Acculturation and adjustment of elderly émigrés from the former Soviet Union: Alife domains perspective

Abstract

Former Soviet émigrés in the United States are on average older than other immigrant groups, with adultsover 65 comprising a large portion of the Russian-speaking population. Despite known risks associated withold-age migration, however, researchers and providers have underestimated adjustment difficulties forRussian-speaking elderly in U.S. These older adults tend to acquire a new culture with difficulty and remainhighly oriented towards their heritage culture. However, limited research examines how acculturation to boththe culture of origin and the host culture contributes to wellbeing for this immigrant group. This studyassesses the adaptive value of host and heritage acculturation across several domains in the lives of olderémigrés from the former Soviet Union resettled in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas in the UnitedStates. Acculturation level with respect to both host and heritage culture was measured with the Language,Identity, and Behavior Scale (LIB; Birman and Trickett, 2001) and used to predict psychological, family, social,and medical care adjustment outcomes. Results suggest that acculturation to the host or heritage culture hasdifferent functions depending on life domain. Particularly, high American acculturation contributed to betteradjustment in the psychological, family, and social domains. Heritage acculturation was associated withbetter outcomes in the social domain and had mixed effects for psychological adjustment. Theoreticalimplications highlight the importance of evaluating multiple life domains of adapting through a bilinearacculturation model for the understudied population of elderly immigrants.