Brief Report: Reconsideration Of Acculturative Experiences Among Chinese Immigrants

Abstract

Although adolescent immigrants often acculturate into the mainstream culture at a faster rate and to a greater extent than adult immigrants, studies of first generation immigrants have overlooked the experiences of the “1.5-generation,” those who immigrate before or during their teen years. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between generation level and acculturation among Chinese immigrants. The sample consisted of 112 Chinese American adults who were recruited from the local Chinese community in Los Angeles County. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the Asian American Multidimensional Acculturation Scale. The result from a one-way analysis of variance indicated that 1.5-generation Chinese Americans reported a significantly higher level of accultueration towards the European-American culture than first-generation Chinese Americans. The linear multiple regression results indicated that the two independent variables – age of the immigrants and their acculturation towards European-American culture – collectively and significantly explained more than 40% of the variance of acculturation towards the European-American culture. This study demonstrated that 1.5-generation Chinese immigrants reported critical differences in their acculturative experiences compared with first-generation Chinese immigrants. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of considering 1.5-generation Chinese immigrants or their age at their time of immigration in the measures of acculturation in future studies. Limitations of this research are also discussed.