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The Impact of Peers and Identity on Immigrant Youth’s Psychological Well-being
Melanie P. D. Smit
14767074
Department of Psychology, Universiteit van Amsterdam
7204MTDHPY: Master’s Thesis Health Promotion & Behaviour Change
Drs. Ceren S. Abacioglu
Dr. Wery P.M. van de Wildenberg
19 May 2024
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Abstract
Immigrants deal with stressors unique to their situation, which are related to acculturation and
impact their psychological well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the
influence of acculturation on immigrant psychological well-being. Two factors that are crucial in the
acculturation experience are the contacts that the immigrant seeks and their identity. As such, the
research question was as follows: How do peer contacts and identity influence immigrant
psychological well-being? Secondary data from the International Comparative Study of Ethnocultural
Youth were used to investigate these mediations in two immigrant groups: Finnish and Turkish
immigrants in Sweden. The data were collected through questionnaires, which were filled out at
schools. Ethnic identity appeared to be an important influence on Finnish immigrant psychological
well-being. For Turkish immigrant youth, ethnic peer contacts, through ethnic identity, seemed to be
influential on their psychological well-being. These findings suggest the promotion of same-ethnic
peer contacts for Turkish students, which may strengthen their ethnic identity and thus be a positive
influence on their psychological well-being. For Finnish immigrants, the mechanism behind the
positive influence of ethnic identity on psychological well-being needs to be studied further, as this
did not seem to originate from same-ethnic peer contacts. Despite some limitations, including the
representativeness of the sample and the measurement of national peer contacts, the study
contributes to the literature on acculturation and provides avenues for future research into the topic,
such as examining first- and second-generation immigrants separately.
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The Impact of Peers and Identity on Immigrant Youth’s Psychological Well-being
Immigration refers to the process of moving to a country with the intention of permanent
residency (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). Upon arrival, the process of acculturation begins, which is
the change that takes place at the cultural and psychological level when members of different
cultural groups interact (Berry, 2019). Immigrants deal with stressors that are unique to their
situation, such as acculturative stress, which is a decrease in well-being when acculturation is overly
demanding due to, for instance, language barriers, cultural differences, and poor integration into
society (Akhtar & Kröner‐Herwig, 2015). This can impact the psychological well-being of immigrants,
which can be defined as the presence of positive feelings, such as happiness, or the absence of
psychological problems, such as anxiety (Stoll & Pollastri, 2023). For example, a study by Wu et al.
(2020) has shown that Latinx youth in the United States who experienced acculturative stress
reported higher levels of antisocial behaviors, and when their parents also reported higher levels of
acculturative stress, these youth reported a higher level of depression symptoms. To further explore
the impact of acculturation on psychological well-being, this research focused on the psychological
well-being of acculturating youth, in hopes to find novel insights to maximize immigrants’ well-being.
This maximization is crucial for the societies that immigrants reside in, as a higher level of immigrant
well-being is related to less social inequality and a decrease in the risk of conflicts between groups
within the country (Tegegne & Glanville, 2018). In the current study, psychological well-being was
conceptualized as the absence of psychological problems, which included psychosomatic symptoms,
depression, and anxiety.
Theoretical Background
Broadly, four acculturation strategies may be employed by immigrants: integration,
assimilation, separation, and marginalization (Berry, 2003). These strategies are not solely
dependent on the preferences of the immigrant; they are also influenced by the preferences of the
society that immigrants relocate to (Berry, 2003). Two dimensions are important for classifying
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acculturation strategies: the immigrant’s identity and the contacts they seek (see Figure 1). In the
current study, two types of group identifications that the immigrant could assume were analyzed: a
strong identification with the host country, known as a national identity, and a strong identification
with one’s own ethnic group, which is referred to as an ethnic identity. Furthermore, two types of
peer contacts were investigated: national peer contacts, which are peer contacts with natives of the
host country, and ethnic peer contacts, which are contacts with peers who share the immigrant’s
ethnicity.
Figure 1
The Dimensions of Acculturation
Note. From “Conceptual approaches to acculturation,” by J. W. Berry, in K. M. Chun, P. Balls
Organista, & G. Marín (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research
(pp. 17–37), 2003, American Psychological Association. Copyright 2003 by American Psychological
Association.
Throughout the literature, the integration strategy of acculturation appears to have
favorable psychological outcomes in terms of overall mental health (Berry & Hou, 2017; Choy et al.,
