The role of family acculturation, parental style, and perceived discrimination in the adaptation of second-generation immigrant youth in France and Canada

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the risk and protective factors that affect adolescents' psychological and socio-cultural adaptation within immigrant families. We consider how parents' and adolescents' acculturation orientations and parental socialization practices promote the adaptation of adolescents and protect them against discrimination in two receiving countries (France and Canada). Adolescents (N = 718), mothers (N = 625), and fathers (N = 518) filled out questionnaires. Analyses indicate similarities and differences between the two contexts. Country differences exist for intercultural relations, family climate, level of adaptation, and the factors that predict adaptation. Immigrant youth in France are less ethnic-oriented and tend to be more national-oriented, although their parents are less national-oriented than Canadian immigrant parents. French youth have lower self-esteem, are more involved in deviance and perceive more group discrimination. The French family climate appears to be more distant (less disclosure, more authoritarianism and less support from parents). According to hierarchical regression analyses, when protective factors are taken into account, discrimination still affects self-esteem of Canadian adolescents but not of French adolescents. Direct effects of parents' acculturation orientations and parental styles are observed in the French context, but not in the Canadian context. These results are interpreted within an ecocultural model of socialization and acculturation.