Scientific Presentations

Is Acculturation the Culprit? Multidimensional Acculturative Measures and Immigrants’ Later-Life Health

Department Social Demography
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), Rostock, Germany, August 19, 2025

1:00 PM: Talk with Leafia Ye - Is Acculturation the Culprit? Multidimensional Acculturative Measures and Immigrants’ Later-Life Health

Abstract

Older immigrants in the U.S. experience higher levels of physical disability, which presents a puzzle given that recent immigrant arrivals are healthier than the native-born. A popular explanation for the erosion of the “healthy immigrant effect” is acculturation, but it remains unclear which kind of acculturation is consequential for health. The current study fills this gap by identifying multidimensional measures of acculturation (linguistic, residential, marital, and civic) and examining each of their associations with independent living and self-care difficulties in later life. Consistent with prior work, I find a cross-over in later-life where immigrants overtake the native-born in disability. However, net of demographic and socioeconomic outcomes, most measures of acculturation predict a reduction rather than increase in disability. Instead, I propose and find evidence for a theory of acculturative discordance, where 1) immigrants who are acculturated on some dimensions but not others tend to have poorer health, and 2) even among immigrants who are highly acculturated, non-White immigrants have less positive health profiles. In other words, acculturation is not the culprit, but discordance between different aspects of one’s life – which is particularly prevalent among immigrants as they go through acculturation – can be harmful for health.

Guest Talk, August, 19th from 1 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Rostock time) Room 400. If you would like to participate online, please email office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de