Balanced Cultural Identities Promote Cognitive Flexibility among Immigrant Children.

Olivia Spiegler,Birgit Leyendecker

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01579

Olivia Spiegler, Birgit Leyendecker

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01579

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Abstract

The acculturation complexity model suggests that immersion into dissonant cultures promotes cognitive skills in biculturals (Tadmor and Tetlock, 2006). In the present study, we examined links between identity acculturation and executive functioning (EF). Turkish-German immigrant origin children (N = 225; M = 11 years, SD = 1.6 years, 99 males) were given questions about their identification with Turks and Germans to capture bicultural involvement and a Dot Task (using Hearts and Flowers) to measure EF. Results showed that Turkish-German bicultural children who endorse both cultures with equal strength did not have a cognitive advantage in working memory and inhibition compared to their peers who more clearly preferred one culture over the other. However, bicultural children who endorse both cultures with equal strength performed significantly better on a switching task that required cognitive flexibility. The study highlights the potential cognitive benefits associated with biculturalism.

Highlights

An increasingly diverse and mobile world has led to a greater interest in the cognitive advantages of biculturalism (Benet-Martínez et al, 2006; Tadmor et al, 2009) which broadly refers to the internalization of two cultures (Nguyen and Benet-Martínez, 2007)
Immigrants, for example, learn to switch from one language to another and between different cultural meaning systems when interacting with members of the heritage culture versus host culture group (Hong et al, 2000)
The present study explores if biculturalism as a form of equal involvement with two cultures benefits executive functioning (EF)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

An increasingly diverse and mobile world has led to a greater interest in the cognitive advantages of biculturalism (Benet-Martínez et al, 2006; Tadmor et al, 2009) which broadly refers to the internalization of two cultures (Nguyen and Benet-Martínez, 2007). There is no research on biculturalism (e.g., identity acculturation) and EF, but past research shows that bilingual children are more advanced than their monolingual peers in tasks that require EF components (Adesope et al, 2010; Barac et al, 2014). Both bilingualism, and biculturalism require the ability to effectively alternate the use of culturally appropriate behaviors (LaFromboise et al, 1993). Our focus on children is of immediate societal relevance as Turkish-German children are the largest immigrant-origin group in Germany and among the least successful in the German school system compared to native Germans and other immigrant groups, and because EF performance is strongly correlated with academic achievement (Best et al, 2011)

MATERIALS AND METHODS

DISCUSSION

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