emotional acculturation
Definition
Emotional acculturation refers to the implicit adoption of the majority culture's normative emotion patterns by immigrant-descent individuals, occurring without necessarily conscious awareness as they engage with and adapt to the demands of a new cultural context. Emotional acculturation is measured as the fit between individuals' emotional patterns and the dominant culture's prevalent emotional norms, and research with secondary school students has demonstrated that it positively predicts contact with majority peers over time, yet negatively predicts school engagement (motivation, behavioral engagement, and school compliance), particularly among those perceiving high discrimination.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
Related Terms
Applications
Emotional Acculturation and School Engagement
Emotional acculturation exhibits a paradoxical relationship with school engagement outcomes in immigrant-descent youth. While emotional fit with the majority culture positively predicts contact with majority peers, it simultaneously predicts lower school motivation and behavioral engagement over time, with particularly strong negative effects among students perceiving high discrimination at school.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
Emotional Acculturation and Perceived Discrimination
Perceived discrimination serves as a critical contextual moderator of emotional acculturation's effects on school adjustment. For students perceiving high levels of discrimination, emotional fit with the majority culture strongly predicts declines in school motivation and behavioral engagement and increases in behavioral disengagement and non-compliance, whereas these negative effects do not emerge among students perceiving low discrimination.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
Emotional Acculturation and Peer Contact
Emotional acculturation positively predicts contact with majority culture peers over time, suggesting that emotional fit with majority norms facilitates the formation and maintenance of cross-cultural relationships among immigrant-descent minority youth in school settings.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
