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This thesis examines the adaptation of Iranian Canadians (immigrants from Iran in Canada) to the new cultural environment with a special focus on a paradigm shift in their lingua-cultural attitudes. More specifically, it examines the attitudes of Iranian Canadians to ta’arof, an important politeness phenomenon in Farsi that has attracted the attention of many scholars of linguistics and anthropology. The actual use of ta’arof as well as attitudes to its use are compared for two groups of first generation Canadian Iranians (60 participants total), with long and short periods of exposure to Canadian culture. All the participants come from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This thesis is informed by linguistic relativity, acculturation and politeness theories. The study employs a questionnaire survey as its methodology, commonly used in sociolinguistic studies (e.g. Makarova & Hudyma, 2015; Clement, 1986). The questionnaire contains questions about the respondents' use of ta’arof in different situations, and their attitudes to ta’arof. In addition, it included some sociocultural questions aimed at evaluating the respondents’ level of acculturation. The goal of this study is to describe the use of ta’arof and attitudes to its use among first generation Canadian Iranians, as well as to examine whether social variables such as length of stay in Canada, gender, education and English proficiency contribute to a change in attitudes to ta’arof among first generation Iranian immigrants in Canada. The results show that all the social variables in this study, namely age, gender, education, English proficiency, length of stay in Canada and acculturation can be either positively or negatively correlated with the participants’ use of ta’arof and their attitudes to ta’arof. The results also indicate that “ethnic self-identification,” in terms of “Canadian,” “Iranian,” or “Iranian Canadian,” is positively correlated with “the length of stay in Canada.” The Iranian immigrants with longer duration of stay in Canada are more likely to identify themselves as “Iranian Canadian” than as “Iranian.” Other findings suggest that the Iranian immigrants who have lived for a long perid of time in Canada provide higher acculturation-level responses and use ta’arof less in their interactions with Iranians and non-Iranians in Canada, as compared to immigrants who have lived in Canada for a short period of time. The latter group yields lower acculturation-level responses, and their attitudes to ta’arof are significantly more positive. Overall, even though the Iranian Canadian participants report the use ta’arof in Canada not only in communication within the Iranian diaspora, but also sometimes in communication with members of other Canadian ethnic groups, they dislike the pressures imposed by ta’arof, do not want to teach it to their children, and have overall rather negative attitudes towards ta’arof and its use. With the increase of the duration of stay in Canada, the attitudes to ta’arof become significantly more negative.

There is evidence for increased rates of psychoses and mood disorders in immigrant populations, with some contradictory findings showing that migrants have better mental health outcomes than their native-born counterparts. Explanatory theories considered individual and contextual factors. Acculturation processes are regarded to play an important part, but again there are contradictory findings. The relationships between immigration, acculturation and mental health are complex and more explorations are needed. The aim of this study was to explore whether construing before and after emigration was related to acculturation processes and mental health in Polish immigrants in the U.K. Forty adult immigrants participated in this study; measures of psychological well-being, cultural attitudes, and repertory grid interviews were used. Participants reported positive attitudes towards Polish and British cultures, significantly more positive attitudes towards the heritage culture. As a group, participants compared favourably to their counterparts living in Poland in terms of levels of psychological well-being. They also construed themselves more favourably following emigration. Nevertheless 20% of participants reported a history of mental health difficulties. Nearly half (45%) of participants reported clinically significant levels of distress, which is more than double the national prevalence rate in the U.K. The main findings of this study indicated a relationship between how Polish migrants construe themselves and significant others, their psychological adjustment and cultural attitudes. More positive attitudes towards Polish culture were associated with higher levels of positive affect. A positive view of Polish culture was associated with a relatively more salient construing pre-emigration. Contrary to the prediction, high levels of conflict in construing of significant others before emigration was related to a positive view of Polish culture. A relatively more conflicted view of self post-emigration was related to less positive attitudes towards British culture. As predicted, more structured construing post-emigration was linked with better mental health outcomes. Furthermore, a relatively more favourable view of self following immigration was associated with higher levels of positive affect and fewer symptoms of psychological distress. The latter was also linked with relatively lower levels of conflict in construing of 'self after emigration'. Case examples are presented. Recommendations for clinical practice and further research are made.

Research shows that in the UK, individuals from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are significantly less likely to access mental health services than the general population. In the absence of literature or robust mental health service access figures for Nepalese people living in the UK (NLU) there is little understanding of the mental health needs and help-seeking preferences of this group. This study aimed to examine factors which are associated with professional help-seeking for mental health difficulties in NLU. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1985) was used as a guiding theoretical framework to examine the strongest predictors of intention to seek professional help. Potential predictors, shame/izzat, acculturation, beliefs about the causes of mental distress and demographic variables were measured. The sample were 65 NLU recruited from community centres, health events and online groups across the UK. Results indicated that although a significant number of NLU reported having experienced mental health difficulties, very few had sought professional help. A number of variables significantly correlated with intention to seek professional help, including level of acculturation, non-Western physiological causal beliefs and izzat. According to a multiple-regression analysis of the whole sample, izzat was the most strongly related to intention to seek professional help. A number of barriers to help-seeking were identified such as hoping problems would go away or not wanting to burden others. A significant strength of the study was the use of both Nepalese and English language questionnaires which ensured that a large non-English speaking section of the NLU population was not excluded from the study. Limitations include methodological considerations such as the use of one measure which appeared to have limited validity. Furthermore, the exclusion of illiterate individuals by merit of using a self-report questionnaire limits the generalisability of these findings to the NLU more widely. Low mental health service access rates were identified within this sample relative to the prevalence of mental health difficulties. The clinical implications of this study highlight the need for policy and service level strategies to increase service access rates and the need for mental health services which are sensitive to the culturally specific issues within the population.

Language use and communicative behaviors are important indicators of sojourners' adjustment. The current research was conducted to understand international students' communication behavior on Facebook during their adjustment period in the US and its relationship to the students' acculturative attitude (identification with heritage and mainstream culture), current psychological adjustment level, socio-cultural adaptation level, and target audience on Facebook. Two main theories provided the theoretical framework of the study: Giles' communication accommodation theory (1973) and Berry's acculturation model (1984). Snowball and convenience samples were used to recruit 178 international students from different universities across the US. A mixed approach of online survey and content analysis was used to test the hypotheses and research questions. The results showed that during the stay in the US, international students accommodate their language and topic choice towards their American peers on Facebook. Particularly, it was found that language accommodation levels increase as the students' length of stay in the US increases. The results also demonstrate that international students use Facebook mainly to communicate with friends who reside in the US. When students had higher levels of mainstream identification, they were likely to target American friends as their audience on Facebook and thus have more language and topic accommodation. Additionally, acculturation attitude (heritage and mainstream identification) predicted the students' language accommodation level. Lastly, the study showed that there is a positive relationship between language accommodation and sociocultural adjustment. The findings of the study not only expand the scope of communication accommodation theory and acculturation model, but also enhance understanding of international students' online communication patterns, their purposes, and practical consequences upon their adjustment in the US. This is important because it can be useful in finding ways to improve the students' experience in the US.

Hageby är en stadsdel i Norrköping som i huvudsak betraktas som segregerad, med en hög andel utlandsfödda innevånare. Området förknippas också med låg socioekonomisk status, kriminalitet, hög arbetslöshet och utanförskap. Den externa bilden av området är i hög grad negativ medan den interna upplevelsen och uppfattningen om Hageby till största delen är positiv. Vissa interna konflikter, baserade på etnicitet och religion, är tydligt närvarande men de flesta informanter har en positiv syn på ”svenskar”, trots att många har få möjligheter eller tillfällen att interagera med etniska svenskar. För många av innevånarna tycks det upplevas som åtminstone delvis positivt att bo i ett mångkulturellt område och för nyanlända tycks närheten till familj och den etniska gruppen ha en tydligt dämpande effekt på den stress som anpassningen till den nya livssituationen och samhället kan ge upphov till. En omfattande mängd forskning visar att boendesegregation tenderar att förlänga integrationsprocessen ochhar negativ inverkan på språkutveckling, skapandet av nätverk på arbetsmarknaden, förståelse och fullt deltagande i samhället och därmed utövandet av medborgarskap. Trots det, visar mina informanter att boende i ett segregerat område inte nödvändigtvis får dessa effekter för individer. Men den negativa stereotypiseringen av området och dess innevånare tenderar att ha en viss effekt på självbilden och identitetsskapandet hos människor som bor där. / Hageby is a district in Norrköping, which is mainly perceived as segregated with a large number of inhabitants of foreign origin. It's also associated with low socioeconomic status, criminality, high unemployment and social exclusion. The external perception of the area is mainly negative, whilst the internal experiences and views, on the contrary are quite positive. Some internal conflicts, based on ethnicity and religion is clearly present here, but most informants expresses a positive view of the Swedish people, though many have little opportunity to interact with ethnic Swedes. Living in a multicultural area, seems for many of the local inhabitants to be something partly positive. For newcomers living there, closeness to family and their ethnic group, also helps soften the stress of settling in and adjusting to a new community. Extensive research shows that living in a segregated area, tend to slow the integration process, having negative effect on learning the new language, developing networks necessary for finding work, understanding of and full participation in society. Newer the less, my informants show that living in a segregated area, does not necessarily have these effects on an individual level. Although the extended influence of negative stereotyping of the area and the people who live there, tend to have an effect on self image and the construction of identity.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Although African Americans endorse more stigma towards those with mental illnesses than European Americans and are quite susceptible to stigma’s detrimental effects on help-seeking for mental health problems, stigma has not been adequately studied for African Americans. Given that stigma is a key barrier to obtaining help for mental health problems, it is imperative that we gain a more nuanced understanding of stigma. This study used experimental design and vignettes to examine the influence of acculturation and labeling on African Americans’ stigmatization of depression, social phobia, alcohol dependence, and schizophrenia. Results indicated that schizophrenia was generally the most stigmatized disorder and social phobia was least stigmatized. Having a label predicted increased desire for social distance from vignette subjects with depressive symptoms only. Additionally, acculturation predicted stigmatization of depression and social phobia.

The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the relationships among health locus of control, health beliefs and family planning behavior among Middle Eastern women living temporarily in the United States. A correlational descriptive design was used. A convenience sample of 80 Middle Eastern women were chosen as representatives for this study from the University of Arizona Family Housing, Tucson Islamic Center, Saudi Arabian Student Club, and the University of Arizona International Student Center. Four instruments were utilized to collect data: (1) Health Locus of Control Scale, (2) Modified Health Belief Instrument, (3) Demographic/Preferences Data Tool, and (4) Family Planning Survey. Data analysis included use of descriptive statistics to summarize the differences between the two groups (adequate and inadequate contraceptive users) on each set of health belief variables, health locus of control variables and demographic/preferences variables. Significant findings on the health belief and health locus of control instruments, separately and together was followed by stepwise discriminant analysis to identify the variables on which the groups differ and the nature of the dimensions on which they differ. The study findings indicated that adequate contraceptive users perceived the seriousness of pregnancy and benefits of contraception, while inadequate contraceptive users perceived barriers of contraception. On the other hand adequate contraceptive users had self-control over health, belief in provider control over health, had less general health threat, and more health value than inadequate contraceptive users. Four variables in the health belief and health locus of control scales were included in a discriminant function analysis. This indicated that general health, self-control over health, barriers of contraception and seriousness of pregnancy variables fully differentiated the two groups.

Among several difficulties associated with immigration, acculturation process has been recognized as one of the main stressors and one of the major risk factors associated in the incidence of mental disorders. The strategies adopted by individuals to deal with the acculturation process appear to be predictive of different mental health outcomes. This exploratory study investigated the relationship between acculturation strategies and the occurrence of symptoms of depression in the context of the Brazilian immigrant community living in the Greater Toronto Area. The results demonstrated that Separation and Assimilation were the predominant strategies for this sample and that acculturation strategies failed to serve as significant predictors of depression scores. However, participants with Separation as their predominant acculturation strategy exhibited higher depressive symptom endorsement. The significance of these findings in the context of previous research as well as its implications for future research and critical multicultural practice in mental health are discussed.