A review of the acculturative stress scale for the Chinese community of Kolkata

Abstract

Kolkata serves as a hub for many immigrant ethnic groups, including Armenians, Jews, Parsis, Chinese, and others. Among them, the Chinese appear to be the most important. The research emphasizes on the Chinese community of Kolkata, which attempted to integrate into the host culture by perceiving which qualities or behaviours are socially acceptable and shunning those that are harmful. Chinese rejection within society has been a very prevalent phenomenon since the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962. The Chinese minority in Kolkata experienced increased stress as a result of social adjustment, resulting in culture shock among this ethnic community. They are subjected to uneven treatment, particularly following the 1962 conflict, which widened the gap between the Chinese-Indian community and the general public. The objective of this study aims to create a culturally competent scale to assess the acculturative stress experienced by the Chinese community of Kolkata after the Sino-India conflict in 1962. Acculturative stress arises when an ethnic group is faced with adversity in social circumstances. The exploratory factor analysis was initiated on a series of 27 items, representing four unique stressor domain labels, which include fear (10 items), perceived discrimination (7 items), negative feelings (4 items), and social isolation (6 items). The major findings of this research are that the community is plagued by anxiety, and non-acceptance by the host culture after the 1962 war imposed a psychological impact upon the mind-set of the Chinese at that time and that fear of non-acceptance has remained among the Chinese immigrants which linked to apprehension about how to live in the new society but they tried effectively dealing with acculturative stresses in their lives.