Content area
Abstract
The study examined acculturation, acculturative stress, and coping behaviors of 506 Chinese immigrant adolescents from three cohorts [284 Early-Entry Chinese Immigrants (ECI), 106 Late-Entry Chinese Immigrants (LCI), and 108 Chinese Sojourners (CS)] in Toronto, Canada. The participants completed a questionnaire that included: (1) the Social Customs and Language subscales of the Minority-Majority Relations Scale (MMRS: Sodowsky, Lai, & Plake, 1991); (2) Cultural Stress Items of the Cultural Adjustment Difficulties Checklist (CADC: Sodowsky & Lai, 1997); and (3) the Cross-Cultural Coping Scale (CCCS) developed for the study.
Exploratory factor analysis of the CCCS yielded a four-factor solution and accounted for 33.4% of the total variance in coping scores. This structure supported conceptual dimensions of (1) Collectivistically-Oriented Coping (α = .87) with group-referenced and values-based Factors (2 factors); and (2) Individualistically-Oriented Coping (α = .73) with problem-focused and avoidance Factors (2 factors). The final version of the CCCS consisted of 44 items (α = .86: 2 identical coping items for two scenarios).
As hypothesized, a significant MANOVA was found indicating overall cohort group differences in Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, and Coping. ANOVAs and Tukey tests further revealed that the ECI group significantly differed from LCI and CS groups in these variables. ECI had higher acculturation, lower acculturative stress, and lower use of coping attempts than both LCI and CS. However, no significant difference was found between LCI and CS. Multiple regressions showed that: (1) Individualistically-Oriented Coping was predicted by Acculturative Stress; (2) Collectivistically-Oriented Coping was predicted by Acculturation, and (3) Acculturation was significantly predicted by Age, Years of Residence in Canada, and SES Index.
The study demonstrated cohort differences among Chinese adolescents in Toronto with regard to acculturation issues and coping. The CCCS appears to be a promising multicultural instrument for cross-cultural research or clinical assessment of coping. These results are discussed and suggestions are provided for future research.
