Perceived Discrimination of Immigrant Adolescents in Greece
How Does Group Discrimination Translate Into Personal Discrimination?
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how individual differences contribute to the translation of perceived group discrimination into perceived personal discrimination. One hundred forty-five Pontic Greek and 269 Albanian students (mean age 12.9 years) enrolled in Greek urban public schools were assessed in Grade 1 of high school. Albanians reported higher discrimination against their ethnic group, but not higher discrimination against themselves, personally, than Pontic Greeks. Personal discrimination could be predicted by perceived group discrimination as well as from individual characteristics of immigrant students, independently of their ethnicity. Furthermore, when students reported high, but not low, group discrimination, many of their individual characteristics were shown to buffer against translating perceived group discrimination into experiences of personal discrimination. These results highlight the importance of individual differences, in addition to perceptions of group discrimination, for feelings of being discriminated against as an individual and suggest that high group discrimination of immigrants, independently of ethnic background, does not necessarily result in high personal discrimination, if individual protective factors are present.
References
1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
(1999). Resilient, overcontrolled and undercontrolled personality prototypes in childhood: Replicability, predictive power, and the trait-type issue. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 815–832.
(2004). Albanian emigration and the Greek labour market: Economic symbiosis and social ambiguity. South-East Europe Review for Labour and Social Affairs, 1, 51–65.
(1997). Self-Efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman.
(1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67, 1206–1222.
(2006). Immigrant youth in cultural transition: Acculturation, identity and adaptation across national contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2006). Perceived group and personal discrimination: Differential effects on personal self-esteem. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 773–789.
(2006). Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development, 77, 1129–1520.
(2006). Personality development In . Handbook of child psychology. Social, emotional, and personality development, (Vol. 3, 6th ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.
(1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557–571.
(July, 2010). Sociopsychological predictors of multicultural ideology among Greek students, Contribution to the Symposium Mutual intercultural relations in plural societies (convener: J. Berry), presented at the XXth IACCP Congress, Melbourne.
(2004). Schools, academic motivation and stage-environment. In , Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed., pp. 125–153). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(1999). Socio-economic effects of immigration in Greece. Journal of European Social Policy, 9, 211–229.
(1996). Acculturation and ethnic identity: The remigration of ethnic Greeks to Greece. In , Key issues in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 114–127). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
(2005). Ethnicity and the stranger: Institutional and current records of identity. In , Cross-cultural pathways: Remigration and psychological adaptation (pp. 87–105). Athens, Greece: Ellinika Grammata. [in Greek].
(2006). Developmental and individual difference perspectives on self-esteem. In , Handbook of personality development (pp. 311–336). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2009). To identify or not to identify? National disidentification as an alternative reaction to perceived ethnic discrimination. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 58, 105–128.
(2002). The role of emotionality and self-regulation in the appraisal-coping process: Tests of direct and moderating effects. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 471–493.
(2004). Cultural identity, perceived discrimination, and parental support as determinants of immigrants’ school adjustment: Vietnamese youth in Finland. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 635–656.
(2006). The person in context: A holistic-interactionistic approach. In , Handbook of child psychology. Theoretical models of human development (Vol. 1, pp. 400–464). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(2006). Competence and psychopathology in development. In , Developmental psychopathology. Risk disorder and psychopathology, (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 696–738). New York, NY: Wiley.
(in press ). The adaptation and psychological well-being of adolescent immigrants in Greek schools: A multilevel, longitudinal study of risks and resources. Development and Psychopathology.in press ). Positive immigrant youth adaptation in context: Developmental, acculturation, and social psychological perspectives. In , Capitalizing on migration: The potential of immigrant youth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.2008). Acculturation and adaptation of immigrant adolescents in Greek urban schools. International Journal of Psychology, 43, 45–58.
(2011). Parent-adolescent conflict and adolescents’ adaptation: A longitudinal study of Albanian immigrant youth living in Greece. International Journal of Developmental Science, 5, 57–71.
(in press ). Adversity and risk in developmental psychopathology: Progress and future directions. In , A Developmental Environment Measurement Handbook. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.1998). Psychological variables as predictors of perceived ethnic discrimination among minority and immigrant adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 937–953.
(2006). Stability and change in adolescents’ personality: A longitudinal study. European Journal of Personality, 20, 447–459.
(2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
(2009). HLM for windows (6.0.8) [software]. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.
(1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
(1999). The personal/group discrimination discrepancy: Extending Allport’s analysis of targets. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 519–536.
(1997). Why minority group members perceive or do not perceive the discrimination that confronts them: The role of self-esteem and perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 373–389.
(2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 472–481.
(2006). The rise of anti-foreigner sentiment in European societies, 1988–2000. American Sociological Review, 71, 426–449.
(2002). Predicting perceptions of discrimination among Hispanics and Anglos. Hispanic Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 24, 3–22.
(2008). New research on acculturation among diaspora migrants. International Journal of Psychology, 43, 2–5.
(2008). Muslim American youth: Understanding hyphenated identities through multiple methods. New York: New York University Press.
(in press ). Peer relations in multicultural schools. In , Capitalizing on migration: The potential of immigrant youth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.2010, November 8). Intrapersonal and interpersonal risk factors for peer victimization in immigrant youth in Finland. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0020785
(2003). Discrimination and Puerto Rican children’s and adolescents’ mental health. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 9, 141–155.
(1996). Personal/group discrimination discrepancy: Towards a two-factor explanation. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28, 193–202.
(2000). The political discourse on immigration in southern Europe: A critical analysis. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 10, 373–389.
(2002). The hierarchy of Greekness. Ethnic and national identity consideration in Greek immigration policy. Ethnicities, 2, 189–208.
(1998). Perceived discrimination and self-esteem among ethnic minority adolescents. The Journal of Social Psychology, 138, 479–493.
(2001). The psychology of culture shock. London, UK: Routledge.
(2003). The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African-Americans adolescents’ school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality, 71, 1197–1232.
(