Well-being and cultural identity in migrant acculturative stress: a daily diary study

Migration involves adapting to new cultural settings while retaining one's culture, which can lead to acculturative stress, a risk factor for migrant health and identity.

We investigated the interplay between acculturative stress, well-being, cultural identity, and the protective role of physical activity using a 7-day-diary-methodology with 266 participants with migration history (1,473 observations).

Daily acculturative stress was associated with lower well-being (positive affect: β = -0.05, p = 0.011; negative affect: β = 0.05, p = 0.014) and lower national (β = -0.07, p < 0.001) but not ethnic (p = 0.343) identity. Physical activity was linked to higher well-being (positive affect: β = 0.15, p < 0.001, negative affect: β = -0.12, p < 0.001) and showed a tendency to buffer negative affect associated with acculturative stress (β = -0.04, p = 0.066). Being physically active was not associated with ethnic identity (p = 0.196) but in tendency with national identity (β = 0.02, p = 0.072). Supporting social identity theory, exploratory analyses indicated that stronger cultural identity correlated with higher well-being. Cultural identity did not buffer effects of acculturative stress on well-being but exacerbated them. Analyses controlled for general stress.

The findings identify acculturative stress as an additional burden for migrant populations, highlighting the buffering potential of physical activity. Interventions might consider cultural identity and target physical activity to promote migrant health.