Acculturative Stress or Resilience? A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis of Sojourners' Stress and Self-Esteem

Intercultural contact may lead to temporary phases of acculturative stress but is also associated with personal growth. While this topic has been well studied, we argue that there has been a lack of systematic investigation in the form of panel data studies. The present article examines the temporal pattern of stress and self-esteem, with measures for sojourners and controls prior to, during, and post intercultural contact. The sojourner sample consisted of a group of Belgian adolescents who took part in a 1 year intercultural exchange program. Sojourners reported lower levels of stress and higher levels of self-esteem during the sojourn compared to pre-departure levels and controls. These findings were explained in terms of personal growth and acculturative resilience. Subsequent analyses also investigated whether stress and self-esteem could be predicted by intrapersonal (i.e., homesickness), interpersonal (i.e., social support), intergroup (i.e., identity, prejudice), and cultural distance measures. Stress was indeed associated with intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup measures, but not with cultural distance. Self-esteem was associated with intrapersonal and intergroup predictors.