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Psychological Science
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The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/0956797610394661
2011 22: 147 originally published online 28 December 2010Psychological Science
Benjamin Y. Cheung, Maciej Chudek and Steven J. Heine
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Evidence for a Sensitive Period for Acculturation : Younger Immigrants Report Acculturating at a Faster
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DOI: 10.1177/0956797610394661
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Acculturation is the process of cultural adaptation that people
undergo upon relocating from a heritage culture to a new, host
culture (for reviews, see Sam & Berry, 2006; Ward, Bochner,
& Furnham, 2001). Humans have likely been crossing cultural
boundaries since before Homo sapiens left Africa, and psy-
chologists have investigated acculturative processes since
Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits (1936) first explicated
recommendations for studying the acculturation experience.
Researchers from a variety of fields have investigated
such questions as how moving to a new culture is associated
with intergenerational conflict (e.g., Lim, Yeh, Liang, Lau, &
McCabe, 2009), what the consequences of immigration are for
physical health and psychological well-being (e.g., Berry &
Annis, 1974), and how features of an individual’s culture or
personality alter his or her likelihood of experiencing accul-
turative difficulties (e.g., Berry, Kim, Power, Young, & Bujaki,
1989; Ward, Leong, & Low, 2004). One important question
has thus far been largely neglected by acculturation research-
ers: Is there a developmental period within which people are
especially adept at adjusting to a new culture?
There are strong theoretical grounds for suspecting the
existence of a sensitive acculturation period. Evolutionary
biologists, ecologists, and developmentalists emphasize the
trade-offs inherent in phenotypic plasticity (e.g., Auld,
Agrawal, & Relyea, 2010; DeWitt, Sih, & Wilson, 1998;
Pigliucci, 2005)—that is, the decision by an organism (or its
genome) to invest valuable time, energy and resources in
learning new behaviors better suited to its environment, rather
than to specialize in exploiting behaviors it has already mas-
tered. Too little developmental time invested in learning pro-
duces poorly adapted phenotypes, whereas an overexpenditure
of developmental time and resources in the service of learning
produces organisms that are easily outcompeted by their more
rapidly specialized peers.
The optimal resolution of this trade-off depends on the
costs and benefits of learning and specialization (among other
variables), and individuals and species vary tremendously in
when they terminate learning and turn to specialization. Many
species invest in costly specialization based on in utero learn-
ing (e.g., Agrawal, Laforsch, & Tollrian, 1999), and others
make the investment in specialization shortly after birth (e.g.,
Corresponding Author :
Steven J. Heine, 2136 West Mall, University of British Columbia, Department
of Psychology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4
E-mail: heine@psych.ubc.ca
Evidence for a Sensitive Period for
Acculturation: Younger Immigrants Report
Acculturating at a Faster Rate
Benjamin Y. Cheung, Maciej Chudek, and Steven J. Heine
University of British Columbia
Abstract
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.
Keywords
acculturation, immigration, sensitive period, culture, phenotypic plasticity
Received 7/25/10; Revision accepted 10/20/10
Research Report
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148 Cheung et al.
gosling imprinting); humans have (in some domains) excep-
tionally plastic phenotypes and long developmental periods.
Although it is plausible that the genetic adaptations that
enabled humans to accumulate culture also created a system
that emphasizes learning over specialization across all devel-
opment periods, it seems more likely that human cultural
learning is continuous with learning in other domains and
other species. That is, there is likely a critical developmental
juncture at which acquisition (an emphasis on learning new
cultural traits, skills, and norms) transitions to specialization
(an emphasis on better exploiting the traits, skills, and norms
already acquired).
The question of whether there is a sensitive acculturation
period is informed by evidence of sensitive periods in a broad
array of domains, such as the acquisition of absolute pitch
(Chin, 2003), susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer illusion
(McCauley & Henrich, 2006), and the acquisition of binocular
vision (Banks, Aslin, & Letson, 1975; for a review, see Werker,
Maurer, & Yoshida, 2009). In particular, there is much evi-
dence for a sensitive period for acquiring language, whose
phylogenetic origins are closely linked to humans’ capacity for
cultural learning. The ability to acquire various aspects of lan-
guage, such as phonetics, grammar, and syntax, diminishes
with age (e.g., Lenneberg, 1967) in the case of both first (e.g.,
Mayberry, 1993) and second (e.g., Johnson & Newport, 1989)
languages. Further, there is evidence that second languages are
processed in distinct regions of the brain depending on the age
at which the individual acquired them (e.g., Kim, Relkin, &
Lee, 1997). As second-language acquisition involves the
acquisition of a second cultural meaning system, a sensitive
window for second-language acquisition may be suggestive of
a similar sensitive window for acculturation. Does accultura-
tion show similar evidence for a sensitive period of develop-
ment, or do people acculturate at the same rate regardless of
age? Research on an acculturation gap (Lim et al., 2009) pro-
vides indirect evidence for such a period, as immigrant chil-
dren appear to acculturate more quickly than their parents.
A sensitive period implies that people’s rates of accultura-
tion (operationalized as the change in their identification with
their new culture per year) are dependent on their age of immi-
gration. We have found only two studies that provide initial
evidence for such a sensitive acculturation period: Tsai, Ying,
and Lee (2000) found that Chinese who immigrated to the
United States before the age of 12 identified more strongly
with American ways of life than did those who immigrated
after the age of 12. Likewise, Minoura (1992) found that Japa-
nese children who had moved to the United States before the
age of 15 reported that American experiences felt more natural
to them than did those who moved to the United States at an
older age. However, within each of these two studies, the par-
ticipants were of similar ages when they were interviewed
(college age in Tsai et al. and high school age in Minoura);
thus, the age of arrival and the length of time in the host
culture were largely confounded, so that the findings cannot
elucidate whether rates of acculturation change with age of
immigration. This is a critical point, as an alternative to the
sensitive-period hypothesis is that people acculturate at a rate
that is independent of their age of immigration, so that the lon-
ger one spends in a culture, the more one should have adjusted
to it. To obtain clear evidence for a sensitive period, it is neces-
sary to disentangle the age of immigration from the number of
years spent in the host culture. This can be done by targeting
participants of a broad range of ages who immigrated at differ-
ent points in their lives and have spent varying numbers of
years in the host culture.
In the study reported here, we sought to assess the evi-
dence for a sensitive period of acculturation among Hong
Kong immigrants in Vancouver, Canada. Hong Kong immi-
grants constitute a substantial proportion of immigrants to
Vancouver—and close to 10% of the population of Greater
Vancouver (Statistics Canada, 2008b). Furthermore, several
waves of Hong Kong immigrants have arrived in Vancouver
over recent decades, and many of the immigrating families
have included people of different ages. This broad range of
both age of immigration and number of years spent in Canada
made this an ideal population for our study.
Method
Participants
Participants were 2321 Hong Kong immigrants to Vancouver
(141 females, 91 males), ages 18 to 60 (M = 33.05, SD = 14.15).
Their age of immigration ranged from 1 to 50 (M = 19.53,
SD = 14.03), and the number of years spent in Canada ranged
from 2 to 39 (M = 13.41, SD = 5.18). The sample was recruited
from a local organization that provides aid to Chinese immi-
grants (S.U.C.C.E.S.S.; n = 171) and from the student popu-
lation of the University of British Columbia (n = 61).
Participation was restricted to immigrants from Hong Kong
who had not spent more than 2 years in a country other than
Hong Kong (or China more generally), Canada, or the United
States.
Materials
Because the language used during an assessment can affect
people’s responses (e.g., Ross, Xun, & Wilson, 2002), we cre-
ated both Chinese and English versions of our materials and
statistically controlled for the study version that participants
received (English was coded as 1 and Chinese as 2). Participants
rated their reading comprehension in Chinese and English and
received the materials in whichever language they rated higher.
Those who rated themselves as equally proficient in the two
languages were randomly assigned study versions. The Chinese
version was translated by two bilingual speakers, and disagree-
ments were reconciled through discussion to produce the final
translation (see Heine, 2008).
Acculturation was measured with the Vancouver Index of
Acculturation (VIA: Ryder, Alden, & Paulhus, 2000), which
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Sensitive Period for Acculturation 149
follows much of the acculturation literature (e.g., Berry et al.,
1989; LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993) in conceptual-
izing acculturation as a bidimensional construct composed of
orthogonal scales representing one’s identication with one’s
heritage culture and with mainstream culture. Participants
were first provided with a definition of the term “heritage cul-
ture” and were then asked to indicate their own heritage cul-
ture prior to completing the scale. The VIA has been found to
be highly reliable with Chinese samples (Huynh, Howell, &
Benet-Martínez, 2009). The obtained Cronbach’s alphas were
.87 and .85 for the mainstream and heritage scales, respec-
tively. A sample item from the mainstream scale is “I enjoy
typical North American jokes and humor,” and a sample item
from the heritage scale is “It is important for me to maintain or
develop the practices of my heritage culture.”
Results
To examine whether our participants’ rate of acculturation, as
measured by their mainstream score on the VIA, declined as a
function of age of immigration, we analyzed the interaction
between participants’ number of years in Canada and their age
of immigration (note that these two variables were correlated,
r = −.17, p = .01) as a predictor of their mainstream score. Our
ordinary least squares model also controlled for the following
covariates: the participants’ gender, their self-reported English
ability, the language of the questionnaire they completed, and
whether they were from the community or undergraduate sam-
ple. Note that age could not simultaneously be examined as a
covariate, as it equaled the sum of years in Canada and age of
immigration, and its inclusion would produce a degenerate
(i.e., not invertible) predictor matrix, which cannot be
regressed. Of these covariates, only sample population had
even a marginally significant influence on mainstream culture:
Undergraduates reported higher mainstream identification
than participants in the community sample (b = 0.318, p = .09).
Although self-reported English ability did not significantly
predict mainstream identification (p = .15), it did correlate
substantially with age of immigration (r = −.55, p < .001). The
details of this model are presented in Table 1.
A linear relation between age of immigration and main-
stream identification was significant. With each increasing
year of age of immigration, people who had been in Canada
the average length of time (approximately 13.4 years) scored
0.024 points lower on mainstream identification (see the left
panel in Fig. 1). This effect was qualified by a significant
interaction between age of immigration and years in Canada,
which revealed that with each increasing year of age of immi-
gration, rate of increase in mainstream identification associ-
ated with time in Canada fell by 0.003 points. For individuals
who immigrated before approximately age 14.5,2 identifica-
tion with Canadian culture increased significantly with time in
Canada. For older immigrants, identification with Canadian
culture did not change with time in Canada, and the relation
between these two variables became nominally negative at an
age of immigration of approximately 25. Though none of our
participants arrived in Canada after the age of 50, linear
extrapolation from our model suggested that the rate of accul-
turation would have become significantly negative at age 51.
These relationships are visually apparent in the right panel of
Table 1. Results for Ordinary Least Squares Models Predicting Identification With Mainstream and
Heritage Culture
Predictor b (β)σb (σβ)p
Mainstream culture (n = 202): adjusted R2 = .287
English rating 0.109 (0.132) 0.075 (0.093) .147
Study version −0.266 (−0.132) 0.175 (0.086) .130
Sample population 0.318 (0.149) 0.185 (0.081) .087
Gender 0.056 (0.036) 0.139 (0.067) .689
Years in Canada 0.008 (0.078) 0.017 (0.073) .622
Age of immigration −0.024 (−0.350) 0.007 (0.102) .001
Age of Immigration × Years in Canada −0.003 (−0.219) 0.001 (0.089) .012
Heritage culture (n = 207): adjusted R2 < 0
English rating 0.088 (0.113) 0.067 (0.087) .196
Study version 0.231 (0.116) 0.166 (0.083) .165
Sample population 0.159 (0.070) 0.179 (0.079) .375
Gender −0.011 (−0.005) 0.131 (0.064) .932
Years in Canada 0.034 (0.057) 0.028 (0.071) .216
Age of immigration 0.014 (−0.031) 0.017 (0.096) .424
Age of Immigration × Years in Canada −0.001 (−0.087) 0.001 (0.086) .317
Note: The regression analyses controlled for the effects of English ability (6-point self-rated scale), gender
(male > female), sample population (undergraduates or Vancouver community), and study version (English or
Chinese); n is the effective sample size for each statistical inference after case-wise removal of missing values.
by Maciek Chudek on February 6, 2011pss.sagepub.comDownloaded from
150 Cheung et al.
Figure 1. The three-way interaction of age of immigration, years
in Canada, and English ability was not significant (p = .63);
thus, the interaction between age of immigration and years in
Canada was consistent across participants regardless of their
self-reported English ability at the time they participated.
A similar analysis of heritage scores yielded no significant
predictors. Neither age of immigration nor number of years in
Canada was related to heritage identification.
Discussion
This analysis provides initial support for a sensitive period of
acculturation to mainstream Canadian culture among Hong
Kong immigrants to Vancouver. The younger participants
were at the time of immigration, the more rapidly they came to
identify with Canada. Furthermore, mainstream identification
among younger immigrants increased the longer they stayed
in Canada, but the opposite pattern was found for older immi-
grants (although the relation was not statistically significant).
Apparently, acculturation occurs most rapidly at younger ages,
a pattern that provides evidence for a sensitive period of accul-
turation. Although these effects occurred independently of
participants’ self-reported English ability, it is possible that a
more sensitive language measure, or a longitudinal measure of
language ability in the formative months and years after
arrival, would have revealed that acculturation is a function of
differential mastery of more subtle nuances of language
learning.
Curiously, neither the age of immigration nor the number of
years spent in Canada predicted participants’ identification
with Chinese culture. It remains to be seen what factors influ-
ence identification with one’s heritage culture (although note
that Ryder et al., 2000, found that number of years and number
of generations in Canada negatively predicted heritage identi-
fication). This null finding supports the claim that these two
dimensions of acculturation, identification with mainstream
culture and identification with heritage culture, are indepen-
dent. The generalizability of our results may be limited in that
our findings may be idiosyncratic to Hong Kong immigrants
in Vancouver because of their relatively high concentration.
Indeed, Chinese immigrants to Canada (approximately 36% of
whom are from Hong Kong; Statistics Canada, 2008a) are the
largest immigrant population in Greater Vancouver, and the
city’s Chinatown is the second largest of its kind outside of
Asia (Burgess, 2005). Perhaps this concentration of Chinese
immigrants, and concomitant cultural amenities, contributed
to the observed pattern of results. These factors may explain
why heritage identification was independent of number of
years in Canada or age of immigration. This retention of heri-
tage identity is in line with findings from linguistics suggest-
ing that regular exposure to one’s native language in childhood
allows for the maintenance of nativelike performance on some
language tasks (Oh, Jun, Knightly, & Au, 2003). The large
Chinese community in Vancouver may serve as the cultural
0 10 20 30 40 50
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Age of Immigration
Self-Reported Identification With
Canadian Culture
a
0 5 10 15 20
AOI:
1–15 Years
0 5 10 15 20
AOI:
16–30 Years
Years in Canada
0 5 10 15 20
AOI:
31–50 Years
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Self-Reported Identification With
Canadian Culture
b
Fig. 1. Study results. The scatter plot in (a) shows individuals’ self-reported
identification with Canadian culture as a function of their age of immigration
(AOI) to Canada. The scatter plots in (b) illustrate the interactive effect of
AOI and number of years in Canada by showing self-reported identification
with Canadian culture as a function of number of years in Canada (i.e.,
acculturation rate) separately for individuals who immigrated in three
different developmental periods; visualization in 15-year increments was
chosen because acculturation rate ceased to be significantly different from
zero at AOI of about 14.5 years. In each graph, the solid red line represents
the best ordinary least squares approximation of the relationship for the
given data set, controlling for gender, English ability, sample population, and
study version (English or Chinese).
by Maciek Chudek on February 6, 2011pss.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Sensitive Period for Acculturation 151
analogue for regular language exposure, allowing Hong Kong
immigrants to maintain their heritage identification. It will be
important to assess how acculturation patterns emerge in other
immigrant populations and other host cities.
One unexpected finding was that older immigrants showed
a negative relationship between years spent in Canada and
mainstream identification. This pattern may be due to indi-
viduals becoming increasingly frustrated by the poor fit
between the cultural phenotype in which they have specialized
and their new community’s norms, a natural aging process
whereby people generally become dissatisfied with the con-
temporary culture as they age, a particular cohort effect (e.g.,
the effects of older immigrants’ experiences with the Cultural
Revolution), or simply random sampling error. More gener-
ally, the cross-sectional design of this study raises the possibil-
ity that other kinds of cohort effects underlie the results: For
example, individuals who immigrated at younger ages might
have had different levels of income or education or different
reasons for leaving Hong Kong than those who came at older
ages. Longitudinal studies would be better able to address
these possibilities. Also, the context of one’s experiences in a
host culture likely varies with age of immigration, such that
individuals who arrive at a younger age participate in the cul-
ture differently (e.g., attending elementary school, engaging in
more team sports) than those who arrive later, and this might
partly account for our results.
This study assessed people’s conscious thoughts about their
identification with Canada and Hong Kong, and it is possible
that their unconscious thoughts or acculturative behaviors
might show a different pattern. It remains to be determined
whether other aspects of acculturation follow similar trajecto-
ries. There are three potential patterns of results that might
emerge from the investigation of sensitive periods for other
aspects of acculturation: All cultural processes might adapt at
similar rates, different processes might adapt independently at
different rates, or there may be a cascading pattern in which
the adaptation of one process depends on the adaptation of
another. Future research would benefit by investigating a
broad range of psychological measures that are known to dif-
fer across cultural groups to determine which of these three
models best characterizes acculturative processes.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the cooperation of the immigrant association
S.U.C.C.E.S.S. in helping to recruit participants.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with
respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.
Funding
This research was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (410-2008-0155) to Steven
J. Heine.
Notes
1. Note that effective sample sizes for statistical inferences were
smaller than 232 because some participants did not answer some
questions. Effective sample sizes are reported in Table 1.
2. This is a linear extrapolation of our findings, inferred by solv-
ing for age of immigration at the critical t-distribution value, t(0.025,
202), given the standard error of simple slopes for age of immigra-
tion. All statistics required to reproduce this inference are available in
Table 1, except for the covariance between the coefficients for years
in Canada and the interaction between age of immigration and years
in Canada, which was −0.00003.
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