Rules of engagement: Predictors of black caribbean immigrants' engagement with african american culture

The cultural context in the United States is racialized and influences Black Caribbean immigrants'acculturation processes, but what role it plays in Black Caribbean immigrants' acculturation into specificfacets of American society (e.g., African American culture) has been understudied in the field ofpsychology. The present study extends research on Black Caribbean immigrants' acculturative processby assessing how this group's experience of the racial context (racial public regard, ethnic public regard, and cultural race-related stress) influences its engagement in African American culture (i.e., adoption ofvalues and behavioral involvement). Data were collected from 93 Black participants of Caribbeandescent, ranging in age from 13 to 45 and analyzed using a stepwise hierarchical regression. The findingshighlighted that when Black Caribbean-descended participants perceived that the public held a favorableview of their racial group they were more likely to engage in African American culture. In contrast, whenparticipants perceived that the public held a favorable view of their ethnic group (e.g., Haitian) they wereless likely to engage in African American culture. Furthermore, among participants experiencing lowlevels of cultural race-related stress, the associations between racial public regard and engagement withAfrican American culture were amplified. However, for participants experiencing high cultural racerelatedstress, their engagement in African American culture did not change as a function of racial publicregard. These findings may suggest that, for Black Caribbean immigrants, the experience of the racialcontext influences strategies that serve to preserve or bolster their overall social status and psychologicalwell-being in the United States.