Acculturation into American Culture Based on Time Spent in the United States
Faculty Mentor
Tim Lower
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
4-14-2026 2:00 PM
End Date
4-14-2026 4:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Psychology
Abstract
The process of giving up one’s cultural identity after immigration, defined as acculturation, is observable and very common among immigrants and generational households. Although this process is not highly documented, the Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale has been successful in assessing the cultural identification of Asian and Native American households. This study aims to address that research gap by studying how a person's national cultural identification varies, between those who have lived their entire lives in the United States versus those who have not, based on duration of time spent in the United States. Researchers hypothesized that, of those who have spent less than 100% of their lives in the United States, that time spent living in the United States would be positively related to their degree of American identification. Despite a smaller sample of participants who have only lived part of their lives in the U.S. (n = 20), the data still displays significant correlation between time spent in America as a proportion of the participant’s lifespan and the degree of their self-defined American identification as measured on the OCIS. Future studies may involve further data collection from regions of the United States and their respective immigrant populations correlated to their identification with respect to being American or dual between American and any other cultures from which they originate. This would then ultimately result in a more expansive understanding of variation in ideas and values in immigrant groups as they acculturate to their host nation.
Recommended Citation
Erjavec, Josie; Stephens, River; and Gordert, Katie, "Acculturation into American Culture Based on Time Spent in the United States" (2026). 2026 Symposium. 40.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2026/ps_2026/p3_2026/40
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Acculturation into American Culture Based on Time Spent in the United States
PUB NCR
The process of giving up one’s cultural identity after immigration, defined as acculturation, is observable and very common among immigrants and generational households. Although this process is not highly documented, the Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale has been successful in assessing the cultural identification of Asian and Native American households. This study aims to address that research gap by studying how a person's national cultural identification varies, between those who have lived their entire lives in the United States versus those who have not, based on duration of time spent in the United States. Researchers hypothesized that, of those who have spent less than 100% of their lives in the United States, that time spent living in the United States would be positively related to their degree of American identification. Despite a smaller sample of participants who have only lived part of their lives in the U.S. (n = 20), the data still displays significant correlation between time spent in America as a proportion of the participant’s lifespan and the degree of their self-defined American identification as measured on the OCIS. Future studies may involve further data collection from regions of the United States and their respective immigrant populations correlated to their identification with respect to being American or dual between American and any other cultures from which they originate. This would then ultimately result in a more expansive understanding of variation in ideas and values in immigrant groups as they acculturate to their host nation.
