| The purpose of this research was to explore the acculturation level and the four positions of acculturation strategy of young new arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong, and the relationships between them.; Based on Berry's conceptual framework, two inventories were developed, which comprised one inventory for measuring the acculturation level of young new arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong (AL-C-HK), and one inventory for measuring the acculturation strategy of young new arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong (AS-C-HK). Relationships between the acculturation level and the four positions of acculturation strategy were examined. Besides, the study also tried to identify the effect of new arrivals' pre- and post-arrival factors on their acculturation level and positions of acculturation strategy. In addition, Rosenberg's self-esteem inventory (Rosenberg, 1965), Le Greca, Dandes, Wick, Shaw, and Stone's social anxiety scale (Le Greca et al., 1988) and Asher, Hymel, and Renshaw's Children's Loneliness Scale (Asher et al., 1984) were also selected for concurrent validation of the two newly developed inventories. Lastly, the best predictor of new arrivals' level of acculturation and the four positions of acculturation strategy were identified.; There were three stages in this research project. In stage one, 18 in-depth semi-structured individual interviews and 8 focus group interviews were conducted to identify cultural specific factors for assessing new arrivals' acculturation level and cultural specific topics relevant for assessing the four positions of acculturation strategy. In stage two, 104 items for measuring acculturation level and 12 cultural specific topics for assessing the four positions of acculturation strategy were generated. In stage three, a large-scale cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 1,680 valid questionnaires were collected successfully from 37 secondary schools and 32 primary schools located in different districts in Hong Kong.; There were five major findings from this study. First, the research findings extended Berry's conceptual model on acculturation level in the Hong Kong context. Slightly different from Berry & Sam's, four factors, which were labeled as behavioural shifts, acculturative stress, psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation, were extracted instead of the original five factors. The factor labeled as "psychopathology" could not be extracted. Second, this study provided additional support to Berry's two-dimensional structure of acculturation strategy (e.g., Berry, 1990; 1992; Berry & Sam, 1997). Third, findings from this research study also supported "integration" as the best position of acculturation strategy, whilst "marginalization" was the worst. Between the two extremes, "assimilation" was found to be comparatively better than "separation". Fourth, among various pre-arrival and post-arrival individual factors, it was found that new arrivals' gender and housing type had a significant effect on their acculturation level. Besides, the effect of new arrivals' self-esteem, social anxiety and feeling of loneliness on both acculturation level and positions of acculturation strategy were significant in this research study. Fifth, among various individual factors, feeling of loneliness was found to be the best predictor of acculturation level. Concerning the relationships between the acculturation level and the four positions of acculturation strategy, self-esteem was identified as the best predictor of "integration" position, social anxiety was identified as the best predictor of "assimilation" and "separation" positions, whilst feeling of loneliness was identified as the best predictor of "marginalization" position.; Findings from this study have theoretical and practical implications for research and practice. |
