Parenting abroad: the acculturation experiences of Brazilian immigrants and sojourners

In this study, we investigated the acculturation experiences of Brazilian parents living in foreign countries. Acculturation is the process of cultural and psychological change that happens when a person moves from their home culture to a host culture. It has implications for the family system, as sometimes parents and children acculturate differently. Participants were 1,306 Brazilian-born parents living with their children in the same household in 51 different countries. An online questionnaire was built to collect sociodemographic information and assess their perceived frequency of opportunities and challenges in the new country. It also assessed acculturation measures using Demes and Geeraert’s (2014) scales for Brief Sociocultural Adaptation, Brief Psychological Adaptation, Brief Perceived Cultural Distance, and Brief Acculturation Orientation. Parents demonstrated that they perceived more opportunities than challenges. The findings are important for developing a broader understanding of the different acculturation styles of Brazilians experiencing parenthood abroad, and how they are related to sociocultural and psychological adaptation. There is still little research about parenting abroad conducted with Brazilian migrants, although they represent 0.73% of the total population of the country. These findings also provide insights for a variety of professionals who deal with the Brazilian migrant population.