Psychological Science ›› 2014, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 1225-1231.

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Man Proposes, God Disposes: Acculturation Strategies and the Effect of Belief in Negotiable Fate among Chinese New Generation of Migrant Workers

  

  • Received:2013-08-19 Revised:2014-01-13 Online:2014-09-20 Published:2014-09-20

谋事在人,成事在天——新生代农民工的适应策略及可协商命运观的影响

王芳,李志荣   

  1. 北京师范大学
  • 通讯作者: 王芳

Abstract: International migration has become a topic of considerable interest to psychologists. At the same time, internal migration (mainly from rural areas to cities within countries) has become a world-wide phenomenon, and is particularly evident in Asia. In many cases, this internal migration has psychological and cultural features that parallel the features of acculturation that are characteristic of international migration (Berry, 2010). Acculturation is the process of cultural and psychological change that follows intercultural contact (Berry, 1997, 2003). This research examines the acculturation of migrant workers in China. High economic growth rate of China create a very large internal migration of workers from rural areas to the large industrial cities, and they were mostly born after 1980, i.e., the new generation of migrant workers. Conforming to the trend of acculturation research which from answering“How Adjusted Are You ?” to answering“How Do You Adjust ?”, one focus of this research is to explore the migrant workers’ acculturation strategies. Due to the Bi-dimensional Model of Acculturation, Berry(1997) proposed four acculturation strategies: Integration, when both cultural maintenance and cross-cultural engagement are valued; Separation, valuing cultural maintenance but not cross-cultural engagement; Assimilation, when cultural maintenance is not valued, but cross-cultural engagement is; and Marginalization, when neither cultural maintenance nor cross-cultural engagement are valued. In addition, rare study discussed which can influence their choice of strategies. Fate concept is an impossible impact factor, wherein, belief in negotiable fate refers to the belief that individuals can negotiate with fate for control, and they do this by exercising personal agency within the limits that fate has determined (Chaturvedi, Chiu, & Viswanathan, 2009). Who believes in negotiable fate tends to engage in active coping, focusing on solving the problem and mobilizing their social resources to achieve their goals (Au et al., 2012). The object of this research is to explore their acculturation strategies, which factors (here mainly refers to four fate concepts) affects their particular policy choice, and the relationship between these strategies and their degree of acculturation and subject well-being. 439 new generation migrant workers from rural areas to Zhuhai city and Ningbo city participated in the study. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire to measure their acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization), fate concept (negotiable fate, control fate, conquerable fate, and dialectical fate), and two life outcomes including degree of acculturation and subjective well-being. The results showed that: (1) the integration is the main used acculturation strategies, and the negotiable fate is the main held fate concept in new generation of migrant workers; (2) the negotiable fate can predict integration strategy positively, predict separation and marginalization strategies negatively; (3) the integration is the best acculturation strategy (and the separation the worst) for achieving better degree of acculturation and wellbeing; (4) the positive effect of negotiable fate on degree of acculturation and wellbeing can be totally mediated by the more use of integration strategy and the less use of separation and marginalization strategies. Similarly, the negative effect of control fate on adaptation is fully mediated by the more use of separation and marginalization strategies. In the future, longitudinal study of acculturation strategies and their correlates would promise to answer a number of theoretically and practically interesting questions. The influencing mechanism of fate concept on acculturation strategies remains to be studied. Meanwhile, researches on the effectiveness of acculturation training may benefit to new generation of migrant workers in China.

Key words: new generation of migrant workers, negotiable fate, acculturation strategies

摘要: 以珠海及宁波两地439名新生代农民工为对象,使用问卷法考察了他们的适应策略、生活结果(社会文化适应状况和主观幸福感)及命运观对适应策略选择的影响。结果发现:(1)整合策略是被调查者主要使用的适应策略,可协商命运观是被调查者主要持有的命运观;(2)持有可协商命运观的个体更多选择整合策略;(3)使用整合策略的个体具有更积极的社会文化适应状况和更高的主观幸福感;(4)可协商命运观对生活结果的积极影响可通过更多使用整合策略、更少使用分离和边缘化策略完全中介。

关键词: 新生代农民工, 可协商命运观, 适应策略