The relationships between multi-cultural adolescents’ acculturation stress and psycho-social adjustment: the mediating effect of ego-identity and the moderating effect of perceived social support

The purpose of this study is to verify the mediating effect of ego-identity and the moderating effect of perceived social support between acculturation stresses and psycho-social adjustments. Acculturation stress scale items are designed based on focus group interviews, and the previous studies are reviewed to examine content validity, construct validity, and reliability. The major findings were as follows. First, acculturation stress shows a significant positive correlation with psycho-social adjustment and negative correlation with ego-identity. Second, the mediating effect of ego-identity between acculturation stress and psycho-social adjustment reveals that ego-identity has a partial mediation effect on the relationship between the two variables. Third, the moderating effect of perceived social support between acculturation stress and psycho-social adjustment reveals that the perception of social support has no moderating effect on the relationship between the two variables. Finally, the limitations and suggestions for future research are mentioned.