Title

Violated Expectations And Acculturative Stress Among U.S. Hispanic Immigrants

Keywords

acculturative stress; expectancy violation; Hispanic immigrants

Abstract

Expectancy violation theory (EVT) was tested with 112 Hispanic immigrants living in the United States by determining whether discrepancies between their retrospectively recalled premigration expectations about life in the United States and their postmigration (actual) experiences in the United States would predict their levels of acculturative stress. Discrepancies were assessed in 4 domains (ability to communicate with English speakers, perceiving their communities and the United States as safe, obtaining adequate employment, and experiencing racism). Overall, the results indicated that discrepancies between premigration expectations and postmigration experiences were associated significantly with acculturative stress, although some of the findings were counter to EVT. Also, on the basis of a hierarchical regression analysis, the discrepancies significantly, albeit modestly, contributed to the prediction of acculturative stress beyond the predictive ability of general demographic variables and postmigration experiences. Implications for clinical interventions and research opportunities with EVT and Hispanic immigrants are discussed. © 2009 American Psychological Association.

Publication Date

7-1-2009

Publication Title

Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology

Volume

15

Issue

3

Number of Pages

255-264

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015109

Socpus ID

67650983094 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/67650983094

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