Minorities' acculturation and social adjustment: the moderator role of meta-perceptions of majority's acculturation attitudes

João H. C. António*, Maria Benedicta Monteiro

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Two studies addressed the role of Black meta-perception of acculturation attitudes on the relation between minority acculturation attitudes and their social adjustment (school achievement and perceived quality of intergroup relations). Participants in both studies were Black Lusophone adolescents living in Portugal. Study 1 (N = 140) indicated that participants' attitude regarding the host culture was positively correlated with their school achievement and to their evaluation of intergroup relations. It also indicated that participants' meta-perception of majority attitude add to the explained variance of participants' social adjustment. Study 2 (N = 62) manipulated the perceived majority high/low support of immigrants' learning the host culture. The dependent variable (DV) was perceived quality of intergroup relations. Only in the low support condition were participants' attitudes towards the host culture positively related to perceived quality of Black-White relationships. These results suggest that perceived social context is central to understand the relationship between minority adolescents' acculturation attitudes and key dimensions of their adjustment to host societies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)422-430
Number of pages9
JournalInternational Journal of Psychology
Volume50
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Acculturation
  • Adolescents
  • Meta-perceptions
  • School achievement
  • Social adjustment

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