school
Definition
School refers to the institutional setting in which immigrant-descent minority youth encounter majority culture norms, peers, and behavioral expectations on a sustained, daily basis. In acculturation research, it is treated as the primary sociocultural context through which minority adolescents gain continuous exposure to majority culture members and the implicit demands of that culture. Outcomes such as school motivation, behavioral engagement, behavioral disengagement, and norm-compliant behavior serve as indicators of sociocultural adjustment within this setting. Perceived discrimination at school functions as a moderating condition: among students who reported high levels of discrimination, emotional fit with the majority culture predicted steeper declines in motivation and engagement over time, whereas no such effects emerged for students perceiving low discrimination.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
Related Terms
- emotional acculturation (1 shared article)
- immigrant minority (1 shared article)
- discrimination (1 shared article)
- adjustment (1 shared article)
Applications
School and Emotional Acculturation
Emotional acculturation, defined as the degree to which immigrant minorities adopt the normative emotional patterns of the majority culture, was examined specifically within the school context because school constitutes the most consistent site of majority culture exposure for minority youth. A two-year longitudinal study with 1,588 minority students in 68 secondary schools in Belgium found that higher emotional fit predicted lower school motivation and lower behavioral engagement over time, even as it positively predicted contact with majority peers. The school context thus shaped whether emotional acculturation operated as a benefit or a liability depending on students' concurrent experience of discrimination.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
School and Perceived Discrimination
Perceived discrimination at school moderated the consequences of emotional fit for academic adjustment. For students reporting high discrimination, emotional fit strongly predicted declines in school motivation and behavioral engagement, and increases in non-compliant behavior, whereas students perceiving low discrimination showed no such effects. This pattern suggests that feeling emotionally aligned with the majority culture while simultaneously being treated as different may produce resistance or withdrawal rather than engagement.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
