The role of demographic variables and acculturation attitudes in predicting sociocultural and psychological adaptation in Moroccans in the Netherlands

Abstract

The goals of the present study were two-fold: (i) to test the independence of the attitudes of second-generation migrants toward their culture of origin and toward the culture of the host society; and (ii) to test a path model in which these acculturation attitudes moderate and/or mediate the relationship between demographic factors (age, gender, occupation, education, and length of stay) and acculturation outcomes (including psychological adjustment, as measured by mental health and sociocultural acculturation as measured by school success, work success). Both hypotheses were to a large extent confirmed in a group of 155 second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands. The results suggest that the two underlying dimensions of acculturation attitudes were largely independent across migrants and slightly negatively related within migrants; furthermore, there were some indications that ethnic culture was to some extent more liked in the personal domain and the host culture more in the public domain. Acculturation attitudes mediated the relationship between demographic variables and sociocultural adaptation. In turn, sociocultural adaptation mediated the relationship between acculturation attitudes and psychological adaptation. The results showed also that sociocultural and psychological adaptation had their own predictors; psychological adaptation was directly predicted by background variables while sociocultural adaptation was directly predicted by acculturation attitudes.