition is followed ever a period of two hundred years and well illustrates the need to see religious change as part of an ongoing process within a particular social and historical context.

Research has documented cultural adjustment as an important issue influencing international students and other sojourners in their success abroad (Foster, 1962; Lysgaard, 1955; Oberg, 1960; Smalley, 1963). Few studies, however, have investigated particular variables influencing the cultural adjustment process of ESL learners enrolled in intensive English programs (IEPs). This mixed method study was designed to better understand the individual complexity of IEP learners' cultural adjustment by looking for patterns of variables that aid or hinder these students' experiences. Using the Culture Shock Questionnaire (CSQ), Index of Social Sojourners Support Survey (ISSS), and language-specific focus groups, this study investigated the individual cultural adjustment experiences of Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish-speaking students enrolled in an intensive English program attached to a large private university in the United States. Statistically significant results were found when comparing students' demographic variables with the survey results. Students who identified themselves as having high levels of social support were more likely to experience low levels of culture shock. While, female students were more likely to experience higher levels of culture shock compared to male students. Additionally, qualitative data gathered from the open-ended survey questions and focus groups revealed three common variables that appeared to aid as well as hinder the students' cultural adjustment process: social support, self, and environment. Findings from this research have implications for the development of cultural adjustment training materials which might aid ESL students attending intensive English programs in the United States in their cultural adjustment process.

Recent studies of children and adolescents who have experienced a residential, industrial, or wild fire have suggested a causal link between fire disaster and PTSD related psychological distress. Not everyone, however, is equally affected by the stress of experiencing such an event, and the role of coping in this process may be an important mediating factor. Additionally, several studies have found that girls and African Americans report more distress following disasters than do boys and Caucasians. The current study sought to investigate the roles of exposure/loss, coping efficacy, and coping strategy in mediating psychological distress in adolescents after a disaster. The current study included a representative sample of 206 9th graders from a Central Florida High School affected by severe wildfires who were assessed via self-report measures 3- and 10- months after the fires, in a latent variable path analysis to assess the fit of a model including exposure/loss, coping efficacy, coping strategy, and PTSD, depression, and anxiety scores. Moreover, acculturation level and SES were included along with gender and ethnicity in testing for the moderating role of sociodemographics, as little research has delved into the important proximal factors affecting reported racial differences, as ethnicity is better conceptualized as a distal variable that works through a variety of proximal variables to affect outcomes. Results indicated that although the assessment of the global fit of the latent variable path model revealed it to be a poor fit to the data, component fit of the model pointed to a possible mediating role of coping efficacy between exposure/loss and psychological distress, as well as coping efficacy being associated negatively with avoidant coping strategies. Likewise, post hoc regression analyses indicated an important role for exposure/loss, coping efficacy, and coping strategy as they related to PTSD symptomatology in adolescents at both Time 1 and Time 2. Finally, although relationships between the proposed variables and PTSD did not interact with gender, acculturation, SES, or ethnicity, there was a significant interaction between acculturation and ethnicity signifying that for African American youth, high acculturation levels were predictive of less PTSD symptomatology. / Ph. D.

La présente thèse traite de la place prise par l’identification à la nation d’accueil et l’adoption de la culture majoritaire dans les attitudes des membres de la majorité envers les minorités issues de l’immigration ainsi que dans les processus d’intégration de ces minorités. À travers une série d’études expérimentales, la première partie de la thèse démontre que les membres de la majorité tendent à considérer l’adoption de la culture majoritaire par les personnes issues de l’immigration comme un marqueur de leur identification à la nation d’accueil. De plus, cette perception d’attachement identitaire est apparue comme un facteur central dans la construction des attitudes envers les personnes issues de l’immigration. Cette première partie se conclut avec une étude suggérant que, dans un contexte de parcours d’intégration obligatoire où l’adoption culturelle est rendue obligatoire, les membres de la majorité ont tendance à inférer moins d’identification à la nation et par conséquent à percevoir plus négativement les personnes issues de l’immigration comparativement à un contexte où ils sont dépeints comme adoptant la culture majoritaire spontanément. Dans une deuxième partie de la thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à la place prise par l’adoption de la culture et l’identification au pays d’accueil dans le processus d’intégration des personnes issues de l’immigration. Comme nous en avions fait l’hypothèse, l’adoption de la culture majoritaire apparaît prioritaire chez les demandeurs d’asile syriens et irakiens qui viennent d’arriver sur le territoire belge. Finalement, sur base des données Eurislam récoltées à travers plusieurs pays européens auprès de différentes minorités, nous discutons du lien entre la maitrise de la langue du pays d’accueil et l’identification nationale. Sur base d’une analyse de profils, nous suggérons qu’il est important de considérer l’adoption de la culture et l’identification à la nation comme deux dimensions différentes à prendre en considération tant dans les futures recherches que dans les dispositifs politiques d’intégration. / Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between specific family variables and measures of cognitive abilities for preschool and young school-aged children of an American Indian ancestry. More specifically, the study used two cognitive measures, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Embedded Figures Test, and examined the influence that 23 family variables and cultural background (acculturation) had on measures of spatial abilities. Past studies suggested that American Indian children, as a group, perform above the standardization sample on measures of visual-spatial skills, have higher simultaneous processing skills, and are more field independent. It was anticipated that at least 40% of the children tested in this study would have statistically significant discrepancy scores in favor of the Simultaneous Scale and have an effect size of .40 or above on subtests reported to measure visual-spatial skills. It was further hypothesized that the children of this study would be more field independent (reach an effect size of .67 or higher) and that the Embedded Figures Tests would have correlations of r = .50 or above with the total Simultaneous Scale, Magic Windows, Gestalt Closure, Triangles, and Spatial Memory. Results found that 40% of this sample did not obtain significant discrepancy scores, and only Gestalt Closure for the preschool children and Spatial Memory for the school-aged children reached an effect size of .40. In addition, only school-aged children were considered more field independent, and field independence was associated with the total Simultaneous Scale, the Mental processing Composite, the Achievement Scale, and the following subtests: Triangles, Arithmetic, and Reading/Understanding. A principal component analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the Acculturation Scale (the Rosebud Personal Opinion Survey). This analysis found that the survey lacked empirical support for the dimensions suggested by the authors and only the first component, Language-Ancestry, was a useful indicator of acculturation. Nine family variables and the Language-Ancestry component were used as independent variables and accounted for or predicted the visual-spatial scores of American Indian children. None of the variables used reached a significance level of p ≤ .0056