Successful adaptation among immigrant youths is a highly important issue for multiple stakeholders in many countries because of its potential long-term significance for the well-being of migrants and ...the prosperity and social cohesion of the receiving societies. In this article, I examine immigrant-youth adaptation through the lens of a recently developed resilience model. What are the risks that threaten immigrant youths’ adaptation? What are the promotive or protective influences that support their positive adaptation? These questions are addressed using scientific evidence drawn from the Athena Studies of Resilient Adaptation project, a two-cohort, three-wave longitudinal project on immigrant-youth adaptation conducted in Greece, as well as from the international literature. Risks and resources for immigrant youths’ concurrent and long-term adaptation are examined in societal, developmental, and acculturative contexts. The integrative model and related scientific findings may inform public policy, as well as guide future research.
Resilient adaptation among immigrant youth provides the foundation for healthy and productive adult lives. Great diversity is observed in their adaptation. This diversity has been studied during the ...past decade from different angles and intellectual traditions. However, the results are disconnected. In this paper, first, we present a resilience conceptual model for understanding immigrant youth adaptation. We argue that its concepts and principles allow us to best pull together what is known and discover what is still unknown. Together with narrower topic‐specific conceptual models, it can guide the formulation of hypotheses regarding immigrant youth resilience. Second, we examine comparatively, through the lens of this conceptual model, results of a content analysis on the s of studies on individual differences in immigrant youth adaptation, conducted during the past decade in North American and European countries. Finally, we discuss the meaning of acculturation‐related terms which are often used in an inconsistent way.
Abstract This study aims: a) to estimate the prevalence of internet addiction among adolescents of urban and rural areas in Greece, b) to examine whether the Internet Addiction Test cut-off point is ...applicable to them and c) to investigate the phenomenon's association with academic achievement. Participants were 2090 adolescents (mean age 16, 1036 males, 1050 females). Young's (1998) Internet Addiction Test and her Diagnostic Questionnaire were applied. School records' grades were retrieved. A 3.1% prevalence revealed, while boys { F (1, 1642) = 6.207, p < .05}, urban residents { F (1, 1642) = 5.53, p > .05} and academic track high school students { F (1, 1642) = 5.30, p < .05} were at higher risk. An Internet Addiction Test score of 51 points (sample's mean = 27.69, SD = 17.38) was proposed as the optimal cut-off point combining high sensitivity (98%) and specificity (91%). Finally, findings illustrated the syndrome's relation to worse academic achievement { F (1, 1725) = 0.93, p > .05}.
MIgration is a defining phenomenon of the 21st century. Even though it is historically not a new phenomenon, the current migratory movements are unprecedented. During the past decades millions of ...people, including families and their children, migrated often from low- and middle-income countries of the Global South toward Western more affluent countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, 2016). The experience of war, atrocities, political persecution, climate change, or utter poverty are among the key push motives that drive people to leave their home country and seek a safer, freer, and generally better future for themselves and their children in another country (Masten et al., 2019).
Introduction
Greece was hit particularly hard by the latest economic recession.
Method
Using a quasi‐experimental design, we examined whether and how psychosocial resources promoted and/or protected ...youth's school adjustment (academic achievement, school engagement, and conduct) and psychological well‐being (absence of emotional symptoms) during the economic crisis. We focused on three family resources (family economic well‐being, parental education, and school involvement) and one personal resource (self‐efficacy). Data were collected with multiple methods and informants. We compared two cohorts of adolescents, closely matched through Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting, who lived in the same neighborhoods, one before (2005; N = 1057; age M = 12.7 years) and the other during (2013; N = 1052; age M = 12.6 years) the economic recession.
Results
Variable‐ and person‐focused analyses revealed that in the context of the economic recession parental education and parental school involvement promoted and/or protected youth's school adjustment, and families' economic wellbeing was linked to both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Another key finding is that youth who exhibited positive adaptation during the economic crisis were equally well adjusted as youth who were well adjusted before the economic crisis, even though they had fewer resources. Finally, youth with more adequate psychosocial resources were able to keep the same high level of adaptation during the crisis as well‐adjusted youth had before the crisis. The findings were robust regarding variations in gender and immigrant status.
Conclusion
The results suggest that psychosocial resources are important in understanding the diversity in youth's school adjustment and well‐being during a major economic crisis.
This study examined how Greek and immigrant youth adapted to school life during the economic recession in Greece. Two cohorts of adolescents (Mage = 12.6 years) were compared, one assessed before the ...crisis and the other during the crisis (N = 1,057 and 1,052, respectively). Cohort findings were disaggregated by immigrant status, generation, and ethnic group. Crisis-cohort youth experienced more economic problems, displayed worse conduct, higher levels of absenteeism, and lower self-efficacy than precrisis youth. The cohorts did not differ in well-being, school engagement, and academic achievement. Most crisis-cohort groups showed a pervasive increase in conduct problems compared to the precrisis cohort. However, some of these groups also showed an increase in academic achievement.
The present study examined the direction of effects between peer likeability and youth’s school adjustment and psychological well-being, and the moderation of these effects by students’ immigrant ...status. One thousand one hundred and eighteen students (63% immigrants) nested in 57 Greek middle-school classrooms took part in the study (Wave 1; age M = 12.6 years). Data were collected from multiple sources and informants. The results reveal complex, in some cases bidirectional effects over time between peer likeability and different indices of school adjustment and psychological well-being. Being liked by Greek, but not by immigrant, classmates influenced students’ well-being over time. In contrast, being liked by either immigrant or Greek classmates predicted changes in students’ school adjustment. The results highlight the importance of supporting positive peer relations among youth in order to promote other adaptation outcomes. In the case of immigrant youth, they suggest that interventions need to promote positive intergroup contact between them and their nonimmigrant classmates in order to support their well-being.
Immigrant youth are and will continue to be a diverse and important part of Western nations. In this context, the study of immigrant youth adaptation has burgeoned. The papers of this special section ...represent a shift from a deficit-based to a strength-based approach to immigrant youth. They focus on unpacking the immigrant paradox, often based on longitudinal, multilevel data. In this commentary, we discuss how the research findings and themes that emerge from these papers contribute to our understanding of the processes of development and acculturation, of the importance of individual differences and the role of context for immigrant youth adaptation. These studies show that we have come a long way … but that we still have a long way to go.
Developing a personal identity is a core developmental task for all adolescents. Immigrant adolescents need to integrate the meaning that their belonging to their ethnic group and the receiving ...nation has for them into their personal identity. The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal interplay between personal, ethnic, and national identities of a middle school sample of immigrant youth (
N
= 765,
M
age
= 12.7 years,
SD
= 0.6 at T1; 46% girls) enroled in Greek schools. Data were collected in three waves with repeated measures. To test the link between these identities, two trivariate Cross-Lagged Panel Models were ran, one examining identity exploration and the other examining identity commitment. The results revealed robust within time positive links between ethnic, national and personal identities for both exploration and commitment at all three time-points. There was some evidence that ethnic and national identities were negatively linked longitudinally, and limited support for longitudinal associations between these domains and personal identity. Follow-up analyses suggest that these processes may be specific to second generation youth and that findings may differ by ethnic background. Finally, the findings that emerged are discussed with attention to the socio-political climate in the receiving nation.
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