Acculturation and psychological functioning in Asian Indian adolescents

The objective of this exploratoty study was to understand how Asian Indian immigrant families adjust to US. culture by examining factors that influence acculturation preferences or styles and how these styles may be associated with their children psychological functioning, as measured by self-esteem and academic performance. 85 US.-born Asian Indian adolescents (45 girls; 40 boys) and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires about family demography, self-identification, acculturation, and religiosity. Adolescents also completed a self-perception profile. Results showed parents and adolescents had similar styles of acculturation. However adolescents were more likely to self-identify as 'Indian-American' than were their parents. For both adolescents and their parents, integrated and assimilated acculturation styles were related to family SES, years of US, residence, and religiosity scores. Adolescents who had an integrated acculturation so,le had higher GPAs and higher scores oil the self-perception profile than did adolescents who were separated or marginalized. The findings lend tentative support for an integrated so,le of acculturation in promoting positive outcomes for first generation Asian Indian adolescents.