Ethnicities and Social Adjustment in Canadian Adolescents 社会适应性英文论文-.pdf

ethnicities and social adjustment in canadian adolescents christopher bagley royal free hospital and university college medical school floyd bolitho northern territory university lorne bertrand university of calgary canada is a complex plural society made of groups with multiple ethnic and linguistic origins. it is uncertain whether government support for multiculturalism is reflected in retention of ethnic identities in the majority of the population in the face of both acculturative social forces and publicly expressed political arguments against multiculturalism. the degree to which ethnic identity or identities are retained in young people is explored through secondary analysis of data gathered on some 2,100 alberta adolescents, with analysis of various kinds of social adjustment that may be linked to expressed ethnic origins or ancestries. nearly half of the adolescents retained a single ethnic allegiance, with the remainder expressing multiple ethnic identities. many non-random patterns were found in terms of association of declared ethnic allegiance and variables such as home language; religious affiliation and observance; scholastic achievement; sexual behaviour; alcohol and drug use; family structure; and parental education, family discord, and self- esteem. three groups (south asian, chinese, and spanish and portuguese) emerged as having strong family systems, conservative social habits and high achievement aspirations. correlation of variables across ethnic groupings indicated a coherent pattern, with students of german, polish, and italian ancestry forming a group; dutch and ukrainian-ancestry students another; french, scots, and irish-ancestry a further group; and scandinavian and english-ancestry students another group. the results are promising enough for us to propose that further research on complex ethnic identities and social behaviours in youth should be undertaken. le canada est une socidtd pluraliste complexe, composde de groupes d origines ethniques et linguistiques multiples. ii n es t pas sr si lappui du gouvernement au multiculturalisme se reflote dans le maintien des identitds ethniques de la majoritd de la population face la fois aux forces sociales acculturatives et aux arguments politiques exprimds publiquement key words/mots-clefs: immigration; multicultural policies/politique multiculturelle; canada; adolescents; adjustment/ajustement; ethnicity/ethnicit6 ?9 2001 by pcerii. all rights reserved./tous droits r6serv6s. issn: 1488-3473 jimi/rimi volume 2 number/num6ro 1 (winter/hiver 2001):99-119 bagley, bolitho, and bertrand contre le multiculturalisme. le degrd de conservation de lidentitd ou des identitds ethniques chez les jeunes est examind par lanalyse secondaire de donndes recueillies auprs de 2 100 adolescents albertains, une analyse dtant faite des diffdrents genres d ajustements sociaux qui peuvent otre lids aux origines ethniques ou ancestrales exprimdes. prks de ia moitid des adolescents ont conservd une seule alldgeance ethnique, les autres exprimant des identitds ethniques multiples. on a rdpertorid beaucoup de profils non aldatoires dans l association de lalldgeance ethnique ddclare et des variables comme la langue parlde d la maison, l affiliation religieuse et l observation du culte, les rdalisations scolaires, les comportements sexuels, l alcool et les drogues, la structure familiale, le niveau dinstruction des parents, la discorde familiale et lestime de soi. trois groupes (les asiatiques du sud, les chinois ainsi que les espagnols et les portugais) ressortent comme ayant des systmes familiaux forts, des habitudes sociales conservatrices et de grandes aspirations. la corrdlation des variables entre les groupes ethniques indique l“ existence dun modele cohdrent, les dtudiants d origine allemande, polonaise et italienne formant un groupe, ceux dorigine hollandaise et ukrainienne un autre, ceux d origine fran(aise, dcossaise et irlandaise formant un autre groupe et enfin les dtudiants dorigine scandinave et anglaise formant un autre groupe. les rdsultats sont assez prometteurs pour nous amener ? proposer une recherche plus poussde sur les identitds ethniques complexes et les comportements sociaux chez les jeunes. introduction: ethnicity and canadian culture in his classic sociological portrait of canadian social structure, porter (1965) paints a picture of a culture with multiple, cross-cutting cleavages based on ethnicity, language, religion, and social class. the complexity of canadian culture is reflected in its evolving policy on multiculturalism, which seeks to do justice to the diverse and often competing interests of different groups within a plural society (herberg, 1989). from the mid-19th century new immigrant groups from europe began to arrive in eastern canada from ireland, scotland, and northern and southern europe. these groups drifted westward to the prairies and rocky mountains during the present century and shaped the new provinces. in the far west immigrants from asia began to arrive in increasing numbers, particularly from the indian subcontinent and hong kong, with an increasing flow from hong kong before the absorption of hong kong into the peoples republic of china (halli, trovato kay, 1998). in part these critics have been reactionary, arguing against french language rights, native land claims, and cultural retention by newly arrived groups (especially “visible minorities“) whom some regard as emphasizing cultural retention at the expense of civic participation (see abu-laban reitz and renaud gwyn, 1995; granatstein, 1998; kay, 1998). this apparently widespread opposition to cultural retention by some minority groups in favour of a general assimilationist policy may have influenced youth opinion against the expression of individual ethnic identities. but the issues, as far as both minority and majority groups are concerned, are complex, as berry (1991) points out. schools have informally aided the process of assimilation through processes of monocultural education which while addressing anti-racist issues, have nevertheless paid little attention to maintenance of cultural differences. the complexity of these issues is further explored by joshee taieb-carlen, 1992). we have argued that canadian schools in their assimilationist policies 102 journal of international migration and integration ethnicities and social adjustment in canadian adolescents focus on self-esteem enhancement at the expense of fostering academic skills (bagley, 1989). comparing canadian and british children we found that canadian children were about a year behind on standardized tests of achievement, but tended to have better levels of self-esteem; and self-esteem itself was less strongly related to achievement in canadian than in british children. canadian english itself (we have argued) is a creolized form of the language, less complex in its structure and with a more restricted vocabulary: a language shaped by and modified for waves of non-english speaking immigrants. overall, canadian society in its ready acceptance of well-qualified immigrants appears to be less racist than the uk (bagley, 1984, 1996). general hypotheses no clear hypotheses emerge from earlier literature on social adjustments of canadian youth in terms of their ethnic background. the salience of ethnic identity in young people has not been the subject of much study, and all trends from earlier work point to assimilation and the acquisition of a general canadian identity rather than a more specific ethnic identity (driedger, 1987; berry alliaga, 1994; bissoondath, 1994). by social adjustment we mean adjustment in terms of responses to standardized measures that describe personal adjustment and self- esteem; quality and nature of family life; religious participation; sexual behaviour; scholastic achievements; and use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances. the study is exploratory in nature, without clear expectation of any associations between ethnicity and social adjustment. if we find associations we will try to elucidate patterns of association to see if particular ethnic groups have a particular cluster or profile on the measures of social adjustment. the study reported below is based on the secondary analysis of an existing data set, the primary purpose of which was to establish profiles of particular kinds of social adjustment and behaviour. this survey has included measures of ethnicity, which have enabled us to explore links between ethnicity and social adjustment. some crucial measures are lacking, however, particularly on birthplace and migration history of parents and grandparents. revue de lintegration et de la migration internationale 103 8agley. bolitho, and bertrand the sample the population studied is based on a sample of alberta adolescents aged 13 to 19 attending high schools across the province in 1993. alberta, with its numerous oil and natural gas fields and two major cities calgary and edmonton, which contain the headquarters of oil and gas multinationals, is with ontario and british columbia the most prosperous region of canada. despite this, a chronic underclass remains, with poverty and socially disorganized behaviour transmitted between generations (bagley, 1992). native and metis people, particularly in northern parts of the province, also endure conditions of chronic poverty (bagley, wood “european“ could not be categorized). some groups were merged, so that “spanish,“ “spanish-salvadoran,“ “spanish-chilean,“ “guatemalan“ and “portuguese“ were combined into a spanish and portuguese group. native indian and metis students were merged, since we know from other research that in alberta there is significant intermarriage between these two groups, and metis colonies and native indian reserves in northern alberta are often contiguous (bagley et al., 1990). although some divisions (e.g., between scots and irish) may be considered arbitrary, the aim of merging and dividing groups was to obtain enough respondents in any particular group for reliable statistical analysis, those with ancestry from the indian subcontinent have been combined with those with origins in the philippines to give a south asian group. black or afro-caribbean groups were not large enough for reliable statistical estimates to be made. students not included in the analysis of ethnic groups below are included by default in each of the horizontal contrasts, in which members of a particular ethnic group are compared with all others. self-esteem is measured by the rosenberg self-esteem scale (rses). this scale is the most widely used scale in north america to measure self- esteem and has established validity and reliability across cultural groups (bagley, bolitho tse 613 to two ethnic groups; 300 to three ethnic groups; and 112 to four or more ethnic ancestry groups. data on 938 students with a single or “exclusive“ ethnic ancestry are analysed in the tables below, because a number of students who declared a single ethnic allegiance fell into groups too small for separate analysis. in the tables we have analysed data both by general ethnicity, that is, declared ethnic allegiance that is combined with one or more other ethnic allegiances in horizontal comparisons; and by exclusive or singular ethnicity in the vertical comparisons. in the case of multiple ethnic allegiance, the horizontal contrast is in each case with all other respondents, including those falling into very small ethnic allegiance groups that (less than 30 in any group) were too small to analyse independently. in most of the tables we give proportions of each ethnic allegiance group for whom this was a singular or exclusive ethnic ancestry. the highest proportions with an exclusive ethnic identity are in the chinese, south asian, and the spanish and portuguese ancestry groups, and the lowest are in the french and german ancestry groups. table 1 indicates language use (english or traditional language) in the exclusive ethnic groups. four individuals who declared an exclusively english ethnic allegiance did not speak english at home. this fact is an indicator that the term english may have multiple meanings for some individuals, perhaps indicating a general feeling of being of canadian 106 journal of international migration and integration ethnicities and social adjustment in canadian adolescents table 1 proportions using english or ancestral language at home in 938 canadian adolescents aged 13 to 19 declaring an exclusive ethnic allegiance groups exclusive ethnicity number % of group speaking english other english 323 98.8% 1.2% french 57 89.5% 9.5% scots 38 100.0% 0.0% german 67 92.5% 7.5% italian 23 60.9% 39.1% ukrainian 76 97.4% 2.6% chinese 85 28.2% 71.8% dutch 27 85.2% 14.8% native never used marihuana .90; never had sexual intercourse .91; never used alcohol 0.81; doing well in school .80; use traditional language at home .72; father college education .74; father present in home .63. axis i1: principal component toadings (promax rotation): current school grade .94; mother college education .92; fad - lack of family discord .73; frequency of church attendance .73; father college education .62; higher self-esteem .57: doing well in school revue de integration et de la migration internationale 115 bagley, bolitho, and bertrand characteristics in certain ethnic groups, and it is thus interesting that so many significant differences did emerge. the possible oversampling of stable, high-achieving families is illustrated by the fact that even among the native and metis group, about a quarter of mothers and fathers had completed some college education. another methodological issue concerns the validity of the data. there are no external checks on whether students responses reflected a true statement of their situation or understanding of their familys social position. the correlational analysis (based on aggregate level analysis) has revealed some interesting and statistically significant links between the different variables. 1 the subsequent dimensional analysis will have underestimated the conservative and high-achieving position of the chinese ethnic groups, because they had relatively high proportions reporting no formal religion and never attending a formal place of worship. but we know from other evidence that students of this kind are very likely to conform to confucian traditions of filial piety and ancestor worship. despite this bias in how religious affiliation and attendance has been scored, the students of chinese ethnic origin did emerge as an advantaged and highly achieving group with conservative social habits. the heterogeneous south asian group also emerged on similar dimensions of correlated variables as the chinese ethnic group. the spanish and portuguese ethnic group are also heterogeneous and include not only those with direct origins in the iberian peninsula, but also those from spanish-speaking regions of central and south america. like the chinese and the south asian ethnic groups, students in this ethnic group are particularly likely to use a traditional language at home, and such language use tends to be associated with conservative social behaviours. some ethnic groups such as ukrainians, a traditionally marginalized and oppressed ethnic group in alberta, have a surprising profile on the language dimension, very few speaking a traditional language at home. ukrainian origin students too, despite their largely catholic origins, are not particularly likely to attend church weekly. their social behaviours (in terms of sexuality and substance use) are very much in the mainstream, similar to those of other majority ethnic groups. we speculate, without further evidence, that an adaptive reaction of the ukrainian ethnic group in the face of initial hostility by the anglo majority group has been to shed traditional symbols of ethnic identity, becoming as similar as possible to mainstream, power-holding ethnic groups. this might also 116 journal of international migration and integration ethnicities and social adjustment in canadian adolescents be reflected in high rates of ethnic intermarriage, a subject for further investigation. in terms of clustering along dimensions of variables, students of ukrainian origin resemble dutch and german ethnic origin students-these also emerge as relatively successful mainstream ethnic groups. the french, scots, and irish ethnic origin groups have some similarity to one another, with average scores on the dimension of variables that includes family discord, lower self-esteem, and poorer personal achievement, but rather below average scores on the dimension of variables dominated by conservative social behaviours. given the heat of the debate about the anglo-french language issue, the finding that fewer than 10% of those with an exclusively french ethnic identity speak french at home is interesting. indeed, on many of the indicators studied, those with a french ethnic allegiance were difficult to distinguish from other respondents. the data were collected in the early 1990s, and trends in the following decade could be toward increasing homogenization of various ethnic groups, as kalin and berry (1995) have suggested. the findings from this alberta sample are sufficiently salient for us to recommend that further research be carried out on ethnic identities and social adjustment, with more purposive measures of ethnic identity that include birthplace and migration history of forebears, ethnic intermarriage of parents and grandparents, cross-ethnic dating, and completion of measures of social values, and interpersonal tolerance. measures such as the semantic differential for rating ones own and other ethnic groups might be used, and ethnic identity measured by personal constructs that estimate self-evaluation relative to the evaluation of others. ethnicity apparently still counts for something in alberta despite