Personal Adjustment to Acculturative Transitions: The Turkish Experience

Abstract

This research examines personal adjustment to acculturative transitions. Internal adjustment, or well‐being, and external adjustment, or effectiveness, are analyzed in two acculturation contexts: migration from rural to urban settings in Turkey, and international migration from Turkey to Belgium. Comparisons are made between low‐SES (socioeconomic status) and high‐SES youth in Istanbul, as well as between these youngsters and Turkish youth in Belgium. Adjustment is explained by collectivism and achievement values among acculturating persons, and by social inequality and cultural distance between acculturating and dominant cultural groups. Full causal models are used to test individual‐level and group‐level explanations of acculturative adjustment. It is found that Turkish youngsters with a collectivistic value orientation have fewer adjustment problems. Second, social inequality increases internal adjustment problems of low‐SES youth in Turkey, and cultural distance adds to external adjustment problems of Turkish immigrant youth in Belgium. Third, social inequality reinforces collectivism of low‐SES youth in Turkey, whereas in Belgium, collectivism is reinforced by cultural distance. Simultaneously, cultural distance in Belgium lowers achievement values of Turkish immigrant youth.