Community and family adaptation of adult second-generation Ukrainian-Canadians: The role of acculturation, acculturative stress, and personal and social resources

Community and family domains represent important and understudied contexts of immigrant acculturation and adaptation. Adopting an ecological-contexualist perspective (Birman, Trickett & Vinokurov, 2002; Birman, 1994; Trickett, 1996), two studies were conducted to examine the predictors of community and family adjustment in a sample of 130 adult second-generation Ukrainian-Canadians. Study 1 examined adaptation at the community level by assessing the association between acculturation to Ukrainian and Canadian cultures, perceived social support, religiosity, and sense of community with respect to two community referents: the local Ukrainian ethnic community and the residential neighbourhood. Results demonstrated that acculturation was positively associated with ingroup sense of community, such that acculturation to Ukrainian culture predicted stronger sense of community in the local ethnic community. Personal and social resources, including religiosity and perceived social support from Canadian friends and neighbours were positive predictors of neighbourhood sense of community. Study 2 investigated adaptation at the family level by measuring the influence of acculturation variables (familism, acculturation to Ukrainian and Canadian cultures) and acculturative stressor variables (acculturative family hassles) on family life satisfaction overall. In addition, the importance of these predictors for the following three family subsystems was explored: family life satisfaction with spouses, family life satisfaction with parents and family life satisfaction with children. Results indicated that in terms of overall family life satisfaction, family life satisfaction with spouses, family life satisfaction with parents, both acculturation variables and acculturative stressor variables made significant and unique contributions to the explanation of quality of family life. Furthermore, acculturative stressor variables were found to negatively predict total family satisfaction, marital satisfaction and parental satisfaction, over and above the effects of demographic variables and acculturation variables. In contrast, neither acculturation variables nor acculturative stressor variables significantly predicted family life satisfaction with children. Taken together, the results of the two studies showed support for an ecological approach to the conceptualization and measurement of immigrant adaptation in community and family spheres of life, emphasizing the need to understand the relationship between acculturation and outcomes 'in context'. The findings are discussed in light of the literature and theoretical and research implications of the results are presented, along with recommendations for future research