Migrant Couples’ Acculturation Gap and Psychological Adjustment

Canada receives over 200,000 immigrants every year, the majority of whom migrate as a couple or family (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2012). For all migrants, adapting to a new country (process called acculturation) is a challenging endeavour and represents a liability for their well-being and health (Nguyen & Benet-Martinez, 2013). People do not acculturate the same way and at the same speed. The Acculturation-Gap Distress Model has established that immigrant children acculturate to their new culture at a quicker pace than their parents, leading to family conflict and youth maladjustment (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001).

The present study examines an extension of the Acculturation-Gap Distress Model beyond parent-child dyads to couple dyads: namely, that dissimilarities in how partners maintain or adopt cultural characteristics would be maladaptive and lead to relationship dissatisfaction.This extension has received preliminary support in the context of dissimilarities in language acculturation (Kanat-Maymon et al.,2016; Kisselev et al.,2010). The present study replicates and builds on this preliminary research.

The conceptual model guiding this study postulates that migrants’ individual adjustment (sociocultural and psychological) is influenced not only by their own acculturation (Berry, 1997, 2005), but also by the acculturation of their partner. Using path analysis, this study revealed the impact of couple acculturation gaps (dissimilarity between partners’ adoption and maintenance of cultural characteristics) on well-being and romantic relationship satisfaction, among immigrants to Canada. Results have important implications, given that migrant couples experience greater risks of marital conflicts and separation than couples born in the country (Anderson & Scott, 2010) because of more marital distress (Ben-David & Lavée, 1994; Guruge, 2010).