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Migration of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth has increased around the world in the last decade, peaking in 2014 in the United States and in 2015 in Europe. Youth are pushed to migrate without parents or guardians to escape war, persecution, gang violence, and extreme poverty in their country of origin. Youth are vulnerable to violence and abuse at the hands of smugglers during their journeys but show great courage and strength as they embark on their journey to a better life. The goal of this literature review is to provide a synthesis of empirical literature concerning this population. Thirty-one studies were included: 13 used qualitative methods, 13 quantitative, four mixed methods, and one used participatory methods. This body of research documents the stages of youths' immigration journeys from the decision to leave, to the migration process, to arriving in the new country and the resettlement experience. The migration journey was the overarching model in this review, and it describes the youth's complete journey, which continues after resettlement. We describe the four stages in the migration process identified in the experience of unaccompanied youth and their journey in this review: making the decision to migrate the experience during migration; psychological distress and coping upon arrival; and adaptation, acculturation upon arrival in the resettlement country, and impact of social support and social networks in the resettlement country. We end by offering recommendations for future research and immigration policy based on what is known and not yet known about the experiences of these courageous young people. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

In today’s multicultural societies, the question of how school adjustment (adapting to the role of being a student) can be promoted for students from ethnic minority backgrounds is of high importance. The ecological approach to acculturation research proposes minority students’ school adjustment is shaped by the surrounding context, and it suggests that the microsystem family plays an important role. Specifically, parents’ acculturation, practices, attitudes, and background have been identified as key factors. While there exist systematic reviews of the impact of parental factors more broadly, some of which researched ethnic minorities, a comprehensive literature review of family-related factors that affect ethnic minority youth’s school adjustment is missing. The present study provides a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative empirical research of interest, including 60 qualitative and 46 quantitative studies. Its content analysis portrays in what ways parental acculturation, practices, attitudes and background can support or hamper school adjustment among ethnic minority youth. A subsequent meta-analysis quantifies the strength of the impact of these parental variables on the school adjustment of their children. Our findings show that parental practices have the most crucial impact on the psychological well-being, academic self-esteem and aspirations, behaviour and achievement outcomes of minority youth.

We report on a grounded theory study of late-arriving immigrant youth (LIY) who arrived in the United States at 16–18 years of age and were referred to daytime General Education Diploma (D-GED) programs. These programs provide an alternate path to a high school diploma for youth with insufficient knowledge of English to complete graduation requirements before turning 19 years. Based on interviews with 38 youth from Latin America, we propose the core category of our grounded theory to be students Navigating Child and Adult Immigrant Narratives while making educational and career decisions. This process begins before immigration when youth imagine ambitious alternate selves—ideal educational and career selves in the United States, consistent with the American Dream and immigrant child narrative. The D-GED programs represent a compromise between a child and adult educational pathway. Students in these programs felt excluded from the regular high school but received social and emotional support while on a faster track to graduation and self-sufficiency as adults. However, students lacked concrete information and roadmaps for how to attain their ambitious goals. The study highlights the unique challenges faced by LIY as they develop ambitious and realistic education and career goals.

Teachers have a pivotal role in the acculturation and adjustment of immigrant children. Practices are an important but an insufficiently explored part of teachers’ work in a multicultural classroom. The purpose of the present research was to identify educational practices that elementary school teachers in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, use in their work with immigrant children to provide language and academic support and promote a welcoming atmosphere in the classroom that fosters psychological adjustment of the child. Data were collected through interviews with twenty elementary school teachers working with immigrant children. Interviews were analyzed using inductive and deductive content analysis methods. Findings suggest that in the absence of institutionalized structures, teachers take the initiative to adapt their teaching and instruction methods when working with immigrant children. Teachers primarily rely on individual (one-on-one) tutoring methods to provide language and academic support. Approaches to creating a favorable climate in the classroom and the child’s psychological adjustment include practices of promoting respect for different ethnic groups and developing cross-cultural communication skills. Inclusion of parents in the educational process is used in conjunction with all practices with immigrant children used by teachers. In addition, teachers often rely on Tatar language as an intermediary between the migrant children’s heritage language and Russian when communicating with them. Most children of immigrants are from Central Asian countries where the languages spoken are Turkic in origin and similar to Tatar—the indigenous language spoken in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The study examined community influences on acculturation, social integration, and cultural adaptation among elderly Russian-speaking immigrants residing in two communities with different ethnic density. Results revealed direct, indirect, and moderation effects of community. The residents of the dense ethnic community had lower American social support and American acculturation than residents of the dispersed community. Both communities had comparable levels of acculturative stress and American cultural alienation, underscoring an indirect effect of community on cultural adaptation via acculturation and social support. The ethnic community also moderated relationships of acculturation and social support to cultural adaptation, suggesting their varied adaptive and maladaptive pathways. American acculturation was associated with increased acculturative stress in the dense community and reduced acculturative stress in the dispersed community. Russian acculturation and social support were typically adaptive in the dense community and maladaptive in the dispersed community. The study supported the Ecological Acculturative Frameworkxcopy (EAF) that underscores the importance of conceptualizing acculturation as embedded within the community sociocultural context that reflects the lived experiences of individuals interacting with their contextual settings, and empirically examining adaptive and maladaptive pathways provided by these settings.

Educational institutions are an important setting where psychological, pedagogical, sociocultural, and language adaptation of immigrant children occurs. A number of teaching strategies, pra...

The present study is embedded in the contextual approach of acculturation research. It examines teachers’ attitudes and behaviors, teachers’ expectations as well as their teaching practices as risk and resource factors in minority students’ school adjustment. The study applies the method of content analysis and uses a deductively developed and inductively enriched system of categories. The results of the study provide an integrative review of qualitative research on the role teachers play in the acculturation process of minority youth and their adjustment outcomes in the school context.

Global migration has contributed to greater language diversity in many parts of the world. Many migrants experience language barriers in their adopted countries. Language barriers hinder access to healthcare, including mental health. There exists little research on the extent of communication difficulties during language discordant mental health services. A cross-sectional observational study design was used to examine prevalence of communication challenges, use of communication best practices, and training needs among mental health providers and interpreters working with immigrants with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in the United States. Using snowball sampling methods, 38 providers and 34 interpreters were recruited to complete online surveys. Challenges reported by interpreters pertained to technicalities of communication, while those reported by providers pertained to content of communication. Communication best practices such as pre-session briefings and post-session debriefings were used infrequently by providers in the sample. Providers with higher education levels were more likely to endorse some best practices. Fifty-four percent of the providers and 84% of the interpreters were interested in additional training in working with patients with LEP. Findings suggest the need for customized trainings for providers and interpreters to improve the quality of mental healthcare for patients with LEP.

In this article, we comment on the experience of the Kovler Center Child Trauma Program (KCCTP) following the March 21, 2020, shelter at home order in Chicago due to COVID-19. The KCCTP is a program of Heartland Alliance International that was founded in 2018 to provide community-based mental health and social services to immigrant and refugee youth and families who have experienced trauma. COVID-19 temporarily closed the doors of the center, suspending provision of in-person services in the community, and the program was forced to become remote overnight. The KCCTP rapidly transitioned to providing accessible information, active outreach, extensive case management, and flexible delivery of teletherapy and online psychosocial support, finding that attending to structural barriers and basic needs was crucial to family engagement and therapeutic success. Ongoing challenges include technological proficiency and access to computers, Internet, and private spaces. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In this chapter we offer a social-ecological perspective on educating the most vulnerable immigrant students, emphasizing the interaction between youth and the environment, including the family, school, peer group, community, larger society, and country of origin. Viewing immigrant children and youth through this ecological prism can help educators better understand the complex contexts in which they live and provide them with more tools to address issues that affect learning and behavior in the classroom. By using a strengths-based approach, schools can help support the development of resilience among immigrant students who have faced adversity, whether due to traumatic migration journeys, resettlement stress, academic challenges, or discrimination. By learning about and celebrating the cultures and backgrounds of immigrant students, identifying and focusing on strengths, engaging their families and communities, providing transitional academic support, and protecting civil rights, educators can make a significant difference in immigrant students’ lives.

This research note addresses the current and potential future role of psychologists in the study of international migration. We review ways in which psychologists have contributed to the study of migration, as well as ways in which psychological scholarship could be integrated with work from other social science fields. Broadly, we discuss four major contributions that psychology brings to the study of international migration—studying migrants’ internal psychological experiences, incorporating a developmental perspective, conducting experimental studies, and integrating across levels of analysis. Given the position of psychology as a ‘hub science’ connecting more traditional social sciences with health and medical sciences, we argue for a more prominent role for psychologists within the study of international migration. Such a role is intended to complement the roles of other social scientists and to create a more interdisciplinary way forward for the field of migration studies. The research note concludes with an agenda for further scholarship on migration.

Premigration trauma and postmigration stressors put refugees at high risk for mental health concerns, including substance use. However, there is limited systematic research on substance use in refugee communities exists. We conducted exploratory qualitative research to examine Bhutanese and Iraqi refugee perspectives related to the use of recreational substances after resettlement in the United States. Data were collected through separate focus groups with 28 Bhutanese and 22 Iraqi adult men. Focus groups were facilitated by an experienced clinician with an in-person interpreter, audiorecorded, and transcribed. Transcripts were checked for accurate translation and then analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. Findings revealed similarities and differences between the two refugee groups with regard to recognizing excessive use, triggers for use, and preferred modes of outreach and intervention. Findings also revealed postmigration changes in substance use behaviors stemming from issues related to access, cost, and perceived legal ramifications.

This article explored the range in teacher expectations held for Somali Bantu refugees using content analysis of one-on-one interviews with teachers who taught Somali Bantu students at an elementary school in Chicago. Analyses revealed the emergence of five categories of expectations: (a) general acculturative expectations around language and knowledge (b) behaviors, (c) internal attributes, (d) classroom behaviors, and (e) family/home. These findings raise questions about the potential danger of teacher’s expectations that might suggest assimilation to oppressive racial statuses. Implications for teachers and future research are discussed. Limitations and generalizability are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to write about insights and special considerations for researchers who are, to some degree, "insiders" to the communities they study by expanding on the concept of representational ethics as applied to research in community psychology with diverse and marginalized groups. Representational ethics refers to the ways that researchers, artists, or corporations represent the identities of the people they portray in their communications. As community psychologists we generate and disseminate knowledge about the communities we work with, and in that process, create narratives about the people who participate in our studies. In preparing a report on psychological issues among Evangelical Christian refugees from the former Soviet Union, Dina Birman struggled with her portrayal of this group and her own status of being both an insider and an outsider to this community. When investigating academic aspirations and psychological distress among Muslim high school students, Ashmeet Oberoi was forced to acknowledge the one-sidedness of the discourse on autonomy and cultural socialization of Muslim adolescents. In her research with Cuban-educated doctors in Miami, Florida, Wendy Moore encountered similar issues as she considered how to represent gender dynamics among her participants.

This paper reports on the findings of a two-year ethnographic study of newly arrived Somali Bantu refugee students in a U.S. elementary school (K-6) in Chicago. These data paint a detailed picture of students’ behavioral and academic adjustment to school, and the drivers behind “behavioral incidents” (instances when children’s behavior presented a problem for school staff) and their academic engagement or disengagement. Bantu students required a degree of flexibility and accommodation from their teachers, whose attitudes toward acculturation could generally be characterized as “assimilationist” (requiring students to conform to U.S. culture and school rules) or “multicultural” (respecting and accepting the students expressing their heritage culture at the school). This study illustrates the difficulties faced by refugee students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) when adjusting to U.S. schools, and the pressures placed on teachers and other school staff. Strategies used by teachers in working with SLIFE are described. These findings also extend the literature on the academic engagement of immigrants to this group of SLIFE. In this study, SLIFE were disengaged not because of disinterest or resisting adult expectations at school but because they were unfamiliar with the culture of schooling and did not have the academic background necessary to complete school tasks. The study also illustrates the need to provide schools with adequate support to accommodate the needs of SLIFE.

In this introduction to the IJIR special issue on refugee youth in academic settings, the editors sought manuscripts that examined both challenges and effective practices in countries of temporary and permanent refugee resettlement. We welcomed diverse methodological approaches and empirical work at all levels and types of education (formal, non-formal, and informal). Our final selections do not fully represent the field of refugee education, as eight of the nine are studies in third countries of permanent resettlement, a designation received by only about one percent of the total refugee population. Perspectives came from the social sciences: psychology, sociology, anthropology, and sociolinguistic disciples. Themes of the articles fall into two broad categories: 1) educational challenges due to trauma, acculturation stressors, and educational issues; and 2) educational practices intended to address some of these challenges. Although the resettlement category is the smallest of the UNHCR’s “durable solutions,” the authors present important findings to support refugee students’ success. These have to do with collaborative processes, issues of identity, the use of social media, and teacher training in multicultural and language support. In considering future work in this field, we conclude that dimensions of justice need to be more fully examined in other refugee solutions (such as repatriation and local integration in the first country of refuge). We recommend that more research be conducted on the current European “migrant crisis.” We also call for scholars to be public intellectuals in venues that can reframe the characterization of refugees in opposition to “fake news” fanning public fears.

Most mental health services for trauma-exposed children and adolescents were not originally developed for refugees. Information is needed to help clinicians design services to address the consequences of trauma in refugee populations. We compared trauma exposure, psychological distress, and mental health service utilization among children and adolescents of refugee-origin, immigrant-origin, and U.S.-origin referred for assessment and treatment by U.S. providers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). We used propensity score matching to compare trauma profiles, mental health needs, and service use across three groups. Our sample comprised refugee-origin youth (n = 60, 48.3% female, mean age = 13.07 years) and propensity-matched samples of immigrant-origin youth (n = 143, 60.8% female, mean age = 13.26 years), and U.S.-origin youth (n = 140, 56.1% female, mean age = 12.11 years). On average, there were significantly more types of trauma exposure among refugee youth than either U.S.-origin youth (p < .001) or immigrant youth (p ≤ .001). Compared with U.S.-origin youth, refugee youth had higher rates of community violence exposure, dissociative symptoms, traumatic grief, somatization, and phobic disorder. In contrast, the refugee group had comparably lower rates of substance abuse and oppositional defiant disorder (ps ranging from .030 to < .001).This clinic-referred sample of refugee-origin youth presented with distinct patterns of trauma exposure, distress symptoms, and service needs that merit consideration in services planning.

Trusting, productive relationships between traditionally discordant stakeholders—community members and researchers—are critical for successful Community-Based Participatory Research. Practical guidance on processes allowing for partner trust-building and collaborative leadership development in Community-Based Participatory Research literature lacks specificity. In this paper, we introduce our praxis of Transformative Communication Spaces to facilitate purposeful, iterative discourse that occurs in, and fuels each research phase. We elaborate on the use of Transformative Communication Spaces through Pláticas de Salud, Oral History Listening Events, and Data Analysis Think Tanks within the framework of our Little Village Participatory Community Health Assessment. We believe the integrity and potential of Community-Based Participatory Research is contingent on the use of Transformative Communication Spaces strategies to foster trusting partnerships necessary for shared learning and co-leadership.

The study investigated underemployment among a sample of Russian-speaking refugee adults in the U.S. resettled in two communities that differ in ethnic density. Community context, acculturation, and their interaction related to underemployment. Descriptively, residents of the dense ethnic community had higher Russian and lower American acculturation, greater social integration into co-ethnic networks, lower perceived support from American friends, were more likely to have fellow Russians help them find a job, and less likely to find the job independently. Predictively, living in the dense community and lower levels of American acculturation positively associated with underemployment, while Russian acculturation was unrelated to underemployment. In addition, significant interactions suggested that American acculturation was beneficial for reducing underemployment in the dispersed community but was associated with increased underemployment in the dense community, while greater Russian acculturation was associated with increased underemployment in the dispersed community only. The present study demonstrated context specificity in the relationship between acculturation and underemployment and reaffirmed the value of an ecological approach to conceptualizing acculturative experiences and their relationships to adaptation outcomes.

Effective communication is essential in mental healthcare, where language often represents the primary means of treatment. In intercultural counseling sessions, communicating with Limited English Proficient (LEP) clients calls for skillful collaboration with language interpreters. However, best practices in medical interpretation may not be equally effective in mental health settings. This study examined the factors promoting and hindering successful communication during interpreter-mediated counseling sessions with LEP Bhutanese and Iraqi refugee men. Researchers observed eight substance use counseling sessions in real-time to make note of communication patterns and key communication breakdowns. Then, researchers conducted video-elicitation interviews with the client, clinician and interpreter immediately after each session to dissect communication events from each party’s perspective. Session videos and interview transcripts underwent qualitative analysis to identify factors that predict or prevent communication breakdowns. Findings indicate important differences between mental health interpretation and interpretation in other healthcare settings. Common practices such as simultaneous interpreting and first person interpreting were found to function differently in a mental health setting. Some therapeutic maneuvers, such as irreverence and humor, were difficult to employ cross-culturally. The adaptation and negotiation of interpersonal relationships between clinician, client and interpreter were central to the success of communication. Trust and flexibility were key to the functioning of the triadic relationship. Clinicians, clients and interpreters were found to adopt different roles and responsibilities throughout the session in an ongoing manner. Implications for the training of interpreters and clinicians are discussed.

The present study aims at systematically analyzing the findings reported in qualitative research on acculturation and psychological adjustment in the school context. Content analysis was conducted using the deductively developed and inductively enriched system of categories. The results of the study provide insights into youths’ acculturation and their psychological adjustment in the school context as well as schools’ mechanisms and strategies for responding to minority youths’ needs in the process of the cultural transition.

In this paper I describe a community psychology perspective on acculturation and adjustment of immigrants and refugees and suggest that this field of acculturation research has in turn something to offer heuristically as we consider our identity and training for future generations of community psychologists over the next 50 years. I suggest that honoring our heritage, maintaining our disciplinary identity as community psychologists, and sustaining doctoral programs that offer training specific to community psychology are crucial for our survival as a field and is not antithetical to, and is indeed necessary for, interdisciplinary collaborations.

This chapter reviews the construct of biculturalism, focusing on individuals with multiple cultural backgrounds. The chapter focuses on biculturalism as a heterogeneous label, and it covers several variants of biculturalism that have been studied. A number of biculturalism-related constructs are discussed, including endorsement of two or more cultural streams, cultural frame switching, bicultural identity integration, globalization-based biculturalism, and triculturalism (endorsement of three or more cultural streams). Distinctions between biculturalism and triculturalism are discussed, along with consideration of situations in which more than three cultural streams may be intersecting. The chapter concludes with a section on practical implications of biculturalism and on interventions to promote biculturalism in individuals and families.

Child culture brokering occurs when immigrant children help their families navigate the new culture and language. The present study develops a model of the child culture broker role that situates it within the family and community economic and acculturative contexts of 328 families from the former Soviet Union. Path analysis was utilized to explore the relationships of community and family economic and cultural contexts with child culture brokering, child emotional distress, and family disagreements. All children reported some culture brokering for their parents. Less English proficient parents with lower status jobs, and living in areas with more Russian speaking families tended to utilize their children as brokers more often. Further, community economic conditions also predicted brokering indirectly, mediated by parent job social status. Brokering was related to child emotional distress and family disagreements. Further, culture brokering was a mediator of the impact of parent job social status on both child emotional distress and family disagreements. These results add to our understanding of the culture broker role and emphasize the utility of approaching research on it from an ecological perspective.

The current paper reviews literature on the academic performance of Asian Americans with a critical eye toward understanding the influence of discrimination on this process. Specifically, this study seeks to understand the extent to which researchers have gathered sufficient knowledge to dispel “conventional knowledge” of Asian Americans as model minorities. We questioned the extent to which studies explicitly measured student performance as a product of individual effort and Asian cultural influences, while simultaneously measuring the impact of exposure to discrimination. We present a review of studies on Asian American academic performance published 1990‐2008. Our analysis suggests that social science research has continued to perpetuate the stereotype of Asian Americans as a “model minority.” The majority of the reviewed studies did not differentiate among Asian American ethnic and generational groups. These studies also tended to infer culture as an explanation for the high achievement of Asian Americans without examining the impact of sociopolitical factors, such as racial discrimination. In fact, many of the reviewed studies reported that Asian Americans were deficient relative to Whites on attributes thought to be related to culture (e.g., personality characteristics, parenting behaviors) while finding that they achieved academically at levels similar to or higher than Whites. Finally, the majority of these studies have not used culturally appropriate methods to test their hypotheses and research questions. Thus, we recommend that studies embrace emic/population-specific and sociopolitical (Sasao & Sue, 1993) approaches to understand and explore factors that contribute to academic achievement in this group.

The current paper explores the salience and impact of ethnic and national identities for immigrants that are negotiating more than two cultures. Specifically, we were interested in the ways in which Jewish immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union integrate their Russian, Jewish, and American identities, and to what extent identification with these three cultures predicts adaptation to varied life domains. In order to examine whether being Jewish has an impact on salience and predictive value of Russian and American identities, a sample of Jewish adolescents (n = 100) was compared with a sample of non-Jewish (n = 113) adolescent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The study suggests that Jewish and non-Jewish adolescent immigrants differ in levels of Russian and American identity. Further, using structural equation modeling a bicultural model for Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents was tested. The results suggest that these two groups do not differ with respect to how Russian and American identities impact on adjustment. However, adding Jewish identity to the model for the Jewish sample significantly improved model fit, and rendered some of the impact of Russian identity non-significant. Thus a multicultural model that included all three identities had better explanatory power for this sample than a bicultural one. Implications for the study of ethnic identity of immigrants, particularly those whose lives involve multiple cultural affiliations, are drawn.

Vietnamese immigrants in the United States face acculturation challenges involving the individual, family, and community. Experts suggest that immigrant family members acculturate at different rates resulting in an acculturation gap, which negatively influences family adjustment. In this study we examined the degree and patterns of acculturation differences between 104 first generation immigrant Vietnamese adolescents and their parents, and whether acculturation gap affected family relationships. Operationalizing the “gap” as both absolute value of differences in acculturation and interactions of parent and adolescent acculturation levels, we examined the impact of such gaps in Vietnamese and American language, identity, and behavioral acculturation on family relationships. Results revealed that family cohesion and satisfaction were predicted by gaps in Vietnamese identity acculturation, but not by gaps in other acculturation domains.

The purpose of this study was to examine friendship developments of 153 Vietnamese immigrant adolescents who resided in an East Coast metropolitan area of the United States. We examined the influences of school diversity and acculturation on the quantity and quality of cross-and same-race friendships. Surprisingly, students who came from schools that are more diverse reported fewer cross-race friendships and lower levels of social support from their cross-race friends. American acculturation predicted greater levels of social support from cross-race friends. For same-race friendships, students who went to schools with higher percentage of Asian students reported more same-race friendships; however, percentage of Asian students was not a significant predictor of social support from same-race friends. Students who reported greater levels of Vietnamese acculturation reported greater levels of social support from their same-race friends. This study has implications for understanding the impact of school diversity and acculturation on friendship development of Vietnamese immigrants. Also, suggestions on how to better conceptualize and measure diversity are discussed.

Several acculturation theories note the importance of surrounding context, but few studies describe neighborhood influences on immigrant adaptation. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among neighborhood immigrant concentration, acculturation, and alienation for 151 women aged 44-80 from the former Soviet Union who lived in the US fewer than 13 years. Participants resided in 65 census tracts in the Chicago area with varying concentrations of Russian-speaking and diverse immigrants. Results from self-report questionnaires suggest that the effect of acculturation on alienation varies depending on neighborhood characteristics. The study also demonstrates the complexity of individual and contextual influences on immigrant adoption. Understanding these relationships is important for developing community-based and neighborhood-level interventions to enhance the mental health of immigrants.

Recent attention to closing the research to practice gap reflects a new paradigm in which community partners assume more active roles in intervention research. Funders are shaping this new genre of collaborative research, and yet still require letters of support from investigators documenting access to sites as evidence of feasibility. Defining feasibility by access, however, derives from a basic research model that translates poorly to a collaborative one. At the same time, university‐community collaboration within externally funded research poses a number of ethical challenges. We encourage a redefinition of feasibility that prioritizes collaboration by reconstructing the purpose and content of letters of support and by encouraging investigators to build into studies sufficient time and specific plans for building sustainable partnerships.

This study assesses the impact of parent practices and knowledge of school on school success for a sample of 240 immigrant and nonimmigrant high school students and their parents. Immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union were less knowledgeable about and had less contact with the school, and allowed less autonomy than U.S.-born parents. Some differences and similarities in the relationship between parental practices and knowledge and school adaptation were found.

The article addresses a hypothetical dilemma confronted by an evaluator of a transition from welfare program regarding inclusion of a small immigrant/language minority group in the study. The article advocates for inclusion of diverse groups. Three important aspects of diversity are discussed that have particular relevance to transition from welfare for immigrants and refuges: legal status, the relative size and concentration of the ethnic/language community, and the specific cultural and historical circumstances. Legal status is a factor that affects eligibility for welfare and incentives for transitioning to work. Smaller groups may be particularly important to include because their access to culturally sensitive resources may be especially limited. Historical circumstances in the country of origin shape the attitudes of an immigrant or refugee group toward use of government aid. The ethical dilemma is discussed in relation to the AEA’s Guiding Principles for Evaluators of Diversity, Competence, and Honesty and Integrity.

The present study investigated the potential mediating effect of adolescents' perceptions of family relationships using a structural equation modeling approach. The sample consisted of 226 immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union resettled in a suburban county in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. who were selected at random from the local public schools. The study included independent assessment of acculturation to the host (American) and native (Russian) culture. Results confirm the mediational role of family relationships on the impact of Russian acculturation on reduced distress. In addition, family relationships partially mediated the link between American acculturation and reduced psychological distress for these youth. The findings suggest that for this immigrant population native acculturation was related to less distress only when linked to positive familial relationships, whereas American acculturation was related to less distress directly, as well as through its positive impact on familial relationships.

Most mental health services for trauma-exposed children and adolescents were not originally developed for refugees. Information is needed to help clinicians design services to address the consequences of trauma in refugee populations. We compared trauma exposure, psychological distress, and mental health service utilization among children and adolescents of refugee-origin, immigrant-origin, and U.S.-origin referred for assessment and treatment by U.S. providers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). We used propensity score matching to compare trauma profiles, mental health needs, and service use across three groups. Our sample comprised refugee-origin youth (n = 60, 48.3% female, mean age = 13.07 years) and propensity-matched samples of immigrant-origin youth (n = 143, 60.8% female, mean age = 13.26 years), and U.S.-origin youth (n = 140, 56.1% female, mean age = 12.11 years). On average, there were significantly more types of trauma exposure among refugee youth than either U.S.-origin youth (p < .001) or immigrant youth (p < .001). Compared with U.S.-origin youth, refugee youth had higher rates of community violence exposure, dissociative symptoms, traumatic grief, somatization, and phobic disorder; In contrast, the refugee group had comparably lower rates of substance abuse and oppositional defiant disorder (ps ranging from .030 to < .001).This clinic-referred sample of refugee-origin youth presented with distinct patterns of trauma exposure, distress symptoms, and service needs that merit consideration in services planning.

Acculturation to the culture of the host society as well as to one's heritage culture have been shown to impact immigrants' adjustment during the years following resettlement. While acculturation has been identified as an important factor in adjustment of Vietnamese immigrants (Birman and Tran in Am J Orthopsychiatr 78(1):109-120. doi: 10.1037/0002-9432.78.1.109 , 2008), no clear pattern of findings has emerged and too few studies have employed an ecological approach. The purpose of this paper is to contextualize the study of acculturation and adjustment by taking an ecological approach to exploring these relationships across several life domains, using a bilinear scale, and examining mediators of these relationships for adult Vietnamese refugees (N = 203) in the United States. We call this approach the Ecological Acculturation Framework (EAF). Results of a structural equation model (SEM) showed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between American acculturation and psychological distress, demonstrating that this relationship was specific to an occupational domain. However, while Vietnamese acculturation predicted co-ethnic social support satisfaction, it did not predict reduced psychological distress. Implications for a life domains approach, including domain specificity, are discussed.

This study examined the impact of “acculturation gaps” on family adjustment of 115 adolescent refugees from the former Soviet Union and their parents. Acculturation and acculturation gaps were assessed with respect to the American and Russian culture and separately for identity, behavioral, and language competence dimensions of acculturation. Acculturation gaps were operationalized in two different ways in analyses: Difference scores were computed between parent and adolescent acculturation levels and used to predict family conflict and disagreement, and moderated regression analyses examined the main effects and interactions of parent and adolescent acculturation variables in predicting family conflict and disagreement. Results suggest the importance of some gaps for family discord, not others. In particular, gaps in American identity, American behavior, and Russian language were associated with greater family discord. Results also suggest the relative advantages of using the moderated regression approach to assess the impact of the acculturation gap and using bidirectional and multidimensional acculturation measures in acculturation gap research.

Studied the effectiveness of a school-based mental health service model, PALS (Positive Attitudes toward Learning in School), focused on increasing initial and ongoing access to services, and promoting improved classroom and home behavior for children referred for Disruptive Behavior Disorder (DBD) from three high poverty urban elementary schools. Classrooms were randomly assigned to PALS or referral to a neighborhood mental health clinic, with children identified by teacher referral and follow-up parent andeher ratings. Results indicated significant service engagement and retention for PALS (n=60) versus families referred to clinic (n=30), with over 80% of PALS families retained in services for 12 months. PALS services were correlated with positive changes in children's behavior as rated by parents, and with improvements in children's academic performance as rated by teachers. Implications for the design and delivery of mental health services for children and families living in high-poverty urban communities are discussed.