La investigación en aculturación no ha prestado suficiente atención a las motivaciones subyacentes a los comportamientos de los inmigrantes, las cuales influyen en la adaptación a su nuevo país de residencia. Los autores sugieren que la motivación para la conservación cultural (MCC) y la motivación para la exploración cultural (MEC) inciden en los comportamientos de aculturación de los inmigrantes y que estos a su vez afectan su adaptación psicológica y sociocultural. La presente investigación explora un modelo de procesamiento dual basado en las relaciones entre las motivaciones propuestas, los comportamientos de aculturación en relación con personas autóctonas/etnicidad semejante y la adaptación sociocultural y psicológica, en una muestra de inmigrantes en Nueva Zelanda (N = 280; 64.6 % mujeres; Media = 39 años). Usando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales, los resultados apoyan el modelo dual propuesto y muestran la capacidad predictiva de las distintas motivaciones. La MCC predijo la adaptación psicológica a través de la conexión con personas de etnicidad semejante, mientras la MEC y la conexión con personas autóctonas predijeron la adaptación sociocultural de forma directa. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados, así como la utilidad del modelo propuesto.

<p>Past research suggests that immigrants are relatively inclined to maintain their cultural heritage and identity and at the same time engage with host nationals and the host society. However, to my best knowledge, no study has examined whether these 'inclinations' are in fact distinct motivational drives. I argue that the motivational drives of Cultural Maintenance Motivation (MCM) and Cultural Exploration Motivation (MCE) influence acculturation behaviours when individuals immigrate to another country and that these acculturation behaviours in turn impact psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The present research first examines the psychometric properties of scales designed to measure these two motivations in a preliminary study with international students (N = 50), and then investigates a dual-process model based on the relationships between the novel motivations, acculturation behaviours and psychological and sociocultural adaptation in a larger New Zealand migrant sample (N = 280). Results from structural equation modeling largely supported the proposed dual-process model. The findings suggest that MCM predicted psychological adaptation through ethnic peer connections, whereas MCE predicted sociocultural adaptation, which in turn predicted psychological adaptation. Thus the proposed novel motivations have predictive power and contribute to the extant acculturation literature. Implications of the findings for acculturation research, policy makers and migrants are discussed.</p>

<p>Past research suggests that immigrants are relatively inclined to maintain their cultural heritage and identity and at the same time engage with host nationals and the host society. However, to my best knowledge, no study has examined whether these 'inclinations' are in fact distinct motivational drives. I argue that the motivational drives of Cultural Maintenance Motivation (MCM) and Cultural Exploration Motivation (MCE) influence acculturation behaviours when individuals immigrate to another country and that these acculturation behaviours in turn impact psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The present research first examines the psychometric properties of scales designed to measure these two motivations in a preliminary study with international students (N = 50), and then investigates a dual-process model based on the relationships between the novel motivations, acculturation behaviours and psychological and sociocultural adaptation in a larger New Zealand migrant sample (N = 280). Results from structural equation modeling largely supported the proposed dual-process model. The findings suggest that MCM predicted psychological adaptation through ethnic peer connections, whereas MCE predicted sociocultural adaptation, which in turn predicted psychological adaptation. Thus the proposed novel motivations have predictive power and contribute to the extant acculturation literature. Implications of the findings for acculturation research, policy makers and migrants are discussed.</p>