Relationship of Acculturative Stress with Social Support, Acculturation Experience and Cultural Intelligence:A Systematic Review

The objective of the present systematic review was to examine the role of acculturation experience, cultural intelligence and social support on acculturative stress. 30 peer reviewed studies (full text) were identified (with inclusion criteria) through the J-Gate Plus database, covers the period from 1994 to 2014, using the search terms acculturation experiences, social support, cultural intelligence and acculturative stress. Six parameters are decided to assess internal validity of reviewed studies as recommend by Zhang and Goodson (2011), viz., research design, validity coefficients of criterion measure on own data, reliability coefficients of criterion measure on own data, validity and reliability coefficients of different predictor measures on own data, statistical analyses, effect size. Reviewed studies provide contradictory information regarding direct effect of social support on acculturative stress. Further, reviewed studies have insufficient external and internal validity. The information of acculturative stress under within country migrations has not yet been ascertained. This present systematic review concluded that acculturation experience, cultural intelligence and social support are insubstantial predictors of acculturative stress. The theoretical and practical issues have been discussed.