The intersection of Asian American identity and illicit substance use is greatly understudied in psychological literature, especially with matters of mental health and drug use being stigmatized by Asian cultural norms. However, with an increasingly alarming number of fatal drug overdoses by Asian Americans at electronic dance music (EDM) events, attention must be drawn to the needs of this unique population. The present study characterizes this community by drawing from data of 1,290 Asian American young adults who participate in the EDM scene. This study also hypothesizes the impact of acculturative stress and feelings of social belonging on MDMA usage patterns. Analysis reveals a population of largely East and Southeast Asian, 2nd generation, college-educated young adults with strikingly high usage rates of MDMA, an illicit drug linked to the EDM scene. Multiple regression models were created that could predict MDMA use through various measures related to acculturative stress and social belonging. Findings revealed the significant impact of acculturation, acculturative stress, mental health, peer relationships, and desires for social belonging on this population’s MDMA usage patterns, providing an important platform from which future research may launch much-needed additional studies of Asian American young adults and illicit drug use.

The topic of this thesis is study abroad. The theoretical part presents knowledge about the process of adaptation in a new country and its culture; then it deals with acculturative and coping strategies, culture shock and its determinants and also reverse culture shock, which takes place after arrival home form a foreign country. It also introduces the age group of participants on study abroad (21 {--} 26 years old) from the developmental psychology point of view. Then it describes the already known correlation relationships between personality characteristics and some aspects of long term stays abroad. Finally, it outlines a personality profile of the ideal person for a long term study abroad. The research part informs the reader about knowledge we have found out from 3 research questionnaires that were completed by students before, during and after the experience of study abroad, and also knowledge we have gained thanks to interviews with the students. The main research areas are the following: the personality profile, changes of chosen characteristics that have taken place due to the experience of the study abroad, motivation, expectations and their fulfillment, process of culture shock and reverse culture shock.

Adopting the Ecological Contextual Model of Acculturation and Adjustment (Birman, 1994; Trickett, 1996) and the Stress and Coping paradigm (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, 1986, 1991), the present thesis explored the psycho-social, work, and marital adjustment of 200 established older middle-aged refugees from the Former Yugoslavia living in the Ottawa area. More specifically, three studies were conducted to examine specific stressors and resources of relevance to the adjustment of Former Yugoslavian men and women, across the following three distinct life domains: psycho-social, work, and marital. Study I explored the potential buffering effects of interpersonal trust on the relational growth of Former Yugoslavian refugees. Results demonstrated that interpersonal trust moderated the negative effects of war-related trauma on the relational growth of Former Yugoslavian women. No such buffering effect was found for the men. Study II investigated Former Yugoslavians' work adjustment by exploring the influence of pre-migratory work-related expectations-outcome congruence, occupational mobility, work stress (general and discrimination), as well as personal (education, English language proficiency) and social resources (support at work) on their work satisfaction and distress. Results indicated that different factors emerged as significant predictors of work satisfaction and work distress for Former Yugoslavian men and women. Study III explored the potential moderating role of marital resilience on the relationship between marital stress (general and acculturative) and marital adjustment. Results showed that marital resilience moderated the negative effects of marital stress on the marital adjustment of Former Yugoslavian women. No protective effect of marital resilience was found for the men. Taken together, the results of the three studies provide support for the relevance and importance of studying the stress, resources, and adjustment of refugees across contexts and gender. Given that important gender differences were found in different adaptational domains, the need to study further the impact of gender in refugees is reinforced. The findings are discussed within the current gender and migration literatures as well as the multidimensional theories of cross-cultural adjustment. Theoretical, research, and clinical implications were presented, along with recommendations for future research.

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Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Möglichkeit der Wissensvermittlung für alte Migranten mit Sprachbarrieren. Mithilfe der Grounded Theory, die gleichermaßen als wissenschaftstheoretische Grundlage für die empirische Hypothesen- sowie Konzeptentwicklung als Fazit der Arbeit dienen soll, werden über unterschiedliche Zugänge zum Thema am Beispiel eines gegebenen Projektes, Handlungsansätze für zukünftige Methoden und Forschungsbereiche erschlossen. Zunächst beschäftigt sich die Arbeit mit einer Abhandlung über Kultur(-anthropologie) und die Auswirkungen auf kollektive und individuelle Identität eines Migranten. Der Begriff der Migration wird definiert, die historische Entwicklung der Migration in Deutschland skizziert, um im Anschluss die Lebenssituation in Deutschland lebender Migranten darzustellen. Da es sich bei dieser Arbeit hauptsächlich um in Deutschland gealterte Migranten handelt, schließt sich eine Definition des alten Menschen an, woraus schließlich der Begriff des alten Migranten entwickelt wird. Um pädagogische Mechanismen des Lernens verständlich zu machen, werden Lerntheorien erläutert, woraus sich dann Besonderheiten für das Lernen im Alter unter Berücksichtigung aktueller Konzepte (z.B. Lebenslanges Lernen ) ableiten lassen. Die Identitätsentwicklung der in Deutschland lebenden Migranten wird weiter unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Akkulturationsstresses erörtert. Es werden hirnbiologische Zusammenhänge für die Lebenssituation der alten Migranten erarbeitet, um einerseits individuellen Stress dieser Menschen und andererseits Stress durch Migration als kollektive Erfahrung mit Folgen im Ankunftsland in Einklang zu bringen. Fallbeispiele aus der psychiatrisch-psychotherapeutischen Praxis als pathologisches Endstadium für die Unfähigkeit des Nicht-Lernen-könnens werden eingebracht. Mithilfe einer nicht-experimentellen bundesweiten Erhebung zur Lebenszufriedenheit (FLZ: Fragebogen zur Lebenszufriedenheit) werden theoretische Überlegungen belegt. Dazu werden ferner verfügbare statistische Daten beispielsweise über die Teilnahme an Deutsch- bzw. Integrationskursen sowie Abbruch- und Erfolgsquoten herangezogen. Die Entstehung und Nutzung der Neurodidaktik - eine Verschmelzung der biologischen und pädagogischen Forschung - dient als Überleitung zu pädagogisch-didaktischen Möglichkeiten des informellen Lernens, wobei zuvor formelles und informelles Lernen mit historischen Beispielen (von Platon bis Freire) definiert werden. Der Infokoffer des Projektes Älter werden in Deutschland wird als Beispiel einer praktikablen Möglichkeit unter Berücksichtigung der in der Arbeit bereits genannten kritischen Momente des Lernens für ältere Migranten ausführlich dargestellt und erläutert. Letztlich werden als Fazit Elemente für zukünftige Entwicklungen von Methoden für die Arbeit mit in Deutschland lebenden älteren Migranten dargeboten. Durch diese Arbeit ergeben sich zusätzlich Ansätze zu aktuell gesellschaftlich diskutierten Thema der Integration und das Feld biophysiologischer Untersuchungen an Migranten als weitere Forschungsbereiche. Um beim Leser das Verständnis zu gewährleisten und Zusammenhänge ausreichend und umfassend vermitteln zu können werden im Verlauf der Arbeit Exkurse zu tangierenden Themen, Konzepten und Aspekten geboten.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Chinese students are the biggest ethnic group of international students in the United States. Previous studies have identified many unique problems of Chinese students during their acculturation process and a higher level of acculturative stress than international students from other countries. A systematic review of instruments that assess acculturative stress revealed that none of the existing scales apply to Chinese students in the United States, either because of language issues or validity problems. Thus, this study aims to develop a reliable and valid scale to accurately measure the acculturative stress of Chinese students in the United States. A 72-item pool was generated by interviewing eight Chinese students and borrowing items from existing literature and scales. The item pool was sent online to 607 Chinese students and 267 of them completed the survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to empirically derive the factor structure of the Acculturative Stress Scale for Chinese Students (ASSCS). The results produced a 32-item scale in five dimensions, which were Language Insufficiency, Social Isolation, Perceived Discrimination, Academic Pressure, and Guilt toward Family. The ASSCS demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.939) and initial validity by predicting depression (Beta = 0.490, p<.001) and life satisfaction (Beta = -0.505, p<.001). It was the first Chinese scale of acculturative stress developed and validated among a Chinese student sample in the United States. Further studies need to be conducted to provide empirical support and confirm the validity for the scale. In the future, the scale can be used as diagnosing tool and self-assessment tool.