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Overall and Contextually-Bound Well-Being: Life Satisfaction of Romanian Migrant Emerging Adults as the Outcome of a Mediated Association Acculturation-Adaptation

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Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 12))

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Abstract

In addition to developmental challenges, migration during emerging adulthood can pose unique obstacles to individuals’ positive well-being. This chapter proposes distinguishing between two types of migrant emerging adults’ (MEAs) well-being (overall and contextually-bound) as one way to examine the influences of these interferences. A brief review of the literature and empirical support is provided for this claim among samples of Romanian MEAs in Europe (N = 215), an ethnic group that is under-represented in the literature. The overall well-being of MEAs can be studied as a result of an association between acculturation orientation and adaptation (as contextually-bound well-being and sociocultural), two variables especially relevant for MEAs living in culturally distant host societies. The findings suggest there may be different templates of well-being depending on whether migrants live in similar or distant host cultures compared to their home cultures. Furthermore, the role of context is discussed in light of the distinction between the two types of well-being that can provide a more accurate insight for practitioners with regards to whether age-related or migration-related issues are problematic to migrants’ well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759, Bremen, Germany

    Adrian Stanciu

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  1. Adrian Stanciu
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Correspondence to Adrian Stanciu .

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  1. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Radosveta Dimitrova

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Stanciu, A. (2017). Overall and Contextually-Bound Well-Being: Life Satisfaction of Romanian Migrant Emerging Adults as the Outcome of a Mediated Association Acculturation-Adaptation. In: Dimitrova, R. (eds) Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures . Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68363-8_12

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