Emotional Acculturation in Minority Youth

If two people share an emotion , for example by being happy or angry for the same reasons, this means that they look at the world in a similar way. The more time couples and group members spend together, the more they tend to share the same emotions; moreover, emotional similarity in a couple or a group makes people happier. Preliminary research has suggested that a similar phenomenon happens to immigrants: As they spend more time in the new culture, their emotional experiences become more similar to people from the host culture. We have called this process emotional acculturation. The aim of the current research is to find evidence for the process of emotional acculturation as well as its consequences. In three studies (an experience sampling study, a longitudinal study, and a an interactive experiment), we hope to gain insight into:

1. the predictors of emotional similarity
2. the benefits of having similar emotions for the immigrant’s psychological and social adjustment
3. the development of emotional acculturation over time.

The studies will be conducted with minority youth in culturally mixed Flemish schools.