Highly Identifying as Canadian Alleviates the Negative Impact of Family Rejection on Well-Being in Bicultural Normative Conflicts

In Canada, bicultural individuals are encouraged to maintain their heritage cultures and live according to Canadian culture. However, when it comes to making major life decisions living in accordance with both cultures simultaneously can be challenging because the two cultures might support incompatible social norms (bicultural normative conflicts). In such situations choosing the norms of one culture results in transgressing the norms of the other. Accordingly, if bicultural individuals aligned with Canadian norms they would be transgressing their heritage culture’s norms, and could experience rejection from their families resulting in poor well-being. However, the impact of familial rejection on well-being resulting from such choices could be buffered by feelings of being a part of Canadian society. Using a sample of South Asian Canadians, the present longitudinal study explored the impact of anticipated familial rejection (Time 1) and actual familial rejection (Time 2) for transgressing heritage cultural norms on well-being, and the role of Canadian group identification. Time 1 (N=224) results revealed that participants who anticipated rejection experienced poor well-being; however, well-being was protected for those who identified highly as Canadian. Similarly, Time 2 (N=68) results suggested that participants who felt rejected experienced poor well-being; however, well-being was protected for those who identified highly as Canadian (though results were not statistically significant, likely due to the low retention rate since Time 1). Results of the present study suggest that highly identifying as Canadian can alleviate the negative impact of familial rejection on well-being when bicultural Canadians transgress their heritage cultural norms.