Short-term and long-term effects of a culture-specific self-affirmation intervention to promote school adjustment of adolescents of migrant and refugee backgrounds

该项目的目的是测试在面对与文化适应相关的压力，如歧视经历时，简短的自我肯定写作干预是否能防止学业和社会情绪适应能力的下降。我们重点关注移民和难民背景的青少年，包括土耳其血统、叙利亚血统和澳大利亚(来自前苏联)青少年，以代表最近和现有的移民群体，他们可能经历不同程度的适应文化相关的压力。我们建立在三个研究领域的重要先前工作的基础上：文化适应压力、自我肯定理论和自我决定理论(SDT)，以检验自我肯定写作干预是否可以增强关联感、能力和自主感，并最终改善移民和难民背景的青少年的学业和社会情绪幸福感。之前的工作集中在自我肯定写作干预如何促进更大的关联感，从而提高学业成就。在我们的研究中，我们测试了这种干预是否也会提高SDT的另外两个关键方面，即自主性和能力，从而导致更积极的学业和社会情绪适应。此外，我们还测试了干预对某些群体是否比对其他群体更有效。由于在更敏感的过渡时期实施自我肯定写作干预措施的效果更强，我们预计干预措施对新移民(叙利亚传统)与长期移民(土耳其传统和澳大利亚人)或没有移民背景的德国青年的影响将更大。我们的目标是从德国一个文化多元的城市招募600名中学一年级(即另一个过渡点)的青少年参与这项纵向研究。这是一个重要的机会，可以让更多新近和更成熟的移民背景的青少年接受一种干预措施，这种干预措施实施起来很简单，而且已经被证明在缩小美国的成绩差距(少数族裔儿童和少数族裔儿童之间)方面取得了成功。研究结果将在上述三个领域的先前研究中发现的基础上作出重要贡献。研究结果还可以通过确定自我肯定干预的其他机制来扩展自我肯定理论。

The purpose of the project is to test whether a brief self-affirmation writing intervention prevents declines in academic and socioemotional adjustment in the face of acculturation-related stress such as experiences of discrimination. We focus on adolescents of migrant and refugee background, including Turkish-heritage, Syrian-heritage, and Aussiedler (from the former Soviet Union) adolescents to represent recent and established migrant groups who may experience different levels of acculturation-related stress. We build on important prior work rooted in three research areas: acculturative stress, self-affirmation theory and self-determination theory (SDT), to test whether a self-affirmation writing intervention can enhance a sense of relatedness, competence, and autonomy, and ultimately improve the academic and socioemotional well-being of adolescents of migrant and refugee background. Prior work has focused on how self-affirmation writing interventions promote a greater sense of relatedness which boosts academic achievement. In our study we test whether this intervention would also enhance the other two key aspects of SDT, autonomy and competence, to lead to more positive academic and socioemotional adjustment. In addition, we test whether the intervention is more effective for some groups compared to others. Because the effects of self-affirmation writing interventions are stronger when administered during a more sensitive transitional period we expect that the intervention will show greater effects for newer (Syrian-heritage) versus longer-term migrants (Turkish-heritage and Aussiedler) or German youth without immigrant background. We aim to recruit 600 adolescents at the beginning of their first year at secondary school (i.e., another point of transition) from a culturally diverse urban city in Germany to participate in this longitudinal study. This is a significant opportunity to expose more recent and more established migrant background adolescents to an intervention that is simple in its implementation and that has already proven successful in reducing the achievement gap (between ethnic majority and ethnic minority children) in the United States. Research findings will make important contributions beyond what has been found in prior research in the three areas listed above. Findings may also extend self-affirmation theory by identifying additional mechanisms by which self-affirmation interventions work.