1 Psychological adjustment and cultural identities of immigrant adolescents Evgeny Tartakovsky, Ph.D. Tel-Aviv University, The School of Social Work

2 Research objectives To formulate and test a developmental model of the immigrants’ psychological adjustment and cultural identities

3 Research design 1.Immigrant adolescents were studied at the pre- migration stage (1/2 year before emigration) 2.Two cohorts of immigrant adolescents were studied in the pre-migration stage (7 years apart) 3.Immigrant adolescents were followed during their first years in the new country (2.5 years) 4.Immigrant adolescents were compared to their non-emigrating peers in the country of origin

4 Immigrant population: the participants of the Na’ale program from Russia and Ukraine

5 Some information about the Na’ale program The program was founded in 1992, and it has brought more than 15,000 adolescents to Israel (50% of all immigrant adolescents from the USSR in this age group) Age at the beginning: 15 (10 th grade) Selection (about 60% accepted) In 1999, 2451 adolescents completed the testing procedures; in 2006 only 918 adolescents took these tests Immigrants from Russia and Ukraine represent about 80% of the Na'ale students and about 70% of all immigrants to Israel

6 Samples Immigrants (from 40 cities in Russia and Ukraine): –Pre-migration stage (1999/2006): 654/243 candidates to the program –Longitudinal study in Israel ( ): 211 -> 151 adolescents participating in the program Non-Jewish adolescents in Russia and Ukraine studying in grades (from 8 cities in Russia and 4 cities in Ukraine): –2000: 468 –2007: 740

7 Socio-demographic characteristics of the samples (2006/7) Socio-demographic characteristicsEmigrantsNon-emigrants Adolescents living in Russia/ Ukraine *131/112461/279 Females60%58% Adolescents living in big cities *37%49% Single-parent families *35%23% Three generation families20%17% Fathers with a tertiary education55%60% Fathers' occupation (unemployed, manual or clerical, professional or managerial) 8%, 40%, 52% 8%, 36%, 56% Number of children in the family1.96 (1.01)1.93 (1.07) Number of rooms in the family apartment2.70 (.79)2.82 (1.11) Mixed ethnicity61%, 29%, 4%, 4% 14% * p<.05

8 Psychological adjustment of immigrants

9 Measures of psychological adjustment 1.General Self-esteem – the Self-liking/Self-worth scale (Tafarodi & Swann, 1995): "Owing to my capabilities, I have much potential“ 2.Social competence –the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI) (Helmreich & Stapp, 1974): "I enjoy being around other people and seek out social encounters frequently" 3.School competence – 10 items from the multifaceted academic self-concept scale (Marsh, Byrne, & Shavelson, 1988): "Compared with my classmates, I must study more than they do to get the same grades". 4.Loneliness – a Short-Form Measure of Loneliness (Hays & DiMatteo, 1987): "I lack companionship" 5.Emotional and behavioral problems – Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991)

10 Self-esteem

11 Social competence

12 School competence

13 Loneliness

14 Emotional and behavioral problems

15 Factors affecting the immigrants’ psychological adjustment 1.The pre-migration indexes of psychological well-being (r= in the first year; in the third year) 2.Perceived discrimination (-). Pre-migration vs. post- migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs (.65) 3.Perceived social support from peers (+) 4.Perceived social support from parents (some indexes) (+) 5.Perceived social support from teachers (some indexes) (+) 6.Family composition (some indexes) (- for single-parent families) 7.Parents’ education (some indexes) (+)

16 Theoretical inferences 1.Why euphoria in the pre-migration period: high expectations and/or self-selection? 2.The shattering assumptions hypothesis in immigration was refuted. 3.The U-curve hypothesis confirmed: high expectations increase psychological adjustment, social obstacles decrease, and successful coping increases 4.The morbidity hypothesis refuted, but why YSR did not improve? The effect of social factors (immigrants’ cultural norms, e.g. alcohol and smoking; discrimination) The effect of biological factors (no change in psychological well-being in Russia and Ukraine for the last 10 years)

17 Questions for further research 1.Is the found pattern of changes in the psychological adjustment universal for all voluntary immigrants or is it specific for adolescents immigrating in educational programs or for Diaspora immigrants? 2.How the psychological adjustment changes in the pre-migration period? 3.How the psychological adjustment changes across immigrant generations?

18 Practical recommendations 1.Immigrants’ selection 2.Preparation for emigration – strengthening the immigrants’ pre-migration psychological adjustment including social skills, and academic skills 3.Fighting discrimination in the receiving country 4.Strengthening social support, especially from the immigrants’ peers (A Finnish study on adults) 5.Should we strengthen the immigrant ghetto?

19 Cultural identities of immigrants

20 What do we know about cultural identities of immigrants? 1.Immigrants have a multifaceted system of cultural identities 2.The immigrants’ identity associated with their country of origin is more salient than their identity associated with the receiving country 3.Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, Jewish identity is the most salient, followed by Russian and Israeli identities 4.The relationships between the identities associated with the country of origin and the receiving country varied across immigrant groups, and may be negative, orthogonal, or positive 5.Among Jewish immigrants from Russia in Israel, a negative correlation was usually found between their Russian and Israeli identities 6.A stronger level of perceived discrimination was associated with a stronger ethnic identity and a weaker national identity of immigrants

21 The main objectives of my studies 1.To examine the relative strength of Jewish, Russian, and Israeli identities of the emigrants and the relationships between them in the pre-migration period 2.To compare Russian identity of emigrants with the matching group of non-emigrating adolescents 3.To investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on cultural identities of emigrants in the pre- and post- migration periods 4.To investigate the dynamics of changes in cultural identities in the post-migration period 5.To investigate the connection between the components of cultural identities and the psychological well-being of immigrants

22 Measures of cultural identities: Russian, Israeli, Jewish Attitude towards a country: a 20-item scale (Tartakovsky, 2009) I am proud of Russia/Ukraine I feel comfortable in Russia/Ukraine Identification with a nation and with an ethnic minority group (Roccas, 1997) Being Russian is an important part of my self-definition When I talk about Russians, I say ‘we’ and not ‘they’ When Russians are criticized, I take it personally It is important for me to think about myself as a Russian

23 Other instruments Perceived discrimination: the 10-item Discrimination Questionnaire (Phinney, Madden & Santos, 1998) –Russian/Ukrainian students in my school are hostile towards me because I am Jewish –I feel that I am not wanted in Russian/Ukrainian society because I am Jewish Perceived social support: a 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support from parents, peers, and teachers (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) –My parents really try to help me –I have friends with whom I can share my joys and sorrows –There is a teacher who is around when I am in need

24 Attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine among emigrants and non-emigrants

25 Identification with Russians/Ukrainians among emigrants and non-emigrants

26 Emigrants’ attitudes towards Russia/Ukraine and towards Israel

27 Emigrants’ identification with Russians/Ukrainians, Israelis, and Jews

28 Factors affecting pre-migration cultural identities of emigrants Number of Jewish grandparents Jewish by the religious law Perceived discrimination Attitude R/U * Identification R/U Attitude Israel Identification Israel * Identification Jewish.21*.13.16*

29 Changes in the emigrants’ cultural identities 1999/2006

30 Correlations between the dimensions of emigrants’ cultural identity 1999/2006 Correlations Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Identification with Russians/Ukrainians.49*.36* Attitude towards Israel – Identification with Jews.48*.51* Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Attitude towards Israel Identification with Russians/Ukrainians – Identification with Jews -.32*.05 Attitude towards Russia/Ukraine – Identification with Jews -.19*-.01 Identification with Russians/Ukrainians – Attitude towards Israel -.24*-.01

31 Russian and Israeli identities are not contradictory

32 Russian and Jewish identities are not contradictory

33 Changes in attitudes towards Israel and Russia/Ukraine

34 Changes in identification with Israelis and Russians/Ukrainians

35 Factors affecting post-migration cultural identities Pre-migration identities Ethnicity (Jewish vs. mixed, but not the degree of the mix) Perceived discrimination: (- Attitude Isr, Id Isr and Attitude R/U; + Id R/U) Pre-migration vs. post-migration perceived discrimination, M(SD) = 1.51 (.61) vs (.65) Parental attachment

36 Discussion: Pre- and post-migration cultural identities 1.Emigrants are partially detached from their homeland and have a strong attachment to the country of provisional immigration 2.Self-selection or/and cognitive dissonance? 3.The pre-migration system of cultural identities is “anticipatory” (Merton, 1968); i.e., it is not based on a realistic comparison (?) 4.Jewish identity is very strong despite the fact that 96% of the adolescents were of mixed ethnic origin, and 61% had only one Jewish grandparent 5.Cultural identities are subjective constructs, which strength and relationships vary following social circumstances 6.In the post-migration period cultural identities change following adjustment difficulties and discrimination

37 Why cultural identities are important: they predict acculturation strategies Predicting variables SeparationAssimilationIntegration Marginali zation Attitude Israel *-.39* Attitude R/U *.19*-.03 Identification Israel * Identification R/U.35*-.17* R2R2.20*** 22***21***.15*

38 Why cultural identities are important: the are related to psychological adjustment Components of cultural identity Emotional & behavioral problems Self Esteem Social compete nce School compet ence Loneli ness Attitude R/U -.15*.31*.20*.19*-.20* Attitude Israel -.26*.27*.32* * Identification R/U Identification Israel R2R2.08*.20*.14*.03.21*

39 Receiving society wants assimilation or integration Angela Merkel: “Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have utterly failed" David Cameron: “Multiculturalism has failed in Britain” Nicolas Sarkozy: “If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France”

40 Practical recommendations 1.The pre-migration cultural identities are positively correlated with the post-migration cultural identities (r = ) 2.Immigrants’ selection: their pre-migration cultural identities are important; their ethnicity is of little importance 3.To reduce perceived discrimination 4.To strengthen the immigrants’ positive attitude towards the receiving country and their positive attitude towards the country of origin 5.To fight or not to fight ethnic identity of immigrants?

41 Further questions How cultural identities are formed in the pre-migration period? Cross-generation changes in cultural identities Why identification with the ethnic group and the nation is not related to the psychological adjustment of immigrants?

42 Thank you!