Exploring the Acculturation Strategies Among First Generation and Second Generation

Abstract

The majority of Indians living in the US came to the US during the Y2K scare close to 2000 and were first-generation immigrants who faced a very different culture than they had in India. Many people had different strategies to adapt to the newness of American Culture. This paper aims to explore and understand the similarities and differences in the acculturation strategies used by how first-generation parents, specifically mothers and second-generation immigrants i.e. their adolescent children. A total sample of 30 respondents reading in Bay Area (15= mothers, 15= adolescents) was taken using convenience sampling. The adolescent acculturation strategies were measured by the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ) (Szapocznik, Scopetta, Kurtines, & Aranalde, 1978), and adult acculturation strategies were measured by the Likert scale. This questionnaire, based on a scale of 1-5, measures biculturalism and lack thereof, as well as cultural involvement and lack thereof. To analyze, a Mann-Whitney U test was carried out. Children adapted to the new American culture, whereas mothers mainly stayed with Indian culture, and children were more culturally involved than their mothers. This implies that children on the whole used their mother’s strategies about halfway through when they began to incorporate American culture into their life.