Abstract
This study examined family-oriented stressors on acculturative stress in 83 African American college students attending a predominately White university. Results showed that family pressure for participants not to acculturate, pressure to maintain ethnic group language, perception of Acting White, and acculturation level were related to higher acculturative stress for participants. After controlling for acculturation and general stress, family pressure to maintain the ethnic group’s language and perception of Acting White accounted for a statistically significant proportion of the variance in acculturation stress. The findings emphasize the need to recognize culture-specific stressors of college students. Implications for mental health providers are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, L. P. (1991). Acculturative stress: a theory of relevance to Black Americans. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 685–702.
Belgrave, F. Z., & Allison, K. W. (2006). African American psychology: from Africa to America. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: an International Review, 46(1), 5–34.
Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H., & Dansen, P. R. (1992). Cross-cultural psychology: research and applications. New York: Cambridge University.
Castillo, L. G. (2010). The role of intragroup marginalization in bicultural Latino college student adjustment. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling.
Castillo, L. G., Conoley, C. W., & Brossart, D. F. (2004). Acculturation, White marginalization, and family support as predictors of perceived distress in Mexican American female college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51, 151–157.
Castillo, L.G., Conoley, C.W., Brossart, D.F., Quiros, A. (2007). Construction and validation of the intragroup marginalization inventory. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.
Castillo, L. G., Cano, M. A., Chen, S. W., Blucker, R. T., & Olds, T. S. (2008). Family conflict and intragroup marginalization as predictors of acculturative stress in Latino college students. International Journal of Stress Management, 15, 43–52.
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In S. Spacapan & S. Oskamp (Eds.), The social psychology of health: Claremont Symposium on applied social psychology. Newbury Park: Sage.
Fuertes, J. N., & Westbrook, F. D. (1996). Using the social, attitudinal, familial, and environmental (S.A.F.E.) acculturation stress scale to assess the adjustment needs of Hispanic college students. Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling & Development, 29, 67–76.
Ghorpade, J., Lackritz, J. R., & Singh, G. (2006). Intrinsic religious orientation among minorities in the United States: a research note. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 16, 51–62.
Joiner, T. E., & Walker, R. L. (2002). Construct validity of a measure of acculturative stress in African Americans. Psychological Assessment, 14, 462–466.
Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1994). Cultural diversity in causal attributions for illness: the role of the supernatural. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17(2), 181–193.
Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). Acculturation and cigarette smoking among African American adults. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 19(5), 501–514.
Martin, R. C., & Dahlen, E. R. (2005). Cognitive emotion regulation in the prediction of depression, anxiety, stress, and anger. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32(2), 206–216.
Monat, A., & Lazarus, R. S. (Eds.). (1991). Stress and coping: An anthology. New York: Columbia University.
Neal-Barnett, A. M. (2001). Being Black: A new conceptualization of acting White. In A. M. Neal-Barnett, J. Contreras, & K. Kerns (Eds.), Forging links: African American children clinical developmental perspectives. Westport: Greenwood.
Ogbu, J. U. (1999). Beyond language: Ebonics, proper English, and identity in a Black-American speech community. American Educational Research Journal, 36(2), 147–184.
Perez, M., Voelz, Z. R., Pettit, J. W., & Joiner, T. (2002). The role of acculturative stress and body dissatisfaction in predicting bulimic symptomatology across ethnic groups. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 31, 442–452.
Smokowski, P. R., & Bacallao, M. L. (2007). Acculturation, internalizing mental health symptoms, and self-esteem: cultural experiences of Latino adolescents in North Carolina. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 37(3), 273–292.
Taylor, S. E., Welch, W. T., Kim, H. S., & Sherman, D. K. (2007). Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses. Psychological Science, 18(9), 831–837.
Townsend, T. G., Hawkins, S. R., & Batts, A. L. (2007). Stress and stress reduction among African American women: a brief report. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 28(6), 569–582.
Tropp, L. R., Erkut, S., García Coll, C., Alarcón, O., & Vázquez García, H. A. (1999). Psychological acculturation: development of a new measure for Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59, 351–367.
Vanderwerker, L. C., Chen, J. H., Charpentier, P., Paulk, M. E., Michalski, M., & Prigerson, H. G. (2007). Differences in Risk factors for suicidality between African American and White patients vulnerable to suicide. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 37(1), 1–9.
Walker, R. L. (2007). Acculturation and acculturative stress as indicators for suicide risk among African Americans. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 386–391.
Walker, L. S., Smith, C. A., Garber, J., & Claar, R. L. (2007). Appraisal and coping with daily stressors by pediatric patients with chronic abdominal pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32(2), 206–216.
Williams, D. R., Yu, Y., Jackson, J. S., & Anderson, N. B. (1997). Racial differences in physical and mental health. Journal of Health Psychology, 2(3), 335–351.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thompson, K.V., Lightfoot, N.L., Castillo, L.G. et al. Influence of Family Perceptions of Acting White on Acculturative Stress in African American College Students. Int J Adv Counselling 32, 144–152 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-010-9095-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-010-9095-z