This study compares the adaptation of diaspora immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union, ethnic Germans in Germany, and Russian Jews in Israel, using a new measure of acculturation-related hassles, which were defined as minor negative experiences originating from being an immigrant. Participants, who were 16 years of age on average in both immigrant groups, were assigned to three groups according to their length of residence. Based on acculturation theories, hypotheses were tested regarding frequency of language hassles, discrimination hassles, and family hassles depending on immigrant group and length-of-residence group. Results indicate that the overall level of language hassles and discrimination hassles was comparable in both countries, but family hassles were reported more frequently by immigrant adolescents in Israel. Adolescent immigrants in both countries reported fewer language hassles after being in the country for a longer period of time, although this effect was stronger in Germany. With regard to discrimination hassles and family hassles, adolescent immigrants who had lived in Germany for a longer period of time reported such hassles less frequently than their newly arrived counterparts; the opposite was found for adolescent immigrants in Israel. The results are discussed with regard to differences between both receiving countries in terms of necessity and opportunities to integrate into the receiving society.
Abu-Rabia, S. ( 1999). Attitudes and psycholinguistic aspects of first language maintenance among Russian-Jewish immigrants in Israel. Educational Psychology, 19, 133-148.
2.
Agnew, R. ( 1995). The contribution of social-psychological strain theory to the explanation of crime and delinquency. In F. Adler & W. S. Laufer (Eds.), The legacy of anomie theory (pp. 113-137). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
3.
Al-Haj, M. ( 1998). Soviet immigration as viewed by Jews and Arabs: Divided attitudes in a divided country. In E. Leshem & J. T. Shuval (Eds.), Immigration to Israel: Sociological perspectives (pp. 211-227). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
4.
Al-Haj, M. ( 2004). Immigration and ethnic formation in a deeply divided society. The case of the 1990s immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.
5.
Amelang, M., & Zielinski, W. ( 1997). Psychologische Diagnostik und Intervention [Psychological diagnostics and intervention]. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
6.
Arbuckle, J.L. ( 2006). Amos (Version 7.0) [computer program]. Chicago, IL: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences .
7.
Berry, J.W. ( 1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5-34.
8.
Berry, J. W., Phinney, J. S., Sam, D. L., & Vedder, P. (Eds.). (2006). Immigrant youth in cultural transition: Acculturation, identity, and adaptation across national contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
Berry, J.W., Poortinga, Y.H., Segall, M.H., & Dasen, P.R. ( 2002). Cross-cultural psychology. Research and applications . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Birman, D. ( 2006). Acculturation gap and family adjustment: Findings with Soviet Jewish refugees in the United States and implications for measurement . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37, 568-589.
11.
Birman, D., & Trickett, E.J. (2001). Cultural transitions in first-generation immigrants: Acculturation of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents and parents. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 456-477.
12.
Bourhis, R., Moïse, L., Perreault, S., & Senécal, S. (1997). Towards an interactive acculturation model: A social psychological approach. International Journal of Psychology, 32, 369-386.
13.
Browne, M.W., & Cudeck, R. ( 1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models (pp. 136-162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Coakes, S.J., & Steed, L.G. ( 1999). SPSS. Analysis without anguish. Milton , Australia: John Wiley & Sons.
16.
Delongis, A., Coyne, J.C., Dakof, G., Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R.S. ( 1982). Relationship of daily hassles, uplifts and minor life events to health status. Health Psychology, 1, 119-136.
17.
Dietz, B. ( 2006). Aussiedler in Germany: From smooth adaptation to tough integration. In L. Lucassen, D. Feldman, & J. Oltmer (Eds.), Paths of integration: Migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004) (pp. 116-136). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.
18.
Esser, H. ( 1980). Aspekte der Wanderungssoziologie [Aspects of migration sociology]. Darmstadt/Neuwied, Germany: Luchterhand.
19.
Farrell, A., Sullivan, T., Esposito, L., Meyer, A., & Valois, R. ( 2005). A latent growth curve analysis of the structure of aggression, drug use, and delinquent behaviors and their interrelations over time in urban and rural adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence , 15, 179-204.
20.
Fuchs, M. ( 1999). Die Wohnungssituation der Aussiedler [Accommodation of ethnic German immigrants]. In R. K. Silbereisen , E. D. Lantermann & E. Schmitt-Rodermund (Eds.), Aussiedler in Deutschland. Akkulturation von Persönlichkeit und Verhalten (pp. 91-104). Opladen , Germany: Leske + Budrich.
21.
Giles, D.C. ( 2002). Advanced research methods in psychology. East Sussex, UK: Routledge.
22.
Greene, M.L., Way, N., & Pahl, K. ( 2006). Trajectories of perceived adult and peer discrimination among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents: Patterns and psychological correlates. Developmental Psychology, 42, 218-238.
23.
Hernandez, D. J., & Charney, E. (Eds.). (1998). From generation to generation. The health and well-being of children in immigrant families . Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
24.
Janikowski, A. ( 1999). Berufliche Integration der Aussiedler und Aussiedlerinnen [Occupational integration of ethnic German immigrants]. In R. K. Silbereisen, E. D. Lantermann, & E. Schmitt-Rodermund (Eds.), Aussiedler in Deutschland. Akkulturation von Persönlichkeit und Verhalten (pp. 113-142). Opladen, Germany: Leske + Budrich.
25.
Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Liebkind, K., Horenczyk, G., & Schmitz, P. ( 2003). The interactive nature of acculturation: Perceived discrimination, acculturation attitudes and stress among young ethnic repatriates in Finland, Israel and Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 79-97.
26.
Kolaitis, G., Tsiantis, J., Madianos, M., & Kotsopoulos, S. (2003). Psychological adaptation of immigrant Greek children from the former Soviet Union. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 12, 67-74.
27.
Kühnel, S., & Leibold, J. ( 2000). Die anderen und wir: Das Verhältnis zwischen Deutschen und Ausländern aus der Sicht der in Deutschland lebenden Ausländer [The others and we: The relations of Germans and foreigners seen from foreigners living in Germany]. In R. Alba, P. Schmidt, & M. Wasmer (Eds.), Deutsche oder Ausländer: Freunde, fremde oder feinde? Empirische befunde und theoretische erklärungen (pp. 112-146). Wiesbaden, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag.
28.
Kwak, K. ( 2003). Adolescents and their parents: A review of intergenerational family relations for immigrant and non-immigrant Families. Human Development, 46, 115-136.
29.
Lay, C.H., & Safdar, S.F. ( 2003). Daily hassles and distress among college students in relation to immigrant and minority status. Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social, 22, 3-22.
30.
Masgoret, A.- M., & Ward, C. ( 2006). Culture learning approach to acculturation. In D. L. Sam & J. W. Berry (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology (pp. 58-77). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
31.
McCartney, K., & Rosenthal, R. ( 2000). Effect size, practical importance, and social policy for children. Child Development, 71, 173-180.
32.
Mesch, G.S. ( 2003). Language proficiency among new immigrants: The role of human capital and societal conditions. The case of immigrants from the FSU in Israel. Sociological Perspectives, 46, 41-58.
33.
Mirsky, J. ( 2001). A pre-immigration group intervention with adolescents: An evaluation study. Journal of Social Work Research and Evaluation , 2, 307-318.
34.
Mohler, P.P. ( 1999). Testing for equivalence and bias. In N. Toš, P. P. Mohler, & B. Malnar (Eds.), Modern societies and values. A comparative analysis based on ISSP project (pp. 15-39). Ljubljana, Slovenia: Faculty of Social Sciences.
35.
Nauck, B. ( 2001). Social capital, intergenerational transmission and intercultural contact in immigrant families. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 32, 465-488.
36.
O’Connor, D.B., Jones, F., Conner, M., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. ( 2008). Effects of daily hassles and eating style on eating behavior . Health Psychology, 27, S20-S31.
37.
Petersen, A., Sarigiani, P.A., & Kennedy, R.E. ( 1991). Adolescent depression: Why more girls? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 247-271.
38.
Pfetsch, B. ( 1999). "In Russia we are Germans, and now we are Russians."-Dilemmas of identity formation and communication among German-Russian Aussiedler. Berlin, Germany: Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung .
39.
Remennick, L. ( 2004). Language acquisition, ethnicity and social integration among former Soviet immigrants of the 1990s in Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27, 431-454.
40.
Schmitt-Rodermund, E., & Silbereisen, R.K. (1999). Determinants of differential acculturation of developmental timetables among adolescent immigrants to Germany . International Journal of Psychology, 34, 219-233.
41.
Shuval, J.T. ( 1998). Migration to Israel: The mythology of uniqueness. International Migration, 36, 3-26.
42.
Shuval, J.T., & Leshem, E. ( 1998). The sociology of migration to Israel: A critical review . In E. Leshem & J. T. Shuval (Eds.), Immigration to Israel. Sociological perspectives (pp. 3-50). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
43.
Silbereisen, R. K., Lantermann, E. D., & Schmitt-Rodermund, E. (Eds.). (1999). Aussiedler in Deutschland. Akkulturation von Persönlichkeit und Verhalten [Ethnic Germans in Germany. Acculturation of personality and behavior]. Opladen, Germany: Leske + Budrich.
44.
Silbereisen, R.K., & Schmitt-Rodermund, E. (1999). Wohlbefinden der jugendlichen Aussiedler [Well-being among ethnic German immigrants]. In R. K. Silbereisen, E. D. Lantermann, & E. Schmitt-Rodermund (Eds.), Aussiedler in Deutschland. Akkulturation von Persönlichkeit und Verhalten (pp. 257-275). Opladen, Germany: Leske + Budrich.
45.
Steinbach, A. ( 2001). Intergenerational transmission and integration of repatriate families from the former Soviet Union in Germany. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 32, 505-515.
46.
Steinbach, A., & Nauck, B. ( 2000). Die Wirkung institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen für das individuelle Eingliederungsverhalten von russischen Immigranten in Deutschland und Israel [The effect of institutional conditions on the individual integration of Russian immigrants in Germany and Israel]. In R. Metze, K. Mühler, & K. D. Opp (Eds.), Normen und Institutionen: Entstehung und Wirkungen (pp. 299-320). Leipzig, Germany: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.
47.
Stevens, G. ( 1999). Age at immigration and second language proficiency among foreign-born adults. Language in Society, 28, 555-578.
48.
Titzmann, P.F. ( 2005). Differences in process of acculturation among adolescent immigrants in Israel and Germany: Development and use of a new instrument to assess acculturation hassles (doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-8517/diss_pubikation.pdf
49.
Titzmann, P.F., & Silbereisen, R.K. (2009). Friendship homophily among ethnic German immigrants. A longitudinal comparison between recent and more experienced immigrant adolescents. Journal of Family Psychology , 23, 301-310.
50.
Titzmann, P.F., Silbereisen, R.K., & Schmitt-Rodermund, E. (2007). Friendship homophily among diaspora migrant adolescents in Germany and Israel. European Psychologist, 12, 181-195.
51.
Vinokurov, A., Trickett, E.D., & Birman, D. ( 2002). Acculturative hassles and immigrant adolescents: A life domain assessment for Soviet Jewish refugees. The Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 425-445.
52.
Ward, C. ( 2001). The A, B, Cs of acculturation. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 411-445). New York: Oxford University Press.
53.
Wildman, R.C. ( 1977). Effects of anonymity and social setting on survey responses . Public Opinion Quarterly, 41, 74-79.
54.
Wright, M.O., & Littleford, L.N. (2002). Experiences and beliefs as predictors of ethnic identity and inter-group relations. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 30, 2-20.
55.
Zane, N., & Mak, W. ( 2003). Major approaches to the measurement of acculturation among ethnic minority populations: A content analysis and an alternative empirical strategy. In K. M. Chun, P. B. Organista, & G. Marín (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 39-60). Washington, DC : American Psychological Association.
