Nguyen et al (1999)

Use: acculturation

 

Aim: to investigate acculturation and adjustment in Vietnamese in the US.

 

Method:

Background questionnaire.

 

 

Procedure:

  • 182 Vietnamese background students

  • Mean age 15, 10-23 of age, 44% female, 80% born in Vietnam. 6 years of mean residency , 95% of parents born in Vietnam and 93% emigrated as an adult after 1975.

  • 98% reported speaking Vietnamese at home and 90% spoke Vietnamese on a regular basis. 98% resided in less affluent areas.

  • Monetary compensation

  • personal adjustment – distress, esteem and depression; interpersonal adjustment – family relationships; and achievement in terms of GPA.

  • Sat the survey like an examine

  • Two dimensions of acculturation were measured in line with Berry’s model IVN investment in Vietnamese culture and IUS investment in United States culture.

  • Acculturation was measured using The Acculturation Scale for Vietnamese Adolescents (ASVA) – it measures IVN (involvement in Vietnamese Culture) and IUS (involvement in US culture). This uses a Likert scale.

  • Surveys were completed in small groups, with options regarding the language of their responses and use of interpreters.

 

Results:

IUS correlated with positive functioning in all three adjustment domains. High IUS correlated positively with adjustment such as self esteem higher GPA and quality of family relations and low IUS scores were correlated with depression and symptom-related distress.

IVN – correlated with positive family relationships – but negatively to personal adjustment. IVN correlations were less significant in predicting adjustment. This did not support the hypothesis. There is no clear explanation why high IVN leads to distress – it could be because trying to maintain Vietnamese culture in the US causes distress, or that distressed adolescents are more likely to cling to the traditional values that make them feel secure or both?

Interaction of IUS and IVN – IVN negatively predicted self-esteem when IUS was high.

 

Conclusion: Provides support for the existence of two separate dimensions: one regarding Vietnamese culture and one regarding the new (US) culture – and provides support for Berry’s 2D model.