Impact of Parents' Motivation for Ethnocultural Continuity and Acculturation Strategies on Acculturation of Children in Russian Families in Latvia

• Main Authors: Ryabichenko T.A., Lebedeva N.M., Plotka I.D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education 2015-08-01
• Series: Культурно-историческая психология
• Subjects: acculturation; motivation for ethnocultural continuity; ethnic minorities; acculturation strategies; satisfaction with life
• Online Access: http://psyjournals.ru/kip/2015/n2/Ryabichenko_Lebedeva_Plotka.shtml

The paper presents outcomes of an empirical research on the relationship between motivation for ethnocultural continuity and acculturation strategies in ethnocultural minorities (with Russians in Latvia as an example). Since acculturation is a process that affects several generations, we adopted a research plan that involved representatives of two generations of a family (parents and children). 112 Russian families participated in the research (parents: N=112, age 35—59, Me=42; children: N=112, age 16—24, Me=17). A questionnaire we used included J. Berry's acculturation strategies, scales of satisfaction with life and oneself, and the Motivation for Ethnocultural Continuity scale by C. Ward. The employed structural modeling revealed that acculturation strategies of the children correlate significantly with those of their parents as well as with their own motivation for ethnicultural continuity. The adolescents' choice of integration strategy is positively related to their satisfaction with themselves; however, in the cases of marginalization and assimilation this relation is negative.