Immigrant Parents’ Acculturation Style and its Role in Forming their Adult Children`s Bicultural Identity

Societies have long been skeptical of bicultural people, doubting the possiblility that a single person could truly be a part of two cultures. Researchers, however, have refuted this linear approach and have instead advocated and found support for a multidimensional approach to understanding bicultural identity. Even so, there is an ongoing discussion as to the effects of strong heritage culture maintenance, contact, and identity and its relationship with one’s ability to develop ties to the country of residence. In this study we will examine these relationships among first- and second-generation immigrants living in the United States who also have parents that are living in the United States. Using a path analysis, we analyzed the data of 236 people recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk with heritage from primarily Latin America, Europe, and Asia. We collected both self-report data and participants’ perceptions of their parent’s degrees of acculturation. A few highlighted findings from the model are described thusly. We found a positive relationship between US identity and Heritage Country Identity. This is contrary to previous literature examining European samples of Moroccan and Turkish migrants, which found a negative relationship, perhaps suggesting that ethnicity is more inextricably tied to national identities in some European countries as opposed to the United States. Interestingly, we also found a significant relationship between participants’ reports of their parents’ maintenance of the national heritage identity to identification with the United States, giving evidence to oppose suppositions that interactions with the ethnic culture would inhibit the development of an American identity. Other pathways examined relative contributions of parental Bicultural Identity Integration, parental acculturation orientations, the participants’ reported discrimination experiences, ethnic and US identity, and residential outlook. Future studies should examine this model internationally to better understand how societal conditions (e.g. adoption of multiculturalist policies) might effect these relationships.