Acculturation in lockdown: The effects of heritage and settlement COVID-19 concern and support on well-being

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, global lockdowns were enforced due to rising cases and fatalities. While citizens were concerned about the spread of cases in their country, migrants found themselves concerned and ruminating about the COVID pandemic in both their settlement and heritage countries. This study investigated whether 1st to 3rd generation migrants’ heritage and settlement acculturation predicted the extent of their concern about the consequences of the pandemic for heritage (heritage COVID-19 concern) and settlement culture (settlement COVID-19 concern). Additionally, the stress “buffering” and “main-effect” hypotheses of the social support were tested for the relationships between COVID-19 concern, remote support, and well-being (measured using flourishing and loneliness scales). A sample of 299 participants in the United Kingdom were recruited to complete three waves of a short-interval longitudinal survey (April to June 2020). This was then linked to data on the cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in heritage countries to account for differences between countries. Multi-level path analysis was used to analyse the data. Heritage and settlement acculturation predicted heritage and settlement COVID-19 concern, respectively. Each measure of acculturation also predicted the extent of remote support participants engaged in with people who shared those cultures. Settlement COVID-19 concern, but not heritage COVID-19 concern, predicted flourishing and loneliness. The buffering hypothesis was only supported by the negative association between settlement COVID-19 concern and flourishing waning as settlement remote support increased.