Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EMOTIONACCULTURATION (Emotional Acculturation: Emotions as Gateways to Minority Inclusion)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-03-01 al 2024-08-31
International migration has often been referred to as one of the major challenges of the 21st century. Numbers of immigrants have been increasing, but social integration of migrants and their children is lagging at the detriment of immigrant minorities themselves and often resulting in conflict within receiving societies. EmotionAcculturation investigates the role of emotions, as key processes of interaction, for immigrant minorities’ social inclusion, and their wellbeing. It builds on research showing that, in each culture, emotions are socialized to fit the most valued kinds of relationships, and that the prevalent emotions, therefore, vary across cultures. I postulate that misfit of the emotions of immigrant minorities with the typical majority emotions compromises interactions, and that this will hamper their social integration, and therefore their opportunities in the larger society. I study how and when emotional acculturation forms an important gateway to the social inclusion and wellbeing of immigrant minority individuals. The grant is organized around three Objectives: to better understand 1) the nature of emotional acculturation, 2) its conditions, and 3) its outcomes. I adopt a multi-method approach, following large numbers of immigrant minority and majority participants over time, in their everyday lives, and in real-time interactions in the laboratory. The project will span two receiving national contexts with different diversity climates (Belgium, California). It will shed light on understudied micro-processes involved in minority inclusion, and their social and health consequences. EmotionAcculturation offers a novel approach to psychological acculturation that goes beyond attitude change. Moreover, by studying emotional change beyond childhood, it also contributes to our understanding of how emotions are constructed through relational engagements, and how they facilitate social coordination and cohesion
Three large-scale studies are ongoing or have been completed. The first study sampled longitudinal data from a large sample of minority and majority students in representative middle schools in Belgium. In the second study we followed the emotions of large groups of newcomers (i.e. immigrants who arrived within the last 5 years) to Belgium and the US, and mapped changes in their emotions for three years, and related changes in their social networks and in psychological, social, and health outcomes. In Belgium, we are in the middle of wave 2 and will start wave 3 in November 2022. In California the first wave is ongoing, the second wave started in August 2022. In the third study, we followed minority students at Belgian middle schools for 7 days and examined fluctuations in their emotions as they encountered different cultural contexts in their everyday lives. In this study we have also collected extensive social network data. A fourth study is being piloted in both Belgium and the US, in which we examine the role of emotional fit in majority-minority interactions in a controlled lab setting.
We had previously found that generational status of the minority students is associated to their fit to the majority emotional norm, with first generation immigrants having the least fit with the majority emotions; this finding was reason to consider emotional fit a proxy for emotional acculturation. We had also found that self-reported friendships with majority predicted minorities’ fit to majority emotions, similarly pointing to acculturation.
Since the beginning of the grant, we have for the first time established in the Belgian school context that minorities’ emotional fit with the majority over time predicts majority friendships, and conversely, that majority friendships over time predict minorities’ emotional fit with majority emotions. Our first results suggest that, in the Belgian school context, majority students who have minority friendships do not fit the minority emotions any more than do majority students who do not have minority friends. It is possible –and we are in the process of exploring—that the diversity beliefs or practices in certain schools or classrooms affects the extent to which minority and/or majority students come to fit the emotion norms.
We had previously found that generational status of the minority students is associated to their fit to the majority emotional norm, with first generation immigrants having the least fit with the majority emotions; this finding was reason to consider emotional fit a proxy for emotional acculturation. We had also found that self-reported friendships with majority predicted minorities’ fit to majority emotions, similarly pointing to acculturation.
Since the beginning of the grant, we have for the first time established in the Belgian school context that minorities’ emotional fit with the majority over time predicts majority friendships, and conversely, that majority friendships over time predict minorities’ emotional fit with majority emotions. Our first results suggest that, in the Belgian school context, majority students who have minority friendships do not fit the minority emotions any more than do majority students who do not have minority friends. It is possible –and we are in the process of exploring—that the diversity beliefs or practices in certain schools or classrooms affects the extent to which minority and/or majority students come to fit the emotion norms.
In our project we have collected (and are collecting) much needed longitudinal survey data on immigrants who newly arrive in a culture. Unique features of our data set are the social network data in every wave of data collection (i.e. every year), the collection of (emotion) narratives at waves 1 and 3, and measurements of biomarkers of inflammation; all these measures complement the survey data. Another unique feature of this data is that we follow two groups of immigrants in two host cultures: immigrants from Turkey and other Mediterranean countries to Belgium; and immigrants from Latin America to California, USA. These data will allow us to study the role of emotions in the formation of social networks, wellbeing, and social outcomes of new immigrants.
Our project is also one of the first to study how biculturals’ emotions may vary throughout the day, depending on cultural contexts in which they participate. We are only starting to analyze the results of the daily diary school study that will allow us to study these within-person variations in emotions.
We are preparing a lab study to examine intercultural emotion communication in standardized settings. This study will allow us to draw conclusions on the impact of emotional similarity on interpersonal liking and cooperation.
Our project is also one of the first to study how biculturals’ emotions may vary throughout the day, depending on cultural contexts in which they participate. We are only starting to analyze the results of the daily diary school study that will allow us to study these within-person variations in emotions.
We are preparing a lab study to examine intercultural emotion communication in standardized settings. This study will allow us to draw conclusions on the impact of emotional similarity on interpersonal liking and cooperation.