Young children and adolescents who experience forced-migration are in need of assistance in adapting to new cultural and behavioral norms. Cultural norms can be defined as the rules that a specific group uses for stating appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Cultural norms give people a sense of control and order in their lives as well as a sense of belonging to a group. All across the world, cultural norms may encompass how people communicate through reinforcements from parents and friends while growing up in a society. Communication is a key factor in adapting to cultural norms because they “convey normative information about the appropriateness and desirability of behaviors” (Cooke & Rousseau, 1988). Although children
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An explanation of case studies are that they are prominent for discovering “how” or “why” a phenomenon occurs and are a good way to understand individuals, groups, and organizations (Jamison, 2013). Foster’s (2001) case study on Magaly, a 30-year old Latin American woman, who migrated to the United States at the age of fifteen, showed huge developmental gains in adapting using the four acculturation strategies. When she experienced forced-migration, she presented for help with depression, significant weight loss, and insomnia (Foster, 2001). According to Foster (2001), Magaly did not live a life she aimed of having in the U.S. “While depressed, she seemed to project an air of social assertion in her surroundings” (Foster, 2001). These were Magaly’s words, “In my country, my family was comfortable. My mother was a school teacher and my father was an accountant who worked for the Department of Highways. I had two older brothers. They died” (Foster, 2001). While being forced out of her country, she was burdened with the death of her own mother and the horrible deaths of her brothers, due to terrorist activities sanctioned by the government of her country (Foster, 2001). In order to acculturate to new cultural …show more content…
As schools are constantly expanding the diversity of students, a disproportionate number of children who attend schools experienced forced-migration (Keskin & Blalock, 2014). In Keskin’s and Blalock’s (2014) quantitative study, Keskin and Blalock each conducted a computerized search for articles with the keywords ‘acculturation’ and ‘school’ to determine what factors led to how children’s and adolescents acculturate use help the children 's stay focused in school. Results showed that 75% of the articles showed that children adjust to cultural norms easier when school systems contain bilingual education. A reason to why children adjust to cultural norms easier in a bilingual school system is because they are likely to have a less emotional and academic difficulties in the short run. What causes children to have difficulties in adapting to cultural norms is their adjustment in the long run is contingent on the ability of how school administrators and teachers affirm the child’s primary cultural heritage while dealing with high demands of ethnically diverse
An explanation of case studies are that they are prominent for discovering “how” or “why” a phenomenon occurs and are a good way to understand individuals, groups, and organizations (Jamison, 2013). Foster’s (2001) case study on Magaly, a 30-year old Latin American woman, who migrated to the United States at the age of fifteen, showed huge developmental gains in adapting using the four acculturation strategies. When she experienced forced-migration, she presented for help with depression, significant weight loss, and insomnia (Foster, 2001). According to Foster (2001), Magaly did not live a life she aimed of having in the U.S. “While depressed, she seemed to project an air of social assertion in her surroundings” (Foster, 2001). These were Magaly’s words, “In my country, my family was comfortable. My mother was a school teacher and my father was an accountant who worked for the Department of Highways. I had two older brothers. They died” (Foster, 2001). While being forced out of her country, she was burdened with the death of her own mother and the horrible deaths of her brothers, due to terrorist activities sanctioned by the government of her country (Foster, 2001). In order to acculturate to new cultural …show more content…
As schools are constantly expanding the diversity of students, a disproportionate number of children who attend schools experienced forced-migration (Keskin & Blalock, 2014). In Keskin’s and Blalock’s (2014) quantitative study, Keskin and Blalock each conducted a computerized search for articles with the keywords ‘acculturation’ and ‘school’ to determine what factors led to how children’s and adolescents acculturate use help the children 's stay focused in school. Results showed that 75% of the articles showed that children adjust to cultural norms easier when school systems contain bilingual education. A reason to why children adjust to cultural norms easier in a bilingual school system is because they are likely to have a less emotional and academic difficulties in the short run. What causes children to have difficulties in adapting to cultural norms is their adjustment in the long run is contingent on the ability of how school administrators and teachers affirm the child’s primary cultural heritage while dealing with high demands of ethnically diverse