University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Psychol Sci. 2011 Feb;22(2):147-52. doi: 10.1177/0956797610394661. Epub 2010 Dec 28.
Though recent adult immigrants often seem less acculturated to their new society than people who immigrated as children, it is not clear whether this difference is driven by duration of exposure or exposure during a sensitive developmental period. In a study aimed at disambiguating these influences, community and student samples of Hong Kong immigrants to Vancouver, Canada, completed the Vancouver Index of Acculturation, a measure that assesses respondents' identification with their mainstream and heritage cultures. A longer duration of exposure was found to be associated with greater identification with Canadian culture only at younger ages of immigration, but not at later ages of immigration. Conversely, identification with Chinese culture was unaffected by either age of immigration or length of exposure to Canadian culture. These findings provide evidence for a sensitive period for acculturation: People are better able to identify with a host culture the longer their exposure to it, but only if this exposure occurs when they are relatively young.
虽然最近成年移民似乎比儿童时期移民对新社会的适应程度更低，但这种差异是由接触时间还是接触敏感发育阶段驱动的尚不清楚。在一项旨在厘清这些影响的研究中，加拿大温哥华的香港移民社区和学生样本完成了温哥华文化适应指数，该指数评估了受访者对其主流文化和原籍文化的认同程度。研究发现，只有在移民的较年轻年龄时，较长的接触时间才与对加拿大文化的认同度更高相关，而在较晚的移民年龄时则不相关。相反，与中国文化的认同度既不受移民年龄的影响，也不受接触加拿大文化时间的影响。这些发现为文化适应的敏感时期提供了证据：人们接触一种外来文化的时间越长，就越能更好地认同这种文化，但前提是这种接触发生在他们相对年轻的时候。
