Psychological Adaptation of Adolescent Immigrants From the Former Soviet Union in Germany

Abstract

Stress-and-coping frameworks predict increasing psychological adaptation of immigrants over time, but although previous studies found evidence for this assumption in adult samples, this temporal pattern was hardly found among adolescent immigrants. The authors argue that in adolescent immigrants an acculturation-related increase in psychological adaptation over time might be counterbalanced by an age-typical decrease in indicators of psychological adaptation. This longitudinal study, covering a 3-year period in mid-adolescence, compared change in depressed mood as an indicator of psychological adaptation in three matched samples of 101 newcomer adolescent immigrants, 101 more experienced adolescent immigrants, and 101 native adolescents. Results showed that native adolescents and experienced adolescent immigrants increased in depressed mood, as is typical for this age group, over the 3-year period. Newcomer adolescent immigrants, however, remained stable, reporting more depressed mood initially than the more experienced immigrants. Moreover, the extent of depressed mood reported by newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants converged over time. This pattern of results indicates that both age-typical development and acculturation need to be considered when drawing conclusions on change in psychological adaptation over time in immigrant populations.

Keywords

psychological adaptation depressed mood adolescence immigrants well-being longitudinal

It is often assumed that immigrants suffer from manifold strains related to migration and acculturation, such as learning the host language, finding adequate work, and housing. Symptoms of depressed mood and other indications of psychological distress belong to the most often cited consequences of such strains (e.g., Berry, 2006). However, the question of how immigrants’ psychological adaptation in the new country changes over time has not yet been resolved completely. While positive associations of psychological adaptation and length of stay have been found for adult populations (e.g., Aroian, Norris, & Chiang, 2003), which are in line with predictions based on stress-and-coping approaches, the picture is less clear for immigrant adolescents for whom often no relationship of psychological adaptation with length of residence was found (e.g., Oppedal, Røysamb, & Heyerdahl, 2005). The aim of this study was to examine whether this rather unexpected finding for the trajectory of adolescent immigrants’ psychological adaptation can be explained by taking age-typical development into account. In immigrant samples, age-typical development co-occurs with increasing length of residence, and thus might attenuate or amplify time trends in psychological adaptation. We wanted to demonstrate that in adolescence increases over time in psychological adaptation due to acculturation might be counterbalanced by age-typical decreases.

In this study, we focus on one specific group of Diaspora migrants, namely ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, over 2.5 million ethnic Germans, whose ancestors formed German Diasporas in the 18th and 19th century in Eastern Europe and North-Western Asia, have migrated to Germany, where they have been received as German citizens. However, having lived for generations in these remote territories and, especially in times of the Cold War, having been separated from their German ties, they became more and more included in mainstream Russian culture, resulting in the loss of German traditions and language abilities. The young generation in particular grew up speaking only Russian, and as marriages between ethnic Germans and native Russians became common, this also made it difficult to keep German as the family language (Dietz, 2006). In Germany, although they have certain privileges regarding citizenship, because of their less favorable economic situation compared to natives, as well as in their tendency to establish intragroup social networks (Dietz, 1999), they resemble many other immigrant groups. Indeed, by native Germans they are often perceived and labeled as “Russians,” and not as new German citizens (Münz & Ohliger, 1998). Thus, like other immigrant groups, these ethnic Germans are confronted with typical migration- and acculturation-related challenges and suffer from stress-related problems, which can change over time (Kirkcaldy et al., 2005; Slonim-Nevo, Mirsky, Rubinstein, & Nauck, 2009).

The Time Course of Immigrants’ Psychological Adaptation

Psychological adaptation is defined as “feelings of well-being or satisfaction during cross-cultural transitions” (Ward, 2001, p. 414) and is most often assessed by measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction, symptoms of depression, or anxiety (e.g., Sam, Vedder, Ward, & Horenczyk, 2006). Contemporary approaches to psychological adaptation (e.g., Berry, 2006) are based on stress-and-coping models reminiscent of Lazarus and Folkman (1984). In this framework, psychological adaptation is the outcome of a process of encountering challenging life-changes during cross-cultural transitions, the subsequent appraisal of such changes, and selecting and implementing coping strategies to deal with them. Thus, stress-and-coping approaches expect that the psychological well-being of immigrants is lowest when there are a lot of challenges and stressors and the coping resources of acculturating individuals are not sufficient to counter them. This theoretical framework is supported by empirical results that suggest that the main predictors of interindividual differences in psychological adaptation include stress, such as inadequate second language proficiency, and resources, such as social support (Zhang & Goodson, 2011). Berry (2005, p. 709) concludes that psychological well-being is at its lowest soon after immigration, followed by “a general, but variable” increase over time, as immigration-related stressors are most dominant and culture-appropriate coping mechanisms are not yet established directly after migration, but improve over time. For example, acquiring sufficient ability in the second language, which poses a major stressor to immigrants, takes on average about 5 years for adolescent immigrants but up to 10 years for adults (Birman & Trickett, 2001; Hakuta, Butler, & Witt, 2000), so that over this rather extended period of time individuals are decreasingly challenged by these stressors.

Although immigration-related difficulties in the receiving country, such as problems with the new surroundings, new language, and unfamiliar customs, tend to decline over time for both adults and adolescents (e.g., Lay & Nguyen, 1998; Titzmann, Silbereisen, Mesch, & Schmitt-Rodermund, 2011; Vinokurov, Trickett, & Birman, 2002), the course of psychological adaptation over time seems to differ. Empirical results regarding the relationship of psychological adaptation and length of residence for adult immigrants are mostly in line with expectations based on the stress-and-coping approach to acculturation, indicating increased psychological well-being with longer time in the receiving country (e.g., Aroian et al., 2003; Chou, 2007; Pernice & Brook, 1996).The exact timing and pattern of change are still subject to some debate, but two findings are quite consistent. First, the classic U-curve-hypothesis with a honeymoon-phase marked by high levels of psychological adaptation soon after migration, followed by a period of crisis with low levels of psychological well-being, and then subsequent recovery (e.g., Oberg, 1960) has not found much empirical support (Ward, Okura, Kennedy, & Kojima, 1998). Second, improvements in well-being seem to take years rather than months (Ritsner & Ponizovsky, 1999). For adolescent immigrants, however, results concerning the trajectory of psychological adaptation are less clear. Some studies show increases in psychological adaptation over time (e.g., Neto, 2009; Ullman & Tatar, 2001), whereas other studies found no relationship between psychological adaptation and length of residence in this age group (e.g., Oppedal et al., 2005; Sam et al., 2006).

Concerning the course of psychological adaptation of adolescent and adult immigrants over time, Mirsky, Slonim-Nevo, and Rubinstein (2007) did one of the most rigorous and informative studies. They examined psychological distress of immigrant parents with adolescent children from the former Soviet Union in Germany and Israel three times during their first 48 months in the receiving countries. Whereas psychological well-being of the parents (as indicated by the absence of distress) increased in both countries, a slight deterioration over time was evident for adolescent immigrants in Germany. Adolescent immigrants in Israel showed a curvilinear trajectory, indicating deterioration until the second year following immigration, with subsequent amelioration. The authors interpreted their results of the adolescent samples as partial support for their model of separation individuation, which hypothesized that immigrants in the initial stages of migration are protected by unconscious psychological defense mechanisms, which help overcome the separation from external and internal representations of their country of origin.

However, studies like that of Mirsky et al. (2007) disregard the fact that their measures of psychological adaptation show age-typical developmental time trends, which often differ for adolescents and adults and might obscure time trends in psychological adaptation due to acculturation. Furthermore, most studies do not consider age differences between samples. The study of Mirsky et al., for example, investigated adolescent samples with an age gap of almost 2 years. At first assessment, their adolescent sample in Germany was in mid-adolescence (Mage ≈ 14 years), whereas participants in Israel were in late adolescence (Mage ≈ 16 years). Therefore, age-typical change in the indicators used to assess psychological adaptation might help to explain the different trajectories Mirsky et al. found for their samples and to clarify why the psychological adaptation of adolescent immigrants does not increase over time, as it does with adult samples.

Adolescent-Typical Change in Indicators of Psychological Adaptation

Adolescence marks the transition from childhood to adulthood and refers mainly to the second decade of life. This period features several changes that are known to be related to emotional well-being. Amongst these are biological changes related to puberty; such as in hormonal levels, in physical appearance, and in the neural architecture of the brain (Angold, Costello, Erkanlı, & Worthman, 1999; Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006); in cognitive abilities and in coping strategies (Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2011); and in social relations and social roles (Giordano, 2003). Furthermore, the number of stressful life events and everyday stressors has been found to increase during adolescence (Garber, Keiley, & Martin, 2002; Jose & Ratcliffe, 2004), and physiological stress responses to typical stressors are more pronounced for adolescents compared to children (Stroud et al., 2009).

Although it is not yet exactly clear how these changes are related to change in indicators of psychological adaptation such as depression (Steinberg & Morris, 2001), there is evidence that they are associated with a worsening of several aspects of psychological well-being during adolescence (Zahn-Waxler, Klimes-Dougan, & Slattery, 2000). For example, prevalence rates of depression increase for both boys and girls between ages 10 and 16 (Angold, Costello, & Worthman, 1998) with a peak increase between ages 15 and 18 (Hankin et al., 1998). Overall, during the course of adolescence, and especially for girls, the severity of depressive symptoms increases alongside anxiety symptoms, eating pathology, and substance abuse (e.g., Hankin, 2009; Measelle, Stice, & Hogansen, 2006). Later, in emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 25), however, depressive symptoms decline again (e.g., Galambos, Barker, & Krahn, 2006). During adolescence, however, not only do indications of maladaptation increase, but positive indicators of psychological adaptation, such as life satisfaction and self-esteem, tend to decrease. For instance, in a cross-sectional examination of age differences in native German adolescents aged 11 to 16, Goldbeck, Schmitz, Besier, Herschbach, and Henrich (2007) found a decline in general life-satisfaction. Robins and Trzesniewski (2005), reviewing the current state of research on self-esteem development across the lifespan, also concluded that “for both genders, self-esteem is relatively high in childhood, drops during adolescence, rises gradually throughout adulthood, and then declines in old age” (p. 160).

Comparing Native and Immigrant Adolescents’ Trajectories of Depressed Mood

Given these arguments, for newcomer adolescent immigrants change in indicators of psychological adaptation is subject to two simultaneous processes, which need to be disentangled: first, an age-typical decrease related to growing older and undergoing the strains of adolescence, and second, an acculturation-related increase based on living longer in the host country while strains of immigration decline. In this study, the temporal pattern of psychological adaptation in terms of depressed mood was assessed longitudinally over 3 years in three matched samples, which included two groups of adolescent ethnic German immigrants with different lengths of residence (newcomer versus more experienced adolescent immigrants) and a comparison group of native German adolescents. All groups had an average age of about 14 years. The same-aged nonimmigrant comparison sample provided the necessary information on age-typical development when examining general indicators for psychological adaptation (such as self-esteem and depressive symptoms). We were thus able to contrast change in psychological adaptation of immigrants in different phases of acculturation (with newcomer adolescents being expected to face a higher level of acculturation-related stress than experienced adolescents) with that of age-typical change in natives over time. Newcomer and experienced immigrants were defined according to length of residence, with newcomers having less than 6 years of residency in the new country and experienced immigrants 6 or more years. A time point of 6 years was chosen because, by this time, many of the tasks and problems encountered immediately following immigration, such as learning a second language, are mostly resolved, so that more experienced adolescents should be faced with fewer acculturation-based challenges than newcomer adolescents (Birman & Trickett, 2001; Hakuta et al., 2000). Based on the previously discussed literature review of age-typical development in adolescence, which showed that decreases in indicators of psychological adaptation are rather typical during the course of adolescence and that depression rates in particular increase (e.g., Hankin, 2009), we expect the following trajectory of depressed mood over time for native adolescents:

Hypothesis 1: Native German adolescents will increase in depressed mood over time.

The major aim of this study was to contrast the change of psychological adaptation in newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants to that of native adolescents. Such a comparison involves two components, differences in the initial level at the first measurement occasion and differences in the rate of change. Based on stress-and-coping approaches, which assume that the process of migration and acculturation itself is stressful, a worse adaptation of recent immigrants compared to natives could be expected at the first measurement occasion, as acculturation-related stresses would add to the stresses related to adolescence (Petersen, Sarigiani, & Kennedy, 1991). More experienced immigrants, however, should have overcome these challenges to a great extent and thus resemble same-aged natives in their initial level of depressed mood:

Hypothesis 2a: Newcomer immigrant adolescents are expected to show more depressed mood initially than natives.

Hypothesis 2b: More experienced immigrant adolescents are expected to show a similar level of depressed mood to natives.

Hypothesis 2c: Comparing just the immigrant groups, newcomer immigrants, who face more acculturation-related stressors, are expected to show more depressed mood at first assessment than more experienced immigrants.

Concerning rate of change, we assume that newcomers are subject to competing mechanisms, which influence the extent of depressed mood over time: (1) an increase, which is typical during the adolescent years between age 10 to 18, and (2) a decrease, which is typical for newcomer immigrants as the stresses of immigration decline during the first years in the settlement country. Therefore, we expect that the age-typical time trend in depressed mood is attenuated among newcomer immigrants, which were expected to start at a higher level (see Hypothesis 2a). After being more than 6 years in Germany, however, most immigration-related stressors should have been resolved, so that age-typical change should prevail for more experienced immigrants.

Hypothesis 3a: Compared to native adolescents, newcomer adolescent immigrants are expected to show a significantly smaller rate of change in depressed mood over time.

Hypothesis 3b: Compared to native adolescents, more experienced adolescent immigrants do not differ in their rate of change in depressed mood over time, showing an increase.

Hypothesis 3c: Comparing just the immigrant groups, newcomer immigrants are expected to show a significantly smaller rate of change in depressed mood over time than that of more experienced immigrants.

Acculturation-Related Stress and Psychological Adaptation Among Immigrants

Our expectations regarding differences in rate of change between newcomer and more experienced immigrant adolescents were based on differences in migration-related stressors. One of the most troubling stressors that immigrants face is related to not knowing the receiving society’s language well enough to communicate effectively. As ethnic German adolescent immigrants mostly know only Russian when they immigrate, and as they can hardly avoid being confronted with the German language (Dietz, 2006), this stressor applies to them as much as to other immigrants and prevails until adequate German language skills are acquired. This takes time, with some studies suggesting that adequate second language skills might take 5 years after migration to be acquired (Hakuta et al., 2000). If differences between newcomers’ and more experienced adolescents’ psychological adaptation are indeed based on differences in acculturation-related stress, adjusting for German language problems should reduce such differences.

Hypothesis 4: After taking acculturation-related stressors into account, such as problems with the second language, previous differences in level and rate of change of depressed mood between newcomer and more experienced immigrant adolescents are expected to be smaller.

Method

Sample and Procedure

Newcomer and more experienced adolescent ethnic German immigrants from the former Soviet Union and a native German comparison sample were drawn from the archives of a large multidisciplinary longitudinal research project comprising four waves of data collection spanning 3 years, gathered from 2003 to 2006. Adolescents from 54 schools in several federal states in Germany were recruited as participants. Those whose parents did not object to their children’s participation completed self-report questionnaires in school. At follow-up assessments, accomplished at 1-year intervals, questionnaires were sent by mail to addresses provided by the participants. At each wave of measurement, the questionnaires were presented in German with Russian translations (validated by experts to ensure same meaning), and each adolescent received a voucher worth 10 Euros.

The adolescents selected for this study were between 10 and 16 years old when first assessed and had participated in at least two waves. The immigrants were divided into a “newcomer” group, where length of residence in Germany was less than 6 years, and “experienced” immigrants, who had resided in Germany for 6 or more years but who had immigrated when older than 3 years, thus excluding second-generation immigrants or those who came in very early ages.

Overall, 101 newcomer adolescent immigrants, 129 experienced adolescent immigrants, and 341 native German adolescents were identified according to our criteria. In order to keep these groups comparable and statistical power equal, 101 adolescents who were most similar to the newcomer immigrants were drawn from the experienced immigrants and native Germans, based on a propensity score matching procedure. The propensity score reflected the probability of the experienced immigrants and the native Germans being in the newcomer group according to several background characteristics. Variables that might influence psychological adaptation, but which did not result from belonging to one of these groups—that is, age, gender, parental education, the percentage of ethnic Germans in their city of residence, number of waves in which the adolescents participated, being in their last 2 years before finishing their respective track of schooling, religious affiliation, and parental marital status—were included in this procedure. For the experienced versus newcomer immigrant groups, we additionally included country of origin, size of city/town of origin, and first language. While there were some significant differences before the propensity score matching, the only significant, albeit small, difference remaining after matching was the percentage of ethnic Germans in the city of residence, with about 7% for native adolescents and newcomers and 10% for experienced immigrants. The differences in all other variables, on which the matching was based, did not reveal any significant difference between the groups. Accordingly, the effect sizes in testing for group differences were small (the largest Cramer’s V after matching was .11, the largest partial η² .08). This is an indication that the three groups are comparable in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and that any differences in psychological adaptation found between the groups cannot be attributed to differences in religious affiliation or parental marital status, for example.

The mean age of the adolescents at first measurement was 14.3 years (SD = 1.4), and 50.8% were female. Almost half of the adolescents participated at all four waves (49.9%), and another quarter at three measurement occasions (26%). The educational level of the adolescents’ parents was comparatively high, with the majority of them holding a degree from a college of higher education or university (49.5%). Most of the parents were married (79.5%). All the ethnic German adolescents were born in states of the former Soviet Union, but most came from Russia (45%) or Kazakhstan (42.1%). The newcomer adolescent immigrants had a mean length of residence of 3 years (SD = 1.8) at first measurement and had emigrated when they were between 5.4 and 15.3 years old (M = 11.3, SD = 2.2). The experienced immigrant adolescents emigrated when they were between 3 and 9.3 years old (M = 5.9, SD = 1.6) and resided in Germany for on average 8.6 years (SD = 1.7). In Table 1, descriptives of depressed mood, German language difficulties, age, and gender are given by length of residence. Table 2 provides descriptive information on depressed mood by age and group.

Table 1.

Depressed Mood and German Language Difficulties of Newcomer and More Experienced Immigrants by Length of Residence at the First Measurement Occasion

Length of Residence (in Years)	N	Depressed Mood	German Language Difficulties	Age	% Male
Newcomer
0–2	38	2.45 (1.22)	2.96 (1.13)	14.09 (1.41)	45%
2–4	32	2.41 (1.23)	2.63 (1.05)	14.43 (1.19)	47%
4–6	31	1.89 (1.22)	1.90 (0.98)	14.28 (1.39)	48%
More experienced
6–8	42	1.80 (0.79)	1.79 (0.75)	14.01 (1.41)	48%
8–10	36	1.97 (1.24)	1.51 (0.79)	14.72 (1.08)	44%
More than 10	23	1.97 (0.94)	1.63 (1.10)	15.20 (0.68)	52%

Note. Provided are means and standard deviations (in parentheses).

Table 2.

Depressed Mood of Newcomer Immigrants, More Experienced Immigrants, and Natives by Age at the First Measurement Occasion

	Newcomer Immigrants			More Experienced Immigrants			Natives
Age group	N	M (SD)	% Male	N	M (SD)	% Male	N	M (SD)	% Male
10 & 11	8	2.06 (1.22)	25%	6	1.58 (0.52)	17%	15	1.62 (0.54)	47%
12 & 13	22	1.98 (1.16)	55%	26	1.74 (0.83)	50%	27	1.83 (0.92)	56%
14 & 15	71	2.38 (1.27)	46%	69	1.98 (1.08)	49%	59	2.38 (1.19)	54%

Measures

Depressed mood was assessed by four items adapted from the anxious/depressed syndrome scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Using a 6-point Likert-type scale from 1 (does not apply) to 6 (does apply), participants were asked to rate how well the statements “I feel lonely,” “I am fearful/anxious,” “I am unhappy/sad/depressed,” and “I worry a lot” applied to them. As culturally biased measures are problematic regarding the interpretation of differences between groups (Leung & van de Vijver, 1997), we checked the equivalence of the measurement structure carefully via structural equation modeling before using the mean of these variables in subsequent multilevel models. This is particularly important because research instruments are often developed in one country and then used in others without testing for equivalence, which may lead to incorrect conclusions (Beirens & Fontaine, 2011). Ensuring measurement equivalence thus has become a prerequisite in cross-cultural research in recent years. Loadings and intercepts of our measure of depressed mood were established to be equal between groups and points of measurements, with a good model fit overall, χ²(141) = 216.9, p = .000, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .055. Cronbach’s α ranged from .79 to .82 for the four points of measurement.

German language difficulties were measured by four items from an acculturative hassles scale developed specifically for adolescent immigrants (Titzmann et al., 2011). Only the immigrant adolescents reported how often in the previous 12 months they had experienced the situations “I did not understand anything, because my German was too bad,” “It was difficult for me to follow the class/my boss at work,” “I couldn’t explain what I wanted to say in German,” and “I had problems in class/at work because my German was not good enough.” Responses were given on a 5-point Likert-type scale: 1 = never, 2 = 1-2 times, 3 = 3-5 times, 4 = 6-10 times, and 5 = more than 10 times; higher scores indicated more problems with German fluency. As for depressed mood, the equivalence of factor loadings and intercepts between newcomer and more experienced adolescents was given. The overall fit of the measurement model was acceptable, χ²(116) = 257.47, p = .000, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .078. The scale’s internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) ranged between .78 and .88 for the different waves of assessment. Individuals’ mean scores at each time point of measurement were used in the analyses.

Data Analyses

Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling (HLM; Raudenbush, Bryk, & Congdon, 2004), in which waves of data are regarded as nested within persons. This procedure has the advantage of allowing for variation in number, timing, and spacing of measurement occasions across participants, although it does not allow for a direct comparison of different groups. For this reason, we used dummy variables to indicate group membership and to test our hypotheses. We first examined how change in depressed mood over time was shaped for all adolescents, comparing no change models to linear and quadratic change components, and checking for interindividual differences in these components. Age at first assessment (centered on the sample mean) and gender (females as reference category) were included as covariates. In the next model, we tested the level and rate of change of depressed mood in native Germans and whether newcomer and experienced adolescent immigrants differed from them. In order to examine whether German language difficulties played a role in explaining differences in psychological adaptation between newcomer and more experienced adolescents, two additional models that only included the immigrant groups were run.

Results

Comparing Native and Immigrant Adolescents’ Trajectories of Depressed Mood

Regarding the shape of change in depressed mood over time, a linear change model, in which the slope varied between persons and where age and gender were included as covariates, showed the best data fit compared to simpler and more complex models. Simpler models showed worse fit (e.g., intercept only model with age and gender, χ²(5) = 77.67, p < .001), and more complex ones did not improve model fit (e.g., additional quadratic component, χ²(4) = 1.36, p = .851). In the best-fitting change model, the intercept was defined as the average level of depressed mood at first measurement, and the linear slope was the average rate of change per measurement occasion, which were at yearly intervals. In order to test for group differences, two dummy variables for newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants were added, with native adolescents serving as reference category. This model (see Model 1 in Table 3) fitted the data significantly better than the basic change model with only age and gender, χ²(4) = 11.57, p < .05.

Table 3.

Hierarchical Linear Models for Depressed Mood

	Model 1			Model 2a			Model 2b
	b	SE	p	b	SE	p	b	SE	p
Intercept
Natives (Ref. Mod. 1)	2.49***	0.12	.000
Experienced (Ref. Mod. 2a & 2b)	−0.31*	0.14	.027	2.26***	0.12	.000	2.32***	0.12	.000
Newcomer	0.06	0.15	.661	0.39**	0.15	.009	0.25	0.14	.081
Boys	−0.64***	0.11	.000	−0.75***	0.14	.000	−0.73***	0.14	.000
Age	0.17***	0.04	.000	0.15**	0.05	.006	0.14**	0.05	.010
Language difficulties							0.14*	0.06	.022
Slope
Natives (Ref. Mod. 1)	0.17**	0.06	.004
Experienced (Ref. Mod. 2a & 2b)	0.01	0.07	.944	0.17**	0.06	.004	0.18***	0.05	.001
Newcomer	−0.15*	0.07	.036	−0.16*	0.07	.031	−0.13	0.07	.063
Boys	0.03	0.06	.563	0.05	0.07	.496	0.06	0.07	.404
Age	−0.04*	0.02	.047	−0.02	0.03	.489	−0.02	0.03	.531
Time-varying covariate
Δ Language difficulties							0.16**	0.06	.004

Note. Model 1 (all adolescents) refers to change in depressed mood over time with regard to differences between native adolescents (reference category), newcomer, and more experienced immigrants; Model 2a (immigrants only) depicts the same model for immigrants only (here more experienced immigrants are the reference category); Model 2b (immigrants only) includes in German language difficulties as predictor of differences at the first measurement occasion and as time-varying covariate (Δ language difficulties) to predict change in depressed mood over time; gender was coded 0 for girls and 1 for boys; age was centered around the grand mean (14.3 for all adolescents; 14.39 for immigrants only).

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

The average level of depressed mood at the first measurement was 2.49 for native female adolescents, who had an average age of 14.3 years and 2.17 regardless of gender (see Figure 1). As expected according to Hypothesis 1, native adolescents increased in depressed mood per wave of assessment (b_slope = 0.17, p < .01). However, there was no difference in the initial level of newcomer immigrants compared to native adolescents (b_difference = 0.06, p = .661), which did not support our expectation that newcomer immigrants would show higher levels of depressed mood in the beginning (Hypothesis 2a). Also contrary to Hypothesis 2b, which stated that more experienced immigrants would not differ from natives, the intercept of depressed mood of more experienced immigrants was significantly lower than that of natives (b_difference = −0.31, p < .05). Thus, the expected difference between newcomer and more experienced immigrants (Hypothesis 2c, tested below) is reflected in these results, although the comparisons with natives do not hold as assumed. In addition, as in most other studies, male participants reported a significantly lower mean level than females at the first measurement (b_difference = −0.64, p < .001). Furthermore, with every year of age at first measurement, the level of depressed mood was higher by 0.17 (p < .001), indicating age-typical increase in depressed mood during adolescence also in the cross-sectional mean differences.

With regard to the hypotheses referring to rates of change, newcomer immigrants’ change over time was significantly lower than that of natives (b_difference = −0.15, p < .05), which supports Hypothesis 3a. Also as expected (Hypothesis 3b), the experienced immigrants did not differ in their rate of change from natives (b_difference = 0.01, p = .94), thereby also showing an age-typical increase over time. These results also reflect the expected difference between newcomer and more experienced immigrants (Hypothesis 3c). As can be seen in Figure 1, the trajectories of depressed mood for native adolescents and more experienced immigrants are almost exactly parallel in their increase over time, whereas the newcomer immigrants’ trajectory over time differs remarkably and shows only little increase in depressed mood over time. The rate of change did not differ for boys and girls (b _difference = 0.03, p = .563), but older adolescents reported less steep increases (b_{difference per year of age} = −0.04, p = .047).

Acculturation-Related Stress and Psychological Adaptation Among Immigrants

In order to test our hypotheses regarding differences between the two immigrant groups (Hypotheses 2c, 3c, and 4), we recalculated the former model with only the immigrant adolescents, this time using the more experienced immigrants as the reference category (see Model 2a in Table 3). Model 2a basically revealed the same results as Model 1. The intercept level of newcomer immigrants’ depressed mood at the first measurement was significantly higher than that of more experienced immigrants (b_difference = 0.39, p < .01), as was expected in Hypothesis 2c. Furthermore, as we expected according to Hypothesis 3b, more experienced immigrants increased in depressed mood to a similar extent as the natives (b_slope = 0.17, p < .01). Confirming Hypothesis 3c, the newcomer’s rate of change was significantly lower than that of more experienced immigrant adolescents (b_difference = −0.16, p < .05)

Adding German language difficulties to this immigrant-only model as an explanatory variable (Model 2b in Table 3) significantly improved model fit, χ²(2) = 15.19, p < .001. With every scale step in difficulties with the German language, the intercept of immigrants’ depressed mood at the first measurement was higher by 0.14 (p < .05). Change in German language difficulties over time was related to change in depressed mood in a similar vein (b = 0.16, p < .01). As expected according to Hypothesis 4, the difference between more experienced immigrants and newcomer immigrants in the intercept of depressed mood was no longer significant when German language difficulties were included (b_difference = 0.25, p = .081). Furthermore, also as expected in Hypothesis 4, the difference in more experienced and newcomer immigrants’ rate of change over time became smaller and insignificant (b_difference = −0.13, p = .063).

Discussion

This study examined whether taking age-typical change in measures of psychological adaptation during adolescence into account helps explain why, in some previous studies, length of residence and psychological adaptation seemed to be unrelated for adolescent immigrants. By comparing three matched groups of native and immigrant adolescents, we were able to show that change in psychological adaptation of immigrants differed for newcomer versus more experienced immigrant and native adolescents. From this, we conclude that both decreasing acculturative stress and age-typical development should be considered when studying the psychological adaptation of immigrants.

Comparing Native and Immigrant Adolescents’ Trajectories of Depressed Mood

As is expected during adolescence, our native German comparison group increased in depressed mood over time. The same applied to our more experienced immigrant group, whose rate of change showed increasing levels of depressed mood and, although having started on a lower level, thereby mirrored that of native adolescents. Newcomer adolescent immigrants, however, reported more depressed mood at first measurement than same-aged more experienced immigrants, but did not differ from the native group. However, their rate of change in depressed mood over time, being close to zero, was significantly lower than that of more experienced immigrants and natives. Thus, the trajectories of newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants converged over time.

This pattern of results suggests that indeed, for newcomer immigrant adolescents, both acculturation and age-typical development coincide; they are the only group showing a very small rate of change in depressed mood over time, which differs from the age-typical increase in natives and more experienced immigrant adolescents. This conclusion is also supported by cross-sectional age differences within the newcomer group at first measurement. Just as with natives and more experienced immigrants, older newcomer immigrants tended to show more depressed mood than younger newcomer immigrants, thus indicating that newcomer immigrants also were subject to age-typical decreases in psychological adaptation. Cross-sectional differences in length of residence also indicated that depressed mood was lower for immigrants with longer length of stay, keeping age and gender constant.

As can be seen, examining change in psychological adaptation of newcomer adolescent immigrants can lead to unexpected results and misinterpretations if age-typical change in indicators of psychological adaptation is disregarded. When studies fail to find increases in newcomer adolescent immigrants’ psychological adaptation over time, the conclusion that these adolescents do not adapt to their new surroundings may not hold. Looking at the psychological adaptation of adolescent immigrants who have already spent more than 6 years in the receiving country might, based on findings of increasing depressed mood, also lead to the false conclusion that problems may arise later in time. In reality, however, there may simply be no acculturation-related difficulties adding to adolescence-related problems, so that only the age-typical trajectory is observed. Accordingly, our sample of more experienced adolescent immigrants, who had spent an average of 8.6 years in Germany at first measurement, did not show any difference in rate of change in depressed mood compared to natives. Hence, we suggest that conclusions concerning the course of immigrants’ psychological adaptation over time should be based on comparisons with change over time for same-aged non-immigrants. This should show the extent to which any change found can be attributed to growing older or to becoming more acquainted with the receiving society.

Adolescent years between ages 10 and 18 are especially critical, because in this age group an increase in depressed mood is typical (Angold et al., 1998; Hankin et al., 1998). For newcomer immigrants, this needs to be considered in combination with an acculturation-based decrease in depressed mood based on the decline in acculturation-related stressors during approximately the first 5 years after immigration (Birman & Trickett, 2001).

Level Differences Between Immigrants and Natives in Indicators of Psychological Adaptation

Not all our hypotheses were confirmed. Contrary to our expectations based on stress-and-coping models, newcomer adolescent immigrants did not show a higher initial level of depressed mood than our sample of matched native adolescents. More experienced immigrant adolescents even reported less depressed mood than natives, regardless of point in time. However, although newcomer immigrants did not differ from natives at first assessment, due to their diverging rate of change in depressed mood over time, they reported a lower level than natives at final assessment 3 years later. This pattern of results between immigrants and natives seems to be indicative of the “healthy immigrant paradox” (e.g., Beiser, Feng, Hyman, & Tousignant, 2002; Neto, 2009), which refers to the “counterintuitive finding that immigrants often tend to show better adaptation outcomes than their national peers in spite of poorer socio-economic status” (Sam, Vedder, Liebkind, Neto, & Virta, 2008, p. 140). In our study, other explanations for the difference between natives and immigrants, such as biased measurement and differences in socioeconomic standing, were minimized by design. We used only indicators tested for equivalence and matched our groups on several background characteristics, such as parental education. Cultural differences also seem to be unlikely as ethnic Germans, based on Russian socialization, would be expected to show more depressed mood (e.g., Scheidt, Overpeck, Wyatt, & Aszmann, 2000; Veenhoven, 2001) or, based on their German ancestry, not to differ from native Germans. What we cannot rule out completely, however, is the possibility of self-selected samples. For example, the higher level of depressed mood in our native adolescent sample may result from not being fully representative of native German adolescents in general.¹ Nevertheless, comparisons of our sample with official statistics suggest that our sample is representative in many ways. In fact, only a few differences related to a slightly larger share of adolescents living in the Eastern parts of Germany, to a smaller number of single parents, and to a higher number of working parents remained. However, whether and how these differences are related to higher rates of depressed mood in natives remains open, but it does not seem very likely that they are responsible for the higher depressed mood in natives that we found.

The most probable explanation for our finding of higher depressed mood in native than in immigrant adolescents thus is a higher resilience to stress among the immigrants who participated in this study. Although Sam et al. (2008), drawing from the large international data set “International Comparative Study of Ethnocultural Youth” (ICSEY), found no evidence for a healthy immigrant paradox for psychological adaptation in Europe, in some specific European contexts also a better adaptation of immigrants than natives was found (e.g., Neto, 2009). This phenomenon often is explained by psychosocial factors, such as a coherent and supportive family culture (e.g., Harker, 2001), which might protect immigrant children and adolescents. Referring to the immigrant paradox in terms of school success of immigrant children in the United States of America, Fuligni (1998) named a high value of education, family obligation, and cultural identity as crucial psychosocial factors that “seem to motivate the children to seek success in school while protecting them from psychological and behavioral difficulties” (p. 101). This might also apply to ethnic German immigrants in Germany who also tend do show a higher orientation toward collectivistic values than natives (Fertig, 2010). Furthermore, ethnic German immigrants are voluntary migrants who see migration as a chance to improve their living conditions (Dietz, 2006) and thus might use a different point of reference than natives to evaluate their current well-being. However, to examine why immigrants often show better well-being than natives in comparable life situations was beyond the scope of this study and would require more rigorous designs with several control groups (cf., Stevens & Vollebergh, 2008).

Acculturation-Related Stress and Psychological Adaptation Among Immigrants

Our basic assumption for the differentiation between newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants was that the newer immigrants would experience higher levels of acculturation-related stress. Following this assumption, we investigated whether taking second language difficulties, one of the most troubling stressors of immigrants, into account reduced differences in level and rate of change of psychological adaptation between newcomer and more experienced immigrants, and indeed, on average, newcomer immigrants reported more German language difficulties than more experienced immigrants. As expected, taking this stressor into account reduced the difference in level and rate of change in depressed mood between newcomer and more experienced immigrants to no significance. Thus, between the immigrant groups, differences seemed to be due to different stress exposure, at least in part, and can be explained by stress-and-coping models. Nevertheless, the difference in depressed mood between newcomer and more experienced immigrants was still visible. Most likely, problems with the second language are a major source of immigration-related stress, but other stressors, such as living in temporary or low-cost accommodation or family conflicts, might also contribute. In this study, we could only cast a brief look at one indicator of immigration-related stress, but examining which other stressors also play a role in the process of immigrant adolescents’ psychological adaptation over time might advance research further.

Limitations

Our assessment of psychological adaptation was limited to a rather short, self-report measure of depressed mood. This is in line with much of the past research on psychological adaptation of immigrants, which also rather assessed maladaptation than indications of well-being, such as life satisfaction or self-esteem. As positive indicators of psychological adaptation might follow different time trends, future research should study change in various indicators of psychological adaptation to determine which specific trajectories emerge and to what extent psychological adaptation in such measures is counterbalanced by age-typical development.

Overall, the adolescent immigrants in our study had a length of residence ranging from a few months to more than 10 years. For our longitudinal analyses, immigrants were differentiated into two groups according to length of stay at first measurement, with a cut-point based on previous research and theoretical assumptions. Newcomers were defined by a length of stay up to 6 years and more experienced immigrants by a length of stay of 6 years or more. However, results may differ depending on which cut-off point for length of stay one chooses. For example, the small rate of change we found for newcomer adolescents might have also resulted from a prevailing decrease in depressed mood soon after migration, counterbalanced by an age-typical increase later on, rather than a leveling out of two simultaneous processes. Nevertheless, we can discount this possibility to some extent, as the model assuming linear change fitted significantly better than the quadratic model.² Future research examining smaller time spans and following specific cohorts longitudinally may be helpful in providing a more detailed picture of the psychological adaptation of newcomer adolescent immigrants over time.

There was also a mean difference of about 5 years in the age at immigration between the newcomer and the more experienced adolescent immigrants, meaning that the more experienced group had not only resided longer in Germany but were also younger on average when they immigrated than the newcomer group. This followed from our design, assessing about same-aged immigrants with different lengths of residence (Stevens, 2006). As a result, we cannot rule out that the differences found in depressed mood and German language difficulties are also partly related to an easier and faster adjustment of younger immigrants (Cheung, Chudek, & Heine, 2011; Jia & Aaronson, 2003). However, there was also a substantial overlap of about 4 years in age at immigration between the two immigrant groups, thus limiting this possibility to some extent. Hence, future research not only should aim at following specific cohorts longitudinally but also at systematically examining differences with regard to age at immigration.

Conclusion

This study provided some evidence that in adolescence an age-typical increase in depressed mood and an acculturation-based decrease can coincide in producing trajectories of psychological adaptation that would not be expected based on acculturation theories or developmental theories alone, such as finding no change in depressed mood over time for newcomer adolescent immigrants. This was an exemplary case, showing that age-typical change has the potential to attenuate or amplify acculturation-related time trends. Similar considerations apply to the study of other age groups across the life span and for other psychosocial outcomes. In this regard, future research should pay more attention to co-occurring processes. This could be achieved by more rigorous designs, for example including a comparable native control group, which reduce the likelihood of misinterpretations of longitudinal data.

Footnotes

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: This study was part of the project “The Impact of Social and Cultural Adaptation of Juvenile Immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel and Germany on Delinquency and Deviant Behavior”; Principal Investigators: Rainer K. Silbereisen & Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, Dept. of Developmental Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany); Gideon Fishman, Zvi Eisikovits, & Gustavo Mesch, University of Haifa (Israel); Funding: German Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP). The first author received a stipend from the Jena Graduate School “Human Behaviour in Social and Economic Change”.

Notes

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