Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2019, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

The acculturation of refugee-immigrant students is a complex process. The acculturation strategies of refugee-immigrant students are dependent upon the dominant society's acculturation expectations. There is ample research to support that refugee-immigrants prefer integration as an acculturation strategy (Berry, 2015). However, integration cannot be truly successful unless the dominant society promotes multiculturalism. The present study used a framework of the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) and the Theories of Prejudice Scale to investigate the dominant society's (teachers) attitudes about the acculturation of refugee-immigrant students (non-dominant group). The constructs investigated were acculturation expectations (multiculturalism, melting pot, segregation, exclusion), multicultural ideology, and the mindset (fixed or growth) towards the malleability of prejudice. The present study also investigated the relationships between these constructs. Online surveys were sent to the teachers of refugee-immigrant students from a midwestern public school district resulting in 50 participants. The findings revealed that participants in the study preferred the acculturation strategy of multiculturalism, had a positive multicultural ideology, and had a growth mindset towards the malleability of prejudice. Despite the high scores in these constructs, a Pearson's Correlation Coefficient test found no statistical significance findings. This was due to the lack of variability in the responses, as all respondents had high scores in multiculturalism, multicultural ideology, and growth mindset. However, findings also revealed a strong relationship between multicultural ideology and the acculturation strategies of melting pot and segregation. The findings have implications to teacher professional development in multicultural education and future research. School districts with refugee-immigrant students can replicate this study to assess if teacher acti (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jane Beese PhD (Committee Chair); Chuck Vergon JD (Committee Member); Patrick Spearman PhD (Committee Member); Xin Liang PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Multicultural Education; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Psychology

The effect of immigration on children is life-long. Latino immigrant youth represent a rapidly growing segment of the United States population. Few studies have explored the ways in which they experience the process of moving to a new country and adjusting to a new culture. This study examined the immigration and acculturation experiences of 23 immigrant Latino children in order to provide a descriptive understanding and conceptualization of the stress they face in the process of acculturation. Participants completed individual interviews or focus groups. Transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed utilizing content analysis and multiple reading analysis methodologies. The children identified pre-migration factors such as loss and multiple separations as stressful. Challenging post-migration factors included adaptation to new school system, learning a new language, coping with racism, and managing new family dynamics. Results highlight a number of general stressors faced by most participants such as concerns about the health of their parents and siblings, the well being of family members left in the country of origin, and typical conflict with peers. Stressors specific to the acculturation process centered on the acquisition of English language skills, making friends of diverse backgrounds, and worries about deportation. Participants reported using a variety of coping strategies and accessing available resources. The children's stories convey themes of ambivalence surrounding their appraisal of the events they lived through, variability in their evaluation of where their locus of control lies, a highly behavioral definition of the cultural conflict they experience, and a fluid grasp of cultural orientation. Overall, it is evident that the acculturative process faced by immigrant children is complex and stressful, characterized by unremitting conflict and intricate dynamics of coping and adaptation. Though resilient and resourceful, the stressors can exceed their (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Maitland Schilling PhD (Committee Chair); Yvette R. Harris PhD (Committee Member); Margaret O'Dougherty Wright PhD (Committee Member); Peter Magolda PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Developmental Psychology; Educational Psychology; Hispanic Americans; Mental Health; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Social Work; Therapy

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Cross-Cultural, International Education

This multiple case study sought to explore the process of acculturation on stress levels, coping strategies, and social identity choices of six international undergraduate students from Venezuela studying at a Midwestern U.S. university. This study analyzed the personal experiences of three male and three female participants who have been studying from 1-4 years in a Midwestern university. Findings explicated that all participants experienced some degree of acculturative stress including difficulty with the English language, practicing new cultural behaviors, and in some cases, discrimination from the host society. All participants engaged in retaining and forming social networks as a method to cope with these stresses. The majority of the participants reported feeling a more familial social bond with co-nationals during their sojourn, although participants actively established social networks with host nationals as well in order to learn about or integrate into mainstream U.S. society. Social mobility between co-national and host national social groups in various social contexts was also reported. Thus, this study found that international students from Venezuela studying at a Midwestern U.S. university experience acculturative stress as a result of intercultural contact and manage this stress by both retaining and forming social identities with co-national and host national social groups within the new sociocultural context of the U.S.

Committee: Patricia Kubow PhD (Advisor); Hyeyoung Bang PhD (Committee Chair); Ruben Viramontez Anguiano PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Educational Psychology