A Dyadic Examination of the Acculturation Gap

For many migrants, the process of acculturation takes place within the family context. Do parents and children experience the same acculturation process, or are there discrepancies? Such discrepancies or acculturation gaps have been associated with negative outcomes for children and families. Interestingly, researchers typically operationalize acculturation from the child’s perspective, comparing children’s and parent’s levels of acculturation as reported by the children, without considering parents self-reported acculturation. In addition, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on the nature and direction of acculturation gaps. Using the bi-dimensional model of acculturation, the present study surveyed parents and adolescents on their self-report level of acculturation towards both the heritage culture and host culture. The acculturation gap in these dyadic relationships (N = 162) were examined at the mean level and within a multilevel regression framework. At the mean level, adolescents and parents reported a stronger orientation towards the heritage culture than the host culture. However, this effect was less pronounced for adolescents, suggesting the presence of a gap. The relationship between acculturation levels and adolescents’ satisfaction with life as the outcome variable was examined by means of a series of dyadic multilevel analyses. Different types of gaps were modelled, including parents versus adolescents (generational gaps) and heritage versus host culture (cultural gaps). The generational gap analyses revealed that the overall level of acculturation was more important than the acculturation gap. The cultural gap analyses revealed that parent marginalization was associated with low satisfaction with life, and parent assimilation associated with high satisfaction with life.