A Comparative Longitudinal Approach to Acculturation among Children from Immigrant Families

In this article, Andrew Fuligni notes that, within the field of immigration, the process of acculturation has not been studied as a process of individual change over time. Instead, it has often been inferred from cross-sectional studies examining individual and group differences in adjustment. Fuligni argues that the limitations of traditional cross-sectional designs create a need for studies of acculturation that track the same immigrant children as they encounter and negotiate the potential differences between their own cultural traditions and those of the host society. He suggests an approach for studying acculturation that follows children from different generations across time and throughout their development. This comparative longitudinal approach allows investigators to isolate acculturative change from shifts that would have occurred through the course of the children’s development had they not immigrated. Acculturation can also be examined in terms of both the level and the developmental progression across different aspects of adjustment. This approach allows investigators to use various quantitative and qualitative methods to explore variations within and between immigrants in order to better identify and understand acculturation or acculturative change. (pp. 566–578)