Acculturation of Migrant Latinos in a Positive Psychology Framework

Abstract

This article features a positive psychology perspective on migration, using hope theory as a conceptual framework to explain life satisfaction of Hispanic migrants in the United States. The cross-sectional study considers the association of acculturation and social support on wellbeing while accounting for the demographic and personal characteristics of Latino migrants (N = 169) in California and Florida. The final regression model (with the demographic variables of gender, health, realized expectations, the main effect of country, and the interaction variable of realized expectations by country), resulted in significant associations between life satisfaction and the variables of gender and health status. The study demonstrates that expectations (among other factors) significantly predict life satisfaction of Hispanic migrants, which implies that contextualizing migration experience in the positive light (rather than looking at stressors) may impact their quality of life.