Family adjustment to American culture

A certain culture shock occurs when anyone enters an unfamiliar setting
and cannot navigate easily among the expectations, attitudes, values, and
assumptions already in place (Berry, 1990; Furnham and Bochner, 1986;
Liebkind, 1996; Weaver, 1993). When family members come along, adjustment problems multiply (Chi-Ching, 1995; Liebkind, 1996; Reynolds and
Bennett, 1991). Although family stress is presumably inevitable with any
stay beyond the short term (Furnham and Bochner, 1986), we are now discovering that personal expectation and previous experience can interact
with certain conditions encountered in the new setting to predispose family members to more or less of this acculturative stress (Berry and Annis,
1974; Furnham and Bochner, 1986; Hall and Whyte, 1960; Liebkind, 1996;
Miranda and Umhoefer, 1998). Although unable to provide solutions tailored to meet specific individual needs, this chapter describes some general
stages family members can expect to encounter and offers strategies and
resources for helping them adjust.