Describes a multicultural, multifaceted approach to examining the relationship of acculturation to adjustment to life in the United States, defined as the absence of alienation from American culture. The study consisted of 49 Soviet Jewish refugees who had left the Soviet Union after 1972, and who lived in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area. Participants answered a series of questionnaires designed to measure identity (or attitudinal) acculturation, behavioral acculturation, and alienation. Among the findings were that: (1) while gender was not related to any of the acculturation variables, women were significantly more alienated than men; (2) women’s strong sense of Russian identity was a positive predictor of alienation; and (3) men became more acculturated to Russian culture the longer they lived in the U.S., unlike women who became more acculturated to American culture over time. Analysis of the study results suggested that alienation was reduced for women when they gave up their Russian identity and behavior in favor of American; men were more adept at identifying and behaving in accordance with both Russian and American cultures; and for both men and women, Jewish behavior was positively related to American behavior, and Jewish identity was not altered by acculturation.
