Short-term and long-term effects of a culture-specific self-affirmation intervention to promote school adjustment of adolescents of migrant and refugee backgrounds
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Final Report Abstract
One of the main scientific contributions of our work is that we tested for theorized heterogeneity and focused on student (e.g., immigration status) and contextual (e.g., classroom diversity climate) moderators to test more specifically for whom and under what conditions brief self-affirmation interventions are effective. Our findings are useful in that the intervention seems to offer some protection for school-related adjustment, for both students of immigrant and non-immigrant descent, depending on the particular aspect of adjustment and context. Although we did not find strong support for all hypotheses with our wide range of outcomes, the strengths of the project are the theoretical foundation, adequate sample size, real-life conditions and longer-term school-related adjustment measured (most self-affirmation intervention studies do not have such a long follow-up). One of the most important findings is that the brief selfaffirmation seems to be more effective in classrooms with positive cultural diversity climates. Along the way, we also could test relations among important aspects of immigrant and non-immigrant descent adolescent development regarding experiences of discrimination, identity, and classroom diversity climate. Taken together, we conclude that school contexts can provide the affordances and nurturing environment that allow students to be affirmed, valued, and supported for who they are. One surprise was that there were fewer positive effects of the brief self-affirmation intervention than hypothesized based on theoretical considerations and previous empirical studies. Nonetheless, our results speak to the importance of considering a range of conditions to clarify self-affirmation effects in educational settings as the quality and timing of implementation, demographics and experiences of students and teachers, and availability of school resources can all contribute to heterogeneity of effects. The findings from one of the studies were reported in Der Spiegel on September 15, 2023.
Publications
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Discrimination Among Youth of Immigrant Descent in Germany. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie, 52(3-4), 88-102.
Kunyu, David; Juang, Linda P.; Schachner, Maja K. & Schwarzenthal, Miriam
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Acculturation hassles and adjustment of adolescents of immigrant descent: Testing mediation with a self‐determination theory approach. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2021(177), 101-121.
Kunyu, David K.; Schachner, Maja K.; Juang, Linda P.; Schwarzenthal, Miriam & Aral, Tuğçe
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Cultural diversity approaches in schools and adolescents’ willingness to support refugee youth. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(2), 772-799.
Aral, Tuğçe; Schachner, Maja K.; Juang, Linda & Schwarzenthal, Miriam
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Identitätsbezogene Interventionen in der Schule zum Umgang mit Stereotypen und Diskriminierung. Stereotype in der Schule II, 171-233. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Grießig, Ritva; Schachner, Maja; Lokhande, Mohini; Juang, Linda; Pevec, Sharleen; Schwarzenthal, Miriam & Müller, Tim
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Critical, active, and well adapted: Antecedents and consequences of adolescents' critical consciousness profiles. Child Development, 95(1), 223-241.
Schwarzenthal, Miriam; Baysu, Gülseli; Diemer, Matthew; Juang, Linda P. & Schachner, Maja K.
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Effects of a brief self-affirmation writing intervention among 7th graders in Germany: Testing for variations by heritage group, discrimination experiences and classroom diversity climate. Social Psychology of Education, 27(3), 651-685.
Juang, Linda P.; Schachner, Maja K.; Aral, Tuğçe; Schwarzenthal, Miriam; Kunyu, David & Löhmannsröben, Hanna
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Heritage culture and national identity trajectories: Relations to classroom cultural diversity climate and socioemotional adjustment for adolescents of immigrant descent. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 27(1), 63-87.
Juang, Linda P.; Schwarzenthal, Miriam & Schachner, Maja K.
