Models of Cultural Adjustment for Child and Adolescent Migrants to Australia: Internal Process and Situational Factors

Building on previous cultural adjustment profile work by Sonderegger and Barrett (2004), the aim of this study was to propose an organised structure for a number of single risk factors that have been linked to acculturative-stress in young migrants. In recognising that divergent situational characteristics (e.g., school level, gender, residential duration in Australia, social support, and cultural predisposition) are selectively paired with internal processing characteristics (e.g., emotional stability, self-worth/acceptance, acculturation/identity, and future outlook), a top-down path model of acculturative-stress for children and adolescents was proposed and validated. Self-report ratings obtained from primary ( n =131) and high school ( n =142) students of former-Yugoslavian and Chinese backgrounds were analysed for internal reliability. To determine goodness of model fit, path analysis utilising regression procedures was employed. Specific cross-cultural profiles are discussed.