Participants• 92 immigrant and non-immigrant participants (50%

immigrant; 79% female; M age = 20.8 years; age range 17-25 years) were recruited through the Psychology Department participant pool as part of a larger ongoing study at a university in Southwestern Ontario.

Procedure• Participants completed the study online, including a

background information questionnaire and counterbalanced questionnaires relating to their relationships, ethnic identity, and life satisfaction.

Measures• Ethnic identity was measured with the Multigroup Ethnic

Identity Measure (MEIM: Phinney, 1992). Total scores and ethnic identity search and affirmation subscales were used.

• Contact with peers was measured with the Peer Contacts questionnaire (PC; Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006). Subscales included PC ethnic (ethnic peer contacts) and PC national (Canadian national peer contacts).

Introduction• The social support provided by others is instrumental in

identity formation, a major developmental task of youth and emerging adults.

• In comparison to non-immigrant youth, immigrant youth have the additional developmental task of forming their ethnic identities, and their success in doing so has been found to be related to their overall adjustment and adaptation (e.g., Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006).

• Lack of social support has been found to be related to lower satisfaction with life among immigrants across the adult life-span (e.g., Vohra & Adair, 2000).

• The purpose of this study was to better understand identity development and satisfaction with life in immigrant youth in comparison to their non-immigrant counterparts in a Canadian university sample.

• We hypothesized that immigrant youth born outside of North America would have less social support, fewer peer contacts, and lower life satisfaction than those born within Canada.

Method

Results

Discussion

Contact InformationFor more information about this study please contact Julie Hakim-Larson (hakim@uwindsor.ca)

Ethnic Identity, Social Support, and Life Satisfaction in Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Canadian Emerging Adults

Julie Hakim-Larson, Rosanne Menna, Shawna A. Scott, Emily Kear, Emily M. Johnson, & Cassandra Pasiak

University of Windsor

• As expected, immigrant youth had fewer social supports and peer contacts than their Canadian born counterparts. They also reported lower satisfaction with life.

• However, ethnic identity searching was reported to be greater among the immigrant youth suggesting that for many participants, ethnic identity exploration was likely an ongoing process.

• Having a strong ethnic identity has been shown to have protective and beneficial effects in immigrant youth (e.g., Amer, 2014) and is an important feature of their acculturation along with adapting to the mainstream culture.

• A hypothesis for future research is that life satisfaction should be higher among those immigrant youth who have gone through a process of exploration and have affirmed a sense of commitment and belonging to their ethnic group.

• In addition, the stresses faced by young immigrants (e.g., traumatic migration histories, discrimination, school-related stress) and their perceived sources of support from peers, family, and teachers have been found to be related to their overall adjustment (e.g., Oppedal & Idsoe, 2015; Oppedal & Royscamb, 2004).

• Future research will need to further examine the role that sources of support as well as types of social support play in the ethnic identity development of immigrant youth.

• A significant difference was found between those born in Canada and immigrant youth in the domain of ethnic identity searching with immigrant youth receiving higher scores.

• Youth born in Canada reported significantly more satisfaction with life, appraisal social support, and peer contacts than immigrant youth.

• Perceptions of social support were measured with the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL; Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). The following subscales were examined: tangible (someone who will provide instrumental assistance); appraisal (someone who can serve emotional intimacy needs, assist in problem solving when under stress, and be a confidante); belonging (someone you can do things with); and self-esteem (someone who provides support regarding positive comparisons with others).

• Satisfaction with life was measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS: Diener, Emmons, Larson & Griffin, 1985).

• Differences between the students born in Canada (non-immigrant) and those born outside of North America (immigrant) were examined and the results are displayed in Table 1.