The Relationship between Acculturation and Relevant Correlates for African-born Migrants: A Meta-Analytic Review - Preprint

Acculturation is a complex and multidimensional process that refers to the psychological process whereby individuals’ behaviours, values, and cultural attitudes change as a result of sustained contact between two or more distinct cultures. While there is a large amount of literature focused on linking acculturation to various adaptation-relevant outcome domains for other migrant groups, there has been little synthesis of literature focusing on African-born migrants. The present paper examined the relationship between acculturation (both host culture adoption and home culture maintenance) and the adaptation-relevant outcome domains that exist in the literature for African-born migrants (i.e., acculturative stress, discrimination, economic outcomes, healthcare utilisation, mental health, parenting, physical health, sexual health, social support and contact, and transnationalism). One hundred and eight records (113 studies; Ntotal = 48,952 participants) were meta-analysed and revealed that host culture adoption was significantly related to better economic outcomes, greater healthcare utilisation, better sexual health, and greater social support and more social contact. Meta-analyses also revealed home culture maintenance was significantly related to greater discrimination, poor economic outcomes, and less social support and contact. Migrant status, acculturation measure, acculturation conceptualisation, and proxy acculturation measure moderated some of these relationships. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and migration policies, namely indicating the importance of examining acculturation using bidimensional measures and the importance of migration policies supporting both host culture adoption and home culture maintenance.