Abstract
Ethnic Russians in Estonia, who previously enjoyed a privileged status in the Soviet era, have become a relatively deprived group with devalued group identity in the new Estonian state. We examined acculturation (cultural maintenance and participation) and perceived group devaluation of ethnic Russians (N = 190) as predictors of their well-being and ethnic attitudes toward native Estonians. The results of surveys revealed that participation in Estonian culture predicted more positive ethnic attitudes; however, Russian cultural maintenance and perceived group devaluation were associated with both negative ethnic attitudes and lower life satisfaction. Significant interactions also emerged. Perceived group devaluation dampened the positive relation between participation and ethnic attitudes and exacerbated the negative relation between cultural maintenance and ethnic attitudes. Participation was associated with higher well-being under conditions of low perceived group devaluation but poorer well-being when group devaluation was perceived as high. Similarly, an interaction between the acculturation dimensions of maintenance and participation demonstrated that participation in Estonian culture was associated with lower life satisfaction under the conditions of high cultural maintenance. The key findings on cultural maintenance and the “failure” of integration are distinctive in the light of previous studies and point to the important implications of contextual sociopolitical and historical factors for well-being and ethnic relations in a culturally diverse society.
References
1997). A transformation of history: The official representations of history in East Germany and Estonia, 1986–1991. Culture and Psychology, 3, 41–62. doi: 10.1177/1354067X9700300103
(2011). Dual identity as a two-edged sword. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74, 121–143. doi: 10.1177/0190272511407619
(2011). Somatic and emotional well-being among Turkish immigrants in Belgium: Acculturation or culture? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42, 56–74. doi: 10.1177/0022022110361773
(1970). Marginality, stress and ethnic identification in an acculturated aboriginal community. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1, 239–252. doi: 10.1177/135910457000100303
(1980).
(Acculturation as varieties of adaptation . In A. Padilla (Ed.), Acculturation: Theory, models and some new findings (pp. 9–25). Boulder, CO: Westview.1990).
(Psychology of acculturation: Understanding individuals moving between cultures . In R. Brislin (Ed.), Applied cross-cultural psychology (pp. 232–253). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. doi: 10.4135/9781483325392.n111997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5–34.
(1989). Acculturation attitudes in plural societies. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 38, 185–206. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.1989.tb01208.x
(Berry, J. W.Phinney, J. S.Sam, D. L.Vedder, P. (Eds.). (2006). Immigrant youth in cultural transition: Acculturation, identity and adaptation across national contexts. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
2002).
(Acculturation and intercultural relations . In J. W. BerryY. PoortingaM. H. SegallP. R. Dasen (Eds.), Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications (2nd ed., pp. 345–383). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.2004). Human research and data collection via the internet. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 803–832. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141601
(1997). Towards an interactive acculturation model: A social psychological approach. International Journal of Psychology, 32, 369–386. doi: 10.1080/002075997400629
(2008). Expanding acculturation theory: Are acculturation models and the adaptiveness of acculturation strategies generalizable in a colonial context? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 32, 21–33. doi: 10.1177/0165025407084048
(2009). Measurement equivalence of paper-and-pencil and internet organisational surveys: A large scale examination in 16 countries. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 58, 336–361. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00350.x
(1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
(2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403–425. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145056
(2009). The Bronze Soldier: Identity threat and maintenance in Estonia. Journal of Baltic Studies, 40, 139–158. doi: 10.1080/01629770902722294
(2002). A multilevel analysis of the relationship between institutional and individual racial discrimination and health status. American Journal of Public Health, 92, 615–623. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.92.4.615
(2010). Prejudice among Peruvians and Chileans as a function of identity, intergroup contact, acculturation preferences, and intergroup emotions. Journal of Social Issues, 66, 803–824. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01676.x
(2009). Missing data analysis: Making it work in the real world. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 549–576. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085530
(2003). The interactive nature of acculturation: Perceived discrimination, acculturation attitudes and stress among young ethnic repatriates in Finland, Israel and Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 79–97. doi: 10.1016/S0147-1767(02)00061-5
(2013). ModGraph-I: A programme to compute cell means for the graphical display of moderational analyses: The internet version, Version 3.0. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://pavlov.psyc.vuw.ac.nz/paul-jose/modgraph/
(2009). The strategies of inter-ethnic adaptation of Estonian Russians. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 1, 3–24.
(2011). Is there a shared history? The role of contextual factors in the psychology of inter-ethnic relations in Estonia (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington.
(2013). Relative deprivation versus system justification: Polemical social representations and identity positioning in a post-Soviet society. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 423–437. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.1958
(2008). “No love lost between each other”? Interethnic relations in Estonia: A qualitative study. Paper presented at the 19th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Bremen, Germany.
(2009). Testing the concordance model of acculturation: acculturation attitudes as determinants of immigrants’ psychological adaptation and intercultural relations. Paper presented at the 6th Biennial Conference of the International Academy for Intercultural Research, Honolulu, USA.
(2013). Interethnic factors as predictors of the subjective well-being of minority individuals in a context of recent societal changes. Political Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/pops.12038
(2002). History, memory and nation building in the post-Soviet colonial space. Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 30, 241–264. doi: 10.1080/00905990220140649
(2008). Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition. Journal of Comparative Economics, 36, 599–619. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2008.08.002
(2010).
(Second generation Russians in the Estonian labour market . In M. Lauristin (Ed.), Estonian Human Development Report 2009 (pp. 99–102). Tallinn: Estonian Cooperation Assembly.2001). A colonial perspective on population migration in Soviet Estonia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27, 133–150. doi: 10.1080/13691830123455
(2013). Biculturalism and adjustment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44, 122–159. doi: 10.1177/0022022111435097
(2011).
(Sense of belonging to Estonia . In R. VetikJ. Helemäe (Eds.), The Russian second generation in Tallinn and Kohtla-Järve: The TIES study in Estonia (pp. 201–224). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Nimmerfeldt, G.Rikmann, E. (Eds.). (2013). Lõimumisvaldkonna sotsiaalsete gruppide uuring [
Study of the social groups of integration ]. Tallinn: Rahvusvaheliste ja Sotsiaaluuringute Instituut.2006). Acculturation preferences of majority and minority adolescents in Germany in the context of society and family. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30, 703–717. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2006.03.005
(1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.499
(2001). Ethnic identity, immigration, and well-being: An interactional perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 493–510. doi: 10.1111/0022-4537.00225
(2006). The acculturation modes of Russian speaking adolescents in Latvia: Perceived discrimination and knowledge of the Latvian language. Europe-Asia Studies, 58, 751–773. doi: 10.1080/09668130600732100
(2009). Ethnic self-esteem and intergroup attitudes among the Estonian majority and the non-Estonian minority. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 1, 36–51.
(2000).
(The web experiment method: Advantages, disadvantages, and solutions . In M. H. Birnbaum (Ed.), Psychology experiments on the internet (pp. 89–117). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-012099980-4/50005-82002). Internet-based psychological experimenting. Social Science Computer Review, 20, 241–249.
(2006). The role of discordant acculturation attitudes in perceived threat: An analysis of host and immigrant attitudes in Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30, 683–702. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2006.06.006
(2008).
(Haridus [Education ]. In R. Vetik (Ed.), Eesti Ühiskonna integratiooni monitooring (pp. 51–70). Tallinn: Integratsiooni Sihtasutus.2010). Immigrants’ life satisfaction in Europe: Between assimilation and discrimination. European Sociological Review, 26, 159–176. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcp013
(2008). Cultural integration and adaptation. Integration of Second Generation Russians in Estonia: Country Report on TIES Survey in Estonia, 58–83. Retrieved from http://www.tiesproject.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,44/Itemid,142/
(2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
(2012). Discrimination, acculturation, acculturative stress, and Latino psychological distress: A moderated mediational model. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 18, 17–25. doi: 10.1037/a0026710
(2006).
(Predicting immigrant youths’ adaptation across countries and ethnocultural groups . In J. W. BerryJ. S. PhinneyD. L. SamP. Vedder (Eds.), Immigrant youth in cultural transition: Acculturation, identity and adaptation across national contexts (pp. 143–165). London: Erlbaum.2002). Ethnic minority identity and group context: Self-descriptions, acculturation attitudes and group evaluations in an intra- and intergroup situation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32, 781–800. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.121
(2008).
(Sissejuhatus ja trendid [Introduction and trends ]. In R. Vetik (Ed.), Eesti Ühiskonna integratiooni monitooring (pp. 3–6). Tallinn: Integratsiooni Sihtasutus.2011).
(Integration policies . In R. VetikJ. Helemäe (Eds.), The Russian second generation in Tallinn and Kohtla-Järve: The TIES study in Estonia (pp. 37–55). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. doi: 10.5117/9789089642509Vetik, R.Helemäe, J. (Eds.). (2011). The Russian second generation in Tallinn and Kohtla-Järve: The TIES study in Estonia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. doi: 10.5117/9789089642509
2008).
(Keeleoskus ja hoiakud [Language proficiency and attitudes ]. In R. Vetik (Ed.), Eesti Ühiskonna Integratiooni Monitooring 2008 (pp. 71–80). Tallinn: Integratsiooni Sihtasutus.1996).
(Acculturation . In D. LandisR. Bhagat (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training (2nd ed., pp. 124–147). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.1999).
(Models and measurements of acculturation . In W. J. LonnerD. L. DinnelD. K. ForgaysS. A. Hayes (Eds.), Merging past, present, and future in cross-cultural psychology: Selected papers from the 14th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (pp. 221–229). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.2009).
(Acculturation and social cohesion: Emerging issues for Asian immigrants in New Zealand . In C.-H. LeongJ. W. Berry (Eds.), Intercultural relations in Asia: Migration and work effectiveness (pp. 3–24). Singapore: World Scientific. doi: 10.1142/9789812837875_00012010). Contextual influences on acculturation processes: The roles of family, community and society. Psychological Studies, 55, 26–34. doi: 10.1007/s12646-010-0003-8
(1994). Acculturation strategies, psychological adjustment, and sociocultural competence during cross-cultural transitions. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 18, 329–343. doi: 10.1016/0147-1767(94)90036-1
(2012). Back to and beyond Berry’s basics: The conceptualization, operationalization and classification of acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36, 472–485. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.02.002
(2008). Acculturation and intercultural perceptions: What I think, what you think, what I think you think and why it’s all important. Paper presented at the 19th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Bremen, Germany.
(2000). Home and host culture influences on sojourner adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24, 291–306. doi: 10.1016/S0147-1767(00)00002-X
(2003). Multiple imputation for missing data: What is it and how can I use it? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Retrieved from http://www.csos.jhu.edu/contact/staff/jwayman_pub/wayman_multimp_aera2003.pdf
(2002). The relationship between acculturation strategies: Relative fit and intergroup relations: Immigrant-majority relations in Germany. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32, 171–188. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.73
(2001). Acculturation and prejudice in Germany: Majority and minority perspectives. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 541–557. doi: 10.1111/0022-4537.00228
(