Violated expectations and acculturative stress among U.S. Hispanic immigrants.

Abstract

Expectancy violation theory (EVT) was tested with 112 Hispanic immigrants living in the United States by determining whether discrepancies between their retrospectively recalled pre-migration expectations about life in the United States and their post-migration (actual) experiences in the United States would predict their levels of acculturative stress. Discrepancies were assessed in 4 domains (ability to communicate with English speakers, perceiving their communities and the United States as safe, obtaining adequate employment, and experiencing racism). Overall, the results indicated that discrepancies between pre-migration expectations and post-migration experiences were associated significantly with acculturative stress, although some of the findings were counter to EVT. Also, on the basis of a hierarchical regression analysis, the discrepancies significantly, albeit modestly, contributed to the prediction of acculturative stress beyond the predictive ability of general demographic variables and post-migration experiences. Implications for clinical interventions and research opportunities with EVT and Hispanic immigrants are discussed.

Changes in Family Cohesion and Acculturative Stress among Recent Latino Immigrants

“…However, these studies assume a loss without examining the pre-immigration context. An exception to this is a recent study by Negy and colleagues (2009) who found that the pre-immigration expectations of how life was going to be in the U.S. were related to acculturative stress. For Latino immigrants, the more discrepancy between expectations of how life in the U.S. would be like and what it actually is, the more acculturative stress is reported (Negy, Hammons, Reig-Ferrer, & Carper, 2010).…”

Contextual Approach to Acculturative Stress Among Latina Immigrants in the U.S.

“…The majority of Latina immigrant women in this study had lived in the U.S. for many years and had time to reconcile to the reality of living in the U.S. However, it might be difficult to generalize how unmet expectations impact acculturative stress, since being content with different aspects of life in a new country impacts acculturative stress differently [29].…”

“…The following external contextual factors have been linked with acculturative stress: perceived discrimination [35], citizenship and immigration status [3], unemployment [18], U.S. lifestyle, lower levels of education [15], the presence of adolescents in the household [14], and lack of adequate income [23]. Social support [2,26] and positive expectations about the U.S. [15,29] were associated with low acculturative stress. Internal contextual variables associated with acculturative stress include religiosity (religious participation) 5, and personality characteristics [25].…”

Expectancy violations and the search for meaning among breast cancer survivors

“…Only two studies (Feldman, 2005; Negy, Schwartz, & Reig-Ferrer, 2009) have been designed to understand the influences of such ‘personal’ EVs and each of these examined negative emotionality as outcomes. Feldman (2005) found mixed support for the idea that EVs surrounding a negative life event predict negative emotions.…”