Acculturation strategies and adjustment in immigrant and host Italian communities

This study examines the relationships between acculturation strategies, social support, and social wellbeing among Italians and immigrants. The paper outlines the acculturation experience that includes interethnic contact and social distance. Adults (309 Italian members of the host society and 104 immigrants) participated in a questionnaire study. Results confirmed the expected association between acculturation strategies, social distance, and positive emotions toward the outgroup. Italian participants that choose integration as the acculturation strategy showed: lower social distance, more positive emotional feelings toward immigrants, higher social well-being. Furthermore, results showed that for immigrants higher levels of social support nullify the positive effects of intergroup contact on social distance or even increase immigrants intentions to distance themselves from Italians