International Journal of Intercultural Relations: "Heroes of Adjustment": Immigrant's Stigma and Identity Management

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IJIR-1033; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Intercultural Relations xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Intercultural Relations

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel
“Heroes of adjustment”: Immigrant’s stigma and identity

management夽
Magdalena Bobowik ∗ , Nekane Basabe, Darío Páez
University of the Basque Country, Department of Social Psychology and Methodology of Behaviour Sciences, University of the Basque
Country, Avenida de Tolosa 70, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The objective of the present work was to investigate individual and collective identity man-
Received 18 July 2012 agement strategies in relationship with well-being, based on a probability sampling with
Received in revised form 1 April 2014 stratification by age and sex (N = 1250) of immigrants living in Spain. An exploratory factor
Accepted 21 April 2014
analysis provided evidence for a five-factor model of coping with negative social identity,
with two individual (individual mobility and self-regulation and temporal and intragroup
Keywords:
comparisons) and three collective strategies (intergroup social comparisons, making attri-
Coping butions to prejudice, and social competition). The study also showed that individual and
Immigrant collective identity management strategies are related to both psychological and social well-
Identity management being. Temporal and intragroup comparisons and social competition were found to be
Psychological well-being adaptive coping resources for both psychological and social well-being. Individual mobility
Social well-being and self-regulation together with intergroup social comparisons and making attributions
to prejudice strategies were costly for immigrants’ well-being. These findings are discussed
in the framework of social identity and social stigma models as well as positive psychology
perspective.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Stigmatized individuals are not passive victims of prejudice and discrimination, but rather act to deal with their negative
identity in order to preserve their well-being. They can apply a wide range of coping strategies, from individual efforts to
deal with the stressor to group responses targeted at improving the group’s situation. Research on coping with stigma is still
limited (Miller & Kaiser, 2001), and is a long way short of integrating the strategies derived from stigma (Crocker, Major, &
Steele, 1998; Major & O’Brien, 2005) and prejudice models such as social identity theory (SIT, Tajfel & Turner, 1979), usually
examined as independent social constructions (see Stuber, Meyer, & Link, 2008).
This study sets out to demonstrate that social identity theory and the social stigma model in conjunction can provide
a good explanation for the mechanisms of coping with threat to group identity as well as its consequences for well-being
among members of groups with a disadvantaged status. Both social identity theory and the social stigma model are probably
the two most known frameworks which describe the ways coping responses may help protect the vulnerable self-concept of a
member of low status group. Social identity theory (SIT, Tajfel & Turner, 1979) explains how social identities can be associated
with the well-being of social groups, and has been widely applied to investigate the coping strategies of devalued groups
夽 The expression “heroes of adjustment” was adapted from Goffman (p. 36, 1963).
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 943015738; fax: +34 943015670.
E-mail addresses: magdalena.bobowik@ehu.es (M. Bobowik), nekane.basabe@ehu.es (N. Basabe), dario.paez@ehu.es (D. Páez).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.04.002
0147-1767/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Bobowik, M., et al. “Heroes of adjustment”: Immigrant’s stigma and identity manage-
ment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.04.002
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2 M. Bobowik et al. / International Journal of Intercultural Relations xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
(e.g., Blanz, Mummendey, Mielke, & Klink, 1998; Mummendey, Kessler, Klink, & Mielke, 1999). In turn, social stigma scholars
propose a model in which an attribute which is given a negative social identity, and hence results in the stigmatization of
certain social groups, can be confronted with by means of individual coping resources in order to preserve one’s self-esteem
(Crocker et al., 1998). These two models together may provide a comprehensive ground for the understanding the way
devalued identity is dealt with and stigmatized individuals’ well-being protected.
Neither in the framework of social identity or that of social stigma has there been much research focusing on the way
immigrants cope with stigma. In contrast to other studies focused on native-born ethnic minorities (e.g. Wei, Alvarez, Ku,
Russell, & Bonett, 2010), the present research puts its attention on foreign-born immigrants. Numerous scholars have empha-
sized the importance of taking into account the variety of stressors an individual can be confronted with and the problems
experienced by large groups within a society, such as racial tension and discrimination (Wong, 1993). A comprehensive
understanding of coping with chronic stress such as a pervasive experience of stigmatization will be impossible if we look
only at the classic coping responses to acute stressful events (Gottlieb, 1997).
Being an immigrant frequently involves being marked with a social stigma and experiencing discrimination. In the
European Union, and in other regions or countries with intensive growth of minority populations, as is the case of Spain,
attitudes toward immigration have become more restrictive (Meuleman, Davidov, & Billiet, 2009). Recent surveys carried
out in all 27 European Union Member States confirmed that immigrant and ethnic minorities feel stigmatized, including Sub-
Saharan (41%) and North African (36%) (European Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2010). Research has shown that ethnic
or racial discrimination has negative consequences for the well-being, health, and self-esteem of devalued group members
(e.g. Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999; Finch, Kolody, & Vega, 2000). To reach or maintain high levels of well-being,
members of ethnic minority groups need to be empowered with sufficient resources for confronting the difficulties they
face in a dominant culture (Noh & Kaspar, 2003). If the optimal coping resources are accessible, migration can lead to positive
outcomes.
1.1. Individual and collective identity management strategies as serving personal and group-related aspects of well-being
Social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) is one of the most known frameworks which offer explanations for how
members of disadvantaged groups may make use of identity management strategies to achieve a positive personal and/or
group identity. SIT describes three basic strategies: individual mobility, social creativity, and social competition, chosen
depending on how people respond to the social-structural conditions or status differences. The three strategies can be
placed on a continuum extending from individual-level to group- or collective-level strategies: whereas individual mobility
and social competition are clearly conceptualized as responses serving personal or group goals respectively, social creativity
may be an expression of either type of tendency (Branscombe & Ellemers, 1998). Social stigma scholars place a special
emphasis on engagement versus disengagement responses as the two intersecting dimensions (Major & O’Brien, 2005; Miller
& Kaiser, 2001). Among the three classic responses in the social stigma model are passive responses such as psychological
disengagement, and responses requiring stronger identity involvement in the processes related to stigmatization, such as
making attributions for negative outcomes to prejudice or diverse types of social comparisons.
The present research compares the way identity management strategies are associated with psychological (a personal
facet) and social well-being (a public facet). According to SIT, individualistic identity management strategies involve improv-
ing one’s own situation and achieving positive personal identity whereas the status of the ingroup remains the same.
Collectivistic strategies are in turn attempts to achieve a positive collective identity (Branscombe & Ellemers, 1998). We
extend this hypothesis on the social stigma model as well. The individual strategies such as individual mobility, emotional
disengagement, and personal social comparisons are expected to serve mostly personal purposes, whereas the collective
strategies would serve more group-related purposes.
The inclusion of psychological well-being as an indicator of a personal aspect of well-being and social well-being as an
indicator of a public facet of individual’s well-being is especially relevant in the study of immigrants because so far only
few studies have focused on these dimensions of well-being in similar populations (Keyes, 2006). The current investigation
therefore goes beyond the operationalization of well-being in terms of commonly known indicators. We aim to stress the
relevance of the link between the social identity perspective and the actual psychological functioning of real-life stigma-
tized groups from the positive psychology approach. Positive psychology suggests that people not only constantly seek to
rectify deficiencies of pleasure and comfort (hedonic approach), but also try to “spread their wings” so as to live a fuller life
(eudaimonic approach) (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2001; Ryff & Singer, 2008).
Such nuances in the levels of functioning of immigrants may be especially evident in relation to their psychological well-
being (Ryff, 1989; Ryff & Keyes, 1995), which would include such concepts as self-esteem and self-acceptance, a perception
of life with meaning and purpose, a sense of control over the environment (mastery), autonomy and personal fulfillment,
sustaining positive relationships with others and a satisfactory level of integration and social support. Such aspects of well-
being as perceived control over one’s own life, satisfaction with the relationships with the members of the mainstream
society, or a feeling of personal advancement are substantial elements in a successful migratory process. Social well-being is
in turn the appraisal of one’s circumstances and functioning in the society (Keyes, 1998), and also needs special attention in
studying individuals in the process of adaptation to new societal conditions. Social well-being embraces five domains: social
integration (feeling of belongingness and being accepted); social contribution (a belief in having something to contribute to
society); social actualization (a belief in society’s potential and growth); social acceptance (trust in others and the belief in
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their kindness); and social coherence (an understanding of social life) (Keyes, 1998, 2006). These aspects of the individual’s
well-being are crucial in the context of immigrant populations because they refer to those social tasks that could be particu-
larly challenging for an immigrant person in a new community such as feeling accepted (social integration) or useful (social
contribution).
In conclusion, social identity theory and social stigma model will be used to examine the immigrant’s coping with deval-
ued identity and its relationship with both psychological and social well-being. We analyze five types of coping responses
extending from individual to collective strategies: individual mobility or disengagement, personal social comparisons, inter-
group social comparisons (or social creativity), making attributions to prejudice, and social competition as a collective action
response (Blanz et al., 1998; Branscombe & Ellemers, 1998; Crocker et al., 1998; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; van Knippenberg,
1989). We expect that collective identity management strategies will be associated more with social than with psychological
well-being, whereas individual strategies will be more strongly related to psychological than social well-being.
1.2. Devalued identity management and well-being: merging two paradigms
According to SIT (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), a disadvantaged group member will usually opt for individual mobility if the
group boundaries are permeable and personal promotion is achievable. Individual mobility involves an attempt to become
a member of the high-status group and to change appraisals of the individual situation. Therefore, this response can be
also regarded as an approach or problem-solving response oriented toward achieving personal progress (Carver, Scheier,
& Weintraub, 1989; Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Miller & Kaiser, 2001; Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003), which
is associated with personal well-being if successful (Penley, Tomaka, & Wiebe, 2002). The classic coping perspective thus
confirms SIT’s proposal that individual mobility efforts would be expected to help in achieving personal goals (Branscombe
& Ellemers, 1998), and therefore should enhance personal well-being. However, this strategy is not necessarily expected to
be positively related with social well-being. One explanation might be that individuals who decide to deal with the hardship
of social stigma on their own, inevitably reject group loyalty and may be therefore criticized by other group members,
what may have also negative consequences for social insertion (Iyer, Jetten, Tsivrikos, Postmes, & Haslam, 2009; Jetten, Iyer,
Tsivrikos, & Young, 2008).
In cases of stigma with high visibility, individuals who desire upward mobility may opt for avoidance coping or detach-
ment from the negative identity through prejudice minimization (Crocker et al., 1998), choosing a situation that enables them
to avoid exposure to discrimination or contact with bias (Outten, Schmitt, García, & Branscombe, 2009). Avoiding prejudice
might be effective especially when the stigmatized person has little to gain by interacting with prejudiced people (Miller
& Kaiser, 2001). Prejudice minimization is found to be a significant mediator between racial identification and personal
self-esteem (Outten et al., 2009), although in the face of chronic problems avoidant strategies are adaptive only in the short
term (Suls & Fletcher, 1985). These strategies would also be associated with emotional self-regulation, generally positively
related to adjustment (Penley et al., 2002). Stigmatized individuals need to regulate their emotions related to perceived
prejudice so as to concentrate on instrumental coping responses which will reduce the impact of prejudice on the situation
(Miller & Kaiser, 2001). Outten et al. (2009) found that emotional control predicted both self-esteem and satisfaction with
life among Black Americans.
Another individual-level identity management strategy that immigrants might apply to cope with a devalued group
identity is positive reappraisal through favorable social comparisons (Blanz et al., 1998). For instance, immigrants may
perceive that their current situation in a new cultural context is better in comparison to their experiences in the country
of origin. Research has demonstrated that favorable temporal comparisons concerning one’s performance positively affect
self-evaluation (Zell & Alicke, 2010), and are preferred especially over upward social (i.e. interpersonal) comparisons for self-
enhancement (Wilson & Ross, 2000). Downward intragroup comparisons involving the positive aspects of one’s personal
situation as compared to other individuals who have to face the same stressors can also help to restore or maintain a positive
self-concept. These cognitive strategies embedded in social comparison processes are not clearly related to well-being (Fujita,
2008). For instance, frequency of social comparisons was found to be associated with negative emotions (White, Langer, Yariv,
& Welch, 2006). However, insofar social comparisons are combined with positive reappraisal or cognitive reevaluation, they
could be considered adaptive (Penley et al., 2002) and enhancing well-being (e.g. Wheeler & Miyake, 1992).
In turn, by means of collective strategies of intergroup social comparisons an individual tries to improve his/her collective
self by changing the evaluation of the ingroup (Blanz et al., 1998). By re-defining the ingroup itself, one may move to higher
or lower levels of group self-categorization. For instance, redefinition, re-evaluation, or finding a new comparison dimension
refers to the tendency of members of low-status groups to change the way they assess both groups in a particular dimension
or to reject the dimensions of comparison with negative results for the ingroup and preference for the dimensions that
highlight the positive attributes of the devalued group. In this way a stigmatized individual minimizes the importance of the
domains in which one’s group is considered on the basis of stereotypes. Overall, intergroup social comparisons or cognitive
creativity may be helpful in the short term as a cognitive restructuration response, but could be detrimental in the long run
because they tend to maintain the status quo (Miller & Kaiser, 2001).
The group that is the object of devaluation can be defended against the stigmatizing outgroup also by means of the
strength of the collective identity, used as a social resource for coping with discrimination. If group boundaries are perceived
as impermeable and the intergroup relations as unstable and illegitimate, members of low-status groups define themselves
in group terms. In such a situation, strategies they opt for are attributing the devalued status and identity to prejudice and
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discrimination (Crocker et al., 1998). Stigmatized people who attribute poor outcomes to prejudice blame the unfairness of
other people in order to protect their self-esteem (Crocker et al., 1998) and reinforce social mobilization (Guimond & Tougas,
1996). These strategies may however also entail social and emotional costs (Kaiser, Dyrenforth, & Hagiwara, 2006; Kaiser
& Miller, 2001). Attributing negative outcomes to prejudice and discrimination can lead to feelings of discontent, injustice
and frustration, and therefore be negatively related to well-being (Skinner et al., 2003).
Finally, in conditions of perceived instability and illegitimacy, members of stigmatized and low-status groups may choose
to mobilize for social change (Ellemers, van Knippenberg, & Wilke, 1990; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The social competition
strategy is based on social comparison, and involves collective-level mobilization to fight for equality of the ingroup, for
example, through participation in political action aimed at improving the rights of immigrants (Miller & Kaiser, 2001).
Groups for whom the group boundaries are not permeable and/or with low status in the social hierarchy are particularly
likely to turn to such group solutions. Social competition as an engagement response that bands minority group members
together to combat social injustices (Grant, 2008) should strengthen their well-being, and especially its social facets. Social
competition might therefore help to restore positive group identity through increased group identification and feelings of
empowerment.
1.3. The aim of the study and hypotheses
In the present work, we investigate the factorial structure of coping with the immigrant’s stigmatized identity and its
relationship with psychological and social well-being. Second, we aim to examine the relationship of individual and collective
identity management strategies with psychological and social well-being as outcome variables. We expect that individual
identity management strategies would be more strongly related to psychological than social well-being, whereas collective
coping strategies would be associated more strongly with social well-being than with psychological well-being. In addition,
following the findings of previous studies, most individual-level strategies explored in this study should be adaptive, whereas
some of the collective strategies may play an ambivalent role in immigrants’ adaptation process (e.g., costly attributions to
prejudice).
2. Method
2.1. Participants and procedure
The current cross-sectional study is based on questionnaire data collected between December 2009 and February 2010 in
the Basque Country, Spain. The fieldwork was carried out in collaboration with the Basque Observatory of Immigration. The
sample obtained through a probability sampling procedure by ethnicity with stratification by age and sex consisted of 12501
foreign-born immigrants who had lived for at least six months in the Basque Country, northern Spain, having been born in
Bolivia, Colombia, Morocco, Romania, or Sub-Saharan African countries. There were 250 participants in each sub-sample.
Selection of countries of origin was based on the data for the largest migrant groups in Spain (Pajares, 2010).
The sample was drawn from public records2 and the data were collected by a team of trained interviewers. Respondents
participated in a fully structured, face-to-face interview. Interviewees were asked to answer a series of closed questions and
informed that their participation was voluntary and their responses would be confidential. The interviewers were provided
with detailed fieldwork instructions and a set of showcards displaying the corresponding fixed categories to be used when
asking each question. Interviews were conducted in Spanish, as for the Latino immigrant groups this is their native language
and the vast majority of the other immigrant groups in Spain are able to speak and understand it. However, many of the
interviewers were bilingual (Spanish- and English- or French-speaking), and they all had English and French versions of the
questionnaire as back-up.
For the purpose of the analyses we randomly divided the sample into two groups. As shown in Table 1, Group 1 included
608 whereas Group 2 642 immigrant persons (see Table 1 for detailed socio-demographic characteristics).
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Identity management strategies

The items for measuring the selected for this study five basic identity management strategies were developed using
the existing literature and based on the taxonomy of identity management strategies developed by Blanz et al. (1998).
All the items were positively worded, and responses were on a five–point response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree). Prior to the data collection proper, we carried out a pilot study with a sample of 30 immigrants whose
native language was not Spanish in order to verify whether all the items included in the survey were comprehensible. Based
1
For all items in the analysis missing data were imputed using the maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization approach (Dempster, Laird, & Rubin,
1977; Little & Rubin, 2002).
2
In the Basque Country autonomous region, 91% of the foreign-born population is registered, with a between-country variation: from 97% for Colombians
to 86% for Sub-Saharan Africans. A total of 23% are undocumented (Basque Observatory of Immigration, 2008 www.ikuspegi.org).
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Table 1
Socio-demographic characteristics of split samples: Group 1, Group 2, and of the total sample.
Group 1 Group 2 Total

n 608 642 1250
Age M (SD) 32.98 (9.34) 33.45 (9.54) 33.22 (9.44)

Time of residence in years M (SD) 6 (4.64) 6 (5.01) 6 (4.83)
Sex (% female) 45.2 43.5 44.3
Living with partner (%) 64.6 61.4 63.0
Education (%)
No formal education 12.0 14.0 13.0
Primary education 29.6 31.0 30.3
Secondary education 42.6 40.3 41.4
University degree 14.9 13.2 14.1
Religion (%)
Catholic 41.9 44.1 45.9
Muslim 31.6 26.9 29.9
Other faiths 19.4 20.4 20.4
Employment status (%)

Working 48.1 47.4 47.7
Unemployed 40.1 43.9 43.0
Net household income (per month) (%)

Less than 600 euros 29.3 31.0 30.2
600–1800 euros 47.0 44.1 45.5
More than 1800 euros 4.7 6.4 5.5
No response 19.0 18.5 18.8
Legal status (%)

With residence permit 59.7 58.7 59.2
EU citizenship 5.3 6.2 5.8
Naturalized 4.4 4.5 4.5
Without residence permit 26.3 27.4 26.9
Note. There was no missing data or it never exceeded 4%.
on this information, we simplified and/or modified some items (e.g., substituting some words with simpler synonyms,
deleting negatively worded expressions, etc.), as well as prepared fieldwork instructions for the interviewers. As far as the
coping strategies are concerned, from a larger pool of items the best ones were selected for the purposes of this study based
on their inter-scale correlations. The final measure of the five identity management dimensions included three items per
dimension. All of them are shown in Table 2 in the results section, arranged by dimensions.
2.2.2. Well-being
For the purpose of examining the relationship between immigrants’ identity management and well-being we selected
two indicators of well-being.
2.2.2.1. Psychological well-being. Three subscales from Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995; adapted by
Van Dierendonck, Díaz, Rodríguez-Carvajal, Blanco, & Moreno-Jiménez, 2008) were selected for this study: environmental
mastery (EM; e.g., “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live”), positive relations with others (PR; e.g.,
“I have warm and trusting relationships with others”), and personal growth (PG; e.g., “For me, life has been a continuous
process of learning, changing, and growth”). Each subscale originally included five items and they were all situated on a six-
point Likert-type scale (1 = completely disagree, 6 = fully agree). In the subsequent exploratory structural equation modeling
analyses (see Section 3 and Table 4) two items were dropped from the environmental mastery dimensions, leaving this
factor with three items. All three dimensions attained satisfactory internal consistency coefficients in the total sample, with
˛ = .69 for EM, ˛ = .84 for PR, and ˛ = .69 for PG.
2.2.2.2. Social well-being. Participants were asked to think about people in their surrounding and in the community they
feel part of, and to indicate on a scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (fully agree) to what extent they agree with a series
of sentences referring to that community. For the purpose of this study, we selected three (out of original five) dimensions
from the short version of the Social Well-being Scale (Keyes, 1998, adapted by Blanco & Diaz, 2005; Keyes, 2009): social
contribution (e.g., “I have something important to contribute to the society”, ˛ = .76), social integration (e.g., “I feel I belong
to something I’d call a community”, ˛ = .71), and social actualization (e.g., “Our society is becoming a better place for people
like me”, ˛ = .83), each subscale consisting of three items.
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Table 2
Exploratory factor analysis: items, factor loadings, means and standard deviations for identity management strategies.
1 2 3 4 5 M SD
Temporal and intragroup comparisons

TIC1: When I think of what my plans and prospects used to be, .81 −.03 −.04 −.02 .03 3.37 1.14
my situation is better than I expected then.
TIC2: Compared with the past, my situation is better than .78 .07 .01 −.02 −.01 3.56 1.23
before.
TIC3: My own personal situation is rather better than the .58 −.08 .03 .18 −.02 3.43 1.12
situation of most immigrants from my country.
Individual mobility and self-regulation

MOB1: I try to steer clear of people who think badly of −.01 .98 .04 −.04 −.06 3.81 1.28
immigrants.
MOB2: I try not to let it get to me on an emotional level when −.03 .44 −.14 .19 .14 3.52 1.26
immigrants are maltreated.
MOB3: I strive to demonstrate that I’m better than people from .04 .33 −.14 .26 .07 3.16 1.34
here in my working life (or whatever else it is that you do).
Intergroup social comparisons: new comparison dimension

CRT1: We people from my country are better in many ways .01 −.07 .76 .00 .02 3.07 1.08
than people from here.
CRT2: Despite what people say, we immigrants are much more .00 .05 .50 .06 .09 3.11 1.07
hard–working than the Basques.
CRT3: My country’s culture is more interesting than other −.12 −.04 .42 −.02 .06 3.15 1.10
immigrants’.
Social competition
CMP1: We immigrants from my country can band together to −.02 −.09 −.01 .73 −.01 3.71 1.07
fight for our rights and be like people from here.
CMP2: I have faith that, in time, justice will be done and −.01 .10 .20 .44 −.15 4.03 0.98
prejudice toward us will become a thing of the past.
CMP3: We immigrants ought to have the same services and .14 .02 .08 .31 .12 4.48 0.73
rights as people from here.
Making attributions to prejudice

ATR1: The bad situation of immigrants from my country is −.09 −.14 .02 −.06 .60 2.90 1.32
caused by a lack of support from the Basques and the
Spaniards.
ATR2: The poor view that some Basques hold of immigrants is .05 .06 .17 .14 .42 3.59 1.22
because these people have a lot of prejudices.
ATR3: Immigrants earn less money and have fewer .06 .04 .20 .00 .32 3.91 1.12
opportunities to better themselves than they deserve.
Note. Extraction based on maximum likelihood estimation with mean-adjusted chi-square test statistic robust to non-normality (MLR) with geomin rotation.
Model fit: 2 (40, N = 608) = 77.28, p < .001; CFI = 0.968; SRMR = 0.021; RMSEA = 0.039 (90% CI [0.026, 0.052]).
2.3. Analyses
All the analyses were carried out using Mplus 6.11 (Muthén & Muthén, 2010). The estimation procedure applied in all
the analyses was robust maximum likelihood (MLR) because of the lack of multivariate normality in the data (Byrne, 2012).
First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed with MLR estimation and oblique geomin rotation as appropriate
methods of extraction and rotation at the first stage of examining the construct validity. Split loadings (>.30 on both factors)
and low factor loadings (<.30) were criteria for item exclusion. Next, a series of exploratory structure equation modeling
(ESEM) analyses were carried out to examine the relationship between the identity management strategies and well-being.
ESEM (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2009) is a an approach in structural equation modeling, where in addition to or instead of a
measurement model, an EFA measurement model with rotations can be used in a structural equation model. The following
indices were used to assess model fit: (a) chi-square statistic, expected to take low values and be non-significant; (b) CFI:
Comparative Fit Index as an indicator of goodness of fit, with values of over .90 considered acceptable; (c) RMSEA: Root
Mean-Square Error of Approximation with its confidence interval (CI) and a cutoff value close to .06 indicating a relatively
good fit; and (d) SRMR: Standardized Root Mean Square Residual with a cutoff value of .09 (Hu & Bentler, 1999).
3. Results
3.1. Exploratory factor analysis of identity management
Exploratory factor analysis run on the 15 items yielded a five-factor solution (see Table 2). The number of factors was
selected based on eigenvalues. All the factor loadings were greater than .30. Each item loaded on one item only and its
loadings on the other factors were mostly close to zero (only in three cases these loading exceeded .20).
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Table 3
Correlations between the latent variables in the SEM model (identity management strategies, social, and psychological well-being).
TIC MOB ISC ATR CMP INT CON ACT PR EM
MOB −.01
ISC .02 −.06
ATR .03 .10 .63
CMP .29 .40 .36 .42
INT .38 .01 −.04 −.05 .49
CON .44 .13 .08 .09 .44 .49
ACT .37 .07 −.17 −.22 .26 .39 .26
PR .42 −.01 −.04 −.04 .49 .71 .36 .33
EM .74 −.12 −.04 −.06 .59 .47 .39 .37 .55
PG .40 .30 .05 −.02 .32 .41 .52 .19 .53 .43
Note. TIC: temporal and intragroup comparisons; MOB: individual mobility and self-regulation; ISC: intergroup social comparisons: new comparison
dimension; ATR: making attributions to prejudice; CMP: social competition; INT: social integration CON: social contribution; ACT: social actualization; PR:
positive relations; EM: environmental mastery; PG: personal growth.
The first two factors were individual type of responses. As regards the first factor, labeled temporal and intragroup
comparisons, all the factor loadings were greater than .50 and the items with the highest loadings were: “When I think
of what my plans and prospects used to be, my situation is better than I expected then” and “Compared with the past,
my situation is better than before”. The internal consistency of this dimension was of .77. The second factor consisted of
the items related to individual mobility, emotional regulation, and disengagement (˛ = .65). The item “I try to steer clear of
people who think badly of immigrants” had the highest factor loading.
The resting three factors corresponded collective type of coping. The third factor were intergroup social comparisons
consisting in finding a new dimension of comparison (˛ = .61). The item with the highest loading was “We people from my
country are better in many ways than people from here”, followed by “Despite what people say, we immigrants are much
more hard-working than the Basques”. In the case of the fourth factor, labeled social competition (˛ = .52), the item “We
immigrants from my country can band together to fight for our rights and be like people from here” contributed most to
this factor. Finally, the last factor, making attributions to prejudice and discrimination (˛ = .50), included such items as “The
bad situation of immigrants from my country is caused by a lack of support from the Basques and the Spaniards.”, which
had the highest loading of all within this dimension.
The correlations between the factors were from weak to moderate. The strongest correlation of .41 was found between
the intergroup social comparisons and making attribution to prejudice factors. There was a moderate correlation of the
social competition factor with the individual mobility and self-regulation (.24), the temporal and intragroup comparisons
(.23), as well as the intergroup social comparisons dimension (.22). Finally, the temporal and intragroup comparisons factor
correlated weakly with the intergroup social comparisons factor (.11). All other correlations were lower than .10.
3.2. Exploratory structural equation modeling: identity management strategies and well-being
We expected individual coping strategies to be more strongly associated with psychological than with social well-being,
whereas collective coping strategies would be more strongly related to social than psychological well-being. In order to test
these hypotheses, we performed ESEM with the five identity management strategies as predictors, three psychological well-
being dimensions as indicators of personal aspects of well-being on one hand, and three dimensions of social well-being as
indicators of public aspects of well-being on the other hand. The correlations between the latent variables in the model are
presented in Table 3. The estimated model included covariances between the five identity management (default in Mplus).
Also, we let correlate residuals of well-being latent factors. This model achieved a satisfactory model fit with CFI and TLI
above .90 and RMSEA and SRMR below .05 (see Fig. 1). The factor loadings in the confirmatory (identity management and
exploratory (well-being) part of the measurement model is presented in Table 4.
As concerns the effects of individual identity management on well-being in the structural part of the model, individual
mobility and self-regulation strategy exhibited a significant negative relationship with social integration (B = −0.33, t = −3.00,
p = .003, 99.5% CI [−0.621, −0.047]), positive relations with others (B = −0.39, t = −3.53, p < .001, 99.5% CI [−0.673, −0.105]),
and environmental mastery (B = −0.39, t = −3.94, p < .001, 99.5% CI [−0.639, −0.134]).
Temporal and intragroup comparisons strategy was a significant predictor of all well-being components. This strategy
was especially strongly related with environmental mastery (B = 1.10, t = 8.69, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.772, 1.421]), followed by
social contribution (B = 0.42, t = 6.85, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.262, 0.579]), social actualization (B = 0.33, t = 5.65, p < .001, 99.5% CI
[0.182, 0.487]), personal growth (B = 0.33, t = 4.70, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.151, 0.517]), positive relations with others (B = 0.32,
t = 4.18, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.122, 0.516]), and social integration (B = 0.26, t = 3.08, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.042, 0.472]).
Among collective strategies, intergroup social comparisons were negatively related to positive relations with others
(B = −0.31, t = −2.49, p = .013, 97.5% CI [−0.561, −0.067]), social integration (B = −0.26, t = −1.94, p = .053, 95% CI [−0.482,
−0.039]), and actualization (B = −0.19, t = −1.91, p = .056, 95% CI [−0.363, −0.027]).
In turn, making attributions to prejudice was negatively associated with two social well-being dimensions (actualization:
B = −0.45, t = −3.38, p < .001, 99.5% CI [−0.795, −0.107] and integration: B = −0.38, t = −1.93, p = .053, 95% CI [−0.697, −0.056]),
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Fig. 1. Results of structural equation modeling analysis (N= 1250). Model fit: 2 (542, N = 1250) = 1572.26, p < .001; CFI = 0.919; RMSEA = 0.039 (90% CI
[0.037, 0.041]; SRMR = 0.045). Solid paths indicate significant effects. Non significant paths are not presented.
as well as with two psychological well-being factors: (personal growth: B = −0.58, t = −2.79, p = .005, 99.5% CI [−1.118, −0.045]
and positive relations with others: B = −0.35, t = −1.89, p = .059, 95% CI [−0.649, −0.045]).
Finally, social competition was positively related to both social well-being (integration: B = 1.63, t = 4.09, p < .001, 99.5%
CI [0.601, 2.650], contribution: B = 0.83, t = 3.38, p = .001, 99.5% CI [0.198, 1.467], and actualization: B = 0.80, t = 3.80, p < .001,
99.5% CI [0.258, 1.342]) and psychological well-being (positive relations: B = 1.69, t = 4.30, p < .001, 99.5% CI [0.677, 2.703],
personal growth: B = 1.56, t = 3.32, p = .001, 99.5% CI [0.349, 2.768]), and environmental mastery: B = 0.93, t = 2.92, p = .003,
99.5% CI [0.110, 1.758]). All standardized regression coefficients are shown in Fig. 1.
Together, temporal and intragroup comparisons and social competition strategies were found to be positively associated
with both psychological and social well-being components, whereas individual mobility and self-regulation, intergroup
social comparisons, and making attributions to prejudice were negatively related to well-being.
4. Discussion
The objective of this research was to examine immigrants’ identity management strategies and its relationship with
well-being. To our knowledge, it is a first attempt to analyze stress-specific immigrant’s coping responses to a devalued
identity in relation to psychological and social well-being. An exploratory factor analysis provided evidence for a five-factor
model of coping with negative social identity, with two individual (individual mobility and self-regulation and temporal and
intragroup comparisons) and three collective strategies (intergroup social comparisons, making attributions to prejudice,
and social competition). The study also showed that individual and collective identity management strategies are related to
both personal and social facets of well-being.
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Table 4
Structural equation modeling: measurement model.
Confirmatory part of the measurement model
Identity management
TIC MOV ISC ATR CMP
Item Loading (SE) Item Loading (SE) Item Loading (SE) Item Loading (SE) Item Loading (SE)
TIC1 .81 (.02) MOB1 .77 (.04) ISC1 .74 (.03) ATR1 .48 (.04) CMP1 .50 (.04)
Exploratory part of the measurement model
Social well-being Social integration Social contribution Social actualization

Item Loading (SE) Loading (SE) Loading (SE)
I feel close to other people in my community .61 (.06) .17 (.06) −.02 (.01)
I feel I belong to something I’d call a community .60 (.04) .01 (.03) .02 (.04)
My community is a source of comfort for me .70 (.04) −.01 (.01) .06 (.05)
I have something valuable to give the world .01 (.01) .77 (.03) −.02 (.02)
I have something important to contribute to society −.05 (.05) .84 (.04) .00 (.01)
My daily activities contribute something important to society .13 (.07) .55 (.05) .07 (.03)
Our society is becoming a better place for people like me .05 (.04) .03 (.03) .68 (.03)
Society is making progress, getting better −.03 (.03) .00 (.01) .85 (.02)
The world is becoming a better place for everyone .00 (.01) −.03 (.02) .83 (.02)
Psychological well-being Positive relations Environmental mastery Personal growth

Item Loading (SE) Loading (SE) Loading (SE)
I often feel lonely because I have few close friends with whom to share −.45 (.05) −.17 (.01) −.07 (.04)
my concerns
I have many people who want to listen when I need to talk .76 (.03) .00 (.05) .03 (.03)
I feel I get a lot of fulfillment out of my friendships .73 (.04) .12 (.04) −.11 (.03)
I have warm and trusting relationships with others .87 (.03) −.06 (.05) .00 (.01)
I know I can trust my friends, and they know they can trust me .71 (.04) −.07 (.05) .01 (.02)
I have difficulty arranging my life in a way that is satisfying to me −.15 (.06) −.59 (.04) .02 (.02)
I have been able to create a home and a lifestyle for myself that are .16 (.05) .59 (.03) .01 (.02)
much to my liking
In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live .00 (.01) .57 (.03) .14 (.04)
In general, as time goes by I feel I continue to learn new things about −.01 (.03) .01 (.05) .69 (.03)
myself
I gave up trying to make big improvements or changes in my life −.01 (.04) .22 (.05) −.24 (.04)
I’ve had experiences that challenged me to grow and become a better .03 (.03) −.20 (.04) .72 (.04)
person
I have improved much as a person over the years −.06 (.03) .05 (.03) .77 (.03)
For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and .00 (.03) −.02 (.03) .76 (.03)
growth
Note. TIC: temporal and intragroup comparisons; MOB: individual mobility and self-regulation; ISC: intergroup social comparisons: new comparison
dimension; ATR: making attributions to prejudice; CMP: social competition.
4.1. Adaptive individual identity strategies
Intragroup and temporal comparisons and social competitions were found to be the two coping strategies which are ben-
eficial for immigrants’ well-being. The individual-level strategy involving making temporal (or intrapersonal) and intragroup
comparisons was a strongly adaptive response, being positively related both to psychological and social well-being. This
strategy consists in comparing oneself in the present to oneself in the past or with other individuals from the ingroup. This
factor can be considered as corresponding to temporal comparison and comparison with standard, which both also loaded
on one factor in the study by Blanz et al. (1998). Crocker et al. (1998) claimed that restricting comparisons to other members
of the disadvantaged ingroup can protect personal self-esteem. Overall, by means of this strategy stigmatized individuals
reinforce their optimistic view of the present in comparison to the past (temporal comparison), but also in comparison to
others who might be doing worse. The positivistic nature of this strategy is reflected in its strong association with well-being.
This coping response fulfills the adaptive function of social comparison (Branscombe & Ellemers, 1998) both for personal
and social aspects of immigrants’ well-being. This response was above all strongly associated with the feeling of control over
one’s own life (environmental mastery) but also with such aspects of personal well-being as personal growth and positive
relations with other members of the community.
Interestingly, the favorable personal comparisons were also positively related to social facets of well-being in terms
of social integration, contribution, and actualization, although this association was not as strong as compared with its
relationship with environmental mastery. The relationship between personal social comparisons as measured in our study
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and social actualization may reflect the temporal character of both psychological variables. Intragroup comparisons reflect
personal progress toward better which may be also translated into an increase in perceived social actualization which implies
a belief in advance of the society. Perhaps these immigrants in Spain who evaluate their own personal situation as positive
compared to their situation in the country of origin feel that the host society provided them with opportunities for growth.
Finally, this strategy was also related to social contribution and integration, which provides evidence that feeling positive
about one’s own situation as an immigrant in a new society is associated with feeling accepted by the society and useful as
a society member.
In general, temporal and intragroup comparisons appear to fuel a positive evaluation of one’s social identity through
the improvement of psychological and social well-being, more than provoking a disengagement from the collective iden-
tity, probably because an immigrant person projects his or her positive performance on the group, as social projection
approach posits (Robbins & Krueger, 2005). Our findings are also congruent with Shinnar’s (2008) qualitative study on Mex-
ican migrants in the USA, in which individual strategies of doing better than others and career progression were perceived
as a way to change the negative ingroup stereotypes held by Anglos of Mexicans living in the United States. These results
suggest that the setting of individual- and collective-oriented coping responses in strict opposition to one another should
be reevaluated, since strategies that reinforce personal well-being also reinforce collective identity, social integration, and
community feelings.
The second important adaptive strategy in the model was social competition, whose aim is to improve the status of
the group (Ellemers et al., 1990; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). This strategy embraces a belief in a better future for the disadvan-
taged social group that can be achieved by collective effort. The findings of this study suggest that the social competition
strategy augments social but also psychological well-being, especially in terms of positive relations with other members
of the community. This collective strategy could be conceived, then, as a communal coping or instrumental engagement
response oriented to problem-solving, as proposed by Miller and Kaiser (2001). Being more instrumental, optimistic, and
future-oriented than making attributions to prejudice and discrimination, it appears to strongly reinforce not only social
integration within the host society but also psychological positive functioning which both might be related to the experience
of communal actions.
In a similar way to how social comparisons not only reinforce psychological well-being but also social dimensions of
adaptation, social competition has a positive effect not only on social but also on psychological well-being. This may suggest
that personal agency and collective efficacy have a high degree of interplay in immigrants in Spain, with positive effects on
both personal and collective self-evaluation (Bandura, 2009). Such findings are consistent with previous research showing
that participation in collective movements predicts higher positive affect and enhances social support and more positive
social beliefs, or than empowerment by social movements provokes positive personal and social outcomes (Páez, Javaloy,
Wlodarczyk, Espelt & Rimé, 2013; Rimé, Páez, Basabe, & Martínez, 2010; Reicher, 2001; Drury & Reicher, 2000).
4.2. Non-adaptive identity strategies and well-being
Three other identity management strategies: individual mobility, intergroup social comparisons based on finding new
dimensions of comparisons, as well as making attributions to prejudice were costly responses to devalued social identity in
immigrants. Individual mobility refers to attempts to move from a lower- to a higher-status group and strive for personal
positive identity through individual effort. This response is a classic strategy from the interpersonal–intergroup continuum
as described by Tajfel and Turner (1979). Upward mobility is only possible when an individual is able to dissociate him/herself
both behaviorally and emotionally from the ingroup, and can be considered an individualist approach to achieving a personal
solution (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). In our study, this strategy is combined which such responses as avoiding situations of
prejudice and actively managing emotions related to one’s devalued group status.
Our findings suggest that the individual mobility and self-regulation strategy is costly for immigrants’ well-being in
terms of their integration within host society, perception of positive relations with the members of this society as well
as control over their own lives. One explanation might be that the individual mobility and self-regulation strategy may
be associated with a more abrupt and stressful social insertion, so that it implies emotional costs and more intense and
effective emotion regulation of the sensation of the lack of control over the environment becomes necessary. Furthermore,
individual mobility combined with behavioral and emotional disengagement from one’s own immigrant identity and from
the situation of immigrants overall is negatively associated with both social integration and positive relations with others.
That is, immigrants who opt for individual effort and detachment from their group do not feel integrated in any community
(probably including both the host society and the immigrant community) and lack strong social networks within the host
society.
In a similar way, the intergroup social comparisons strategy based on finding a new comparison dimension (which implies
that a stigmatized individual opts for dimensions which stress the positive attributes of the devalued group) was negatively
related to both positive relations with others and some aspects of social well-being. Our findings confirm that intergroup
social comparisons may be detrimental for members of stigmatized groups, probably because they tend to maintain the
status quo (Miller & Kaiser, 2001), although these negative effects of intergroup social comparisons on well-being were
rather weak. Interestingly, finding new dimensions of comparisons seem to provoke rejection by the mainstream society
because it especially affects the immigrants’ feelings of social integration and their perception of positive relations with
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others, these aspects of well-being which are related to social insertion and the perception of social support from the
members of the host society.
Finally, making attributions to prejudice is a collective strategy which means placing responsibility for the negative
outcomes on the unfairness of other people. This strategy also entails, however, items derived from relative deprivation
theory, implying that members of some social groups might feel discontented in comparisons with members of other groups
(Guimond & Tougas, 1996). The social stigma paradigm suggests that making an attribution to prejudice can protect self-
esteem (Crocker et al., 1998), but other studies have shown that it can also involve a social cost for the stigmatized individuals
(Kaiser & Miller, 2001). Our results indeed confirm and extend the latter assertion: making attributions to prejudice did not
protect psychological well-being and furthermore hindered social well-being. Specifically, the strategy based on making
attributions to prejudice was negatively related to social integration and contribution. We can speculate that this strategy
is linked to separation acculturative attitudes or practices, which were shown to provoke more depression and loneliness
than the assimilation strategy (Abu-Rayya, 2007). The finding demonstrates that making attributions to prejudice does not
necessarily serve to protect well-being or strengthen the group identity. This coping response probably involves ruminative
processes focused on deprivation, which were found by coping research-like blaming others- to be non-adaptive (Larsen &
Prizmic, 2008).
4.3. Limitations, strengths, and future research
Clearly, this study is not devoid of limitations. First, the use of exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 arguably reduces
the confirmatory nature of the analyses. We considered this approach appropriate, however, in order to further refine
the measure. Future studies should also examine further the reliability of the identity management dimensions, including
test–retest reliability. Low reliabilities of some of the identity management dimensions are an important limitation of this
study which needs to be addressed in future research. Moreover, as suggested by (Ashburn-Nardo, 2010), there is a need
to include implicit measures in studies with stigmatized populations, since it was shown that there is a lack of association
between implicit and explicit measures of self-concept.
The strength of the current research is its large quasi-random sample obtained through a probability sampling proce-
dure by ethnicity with stratification by age and sex, representative of the major immigrant groups in the Spanish context.
This sample is strongly representative of the main ethnic groups within the immigrant population in Spain, including both
documented and undocumented individuals. Furthermore, this study combines the social psychology perspective on iden-
tity management with positive psychology, through including both personal and social aspects of well-being to measure
immigrants’ adaptation in the host society. Also, this research intended to combine two important paradigms providing
explanations for the mechanisms of coping with threat to group identity in order to give a more comprehensive perspective
on devalued groups’ coping or identity management. Further studies should explore more extensively the significance of
individual and collective management of devalued identity for both the personal- and group-level adaptation of immigrants.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by University of the Basque Country [grant number: 9/UPV00109.231-13645/2001/2007];
and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [grant numbers: MCI PSI2008-02689/PSIC and AP2008-01980].
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International Journal of Intercultural Relations: "Heroes of Adjustment": Immigrant's Stigma and Identity Management

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IJIR-1033; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

“Heroes of adjustment”: Immigrant’s stigma and identity

1.2. Devalued identity management and well-being: merging two paradigms

1.3. The aim of the study and hypotheses

2.1. Participants and procedure

2.2.1. Identity management strategies

Group 1 Group 2 Total

Age M (SD) 32.98 (9.34) 33.45 (9.54) 33.22 (9.44)

Employment status (%)

Net household income (per month) (%)

Legal status (%)

Note. There was no missing data or it never exceeded 4%.

Temporal and intragroup comparisons

Individual mobility and self-regulation

Intergroup social comparisons: new comparison dimension

Making attributions to prejudice

3.1. Exploratory factor analysis of identity management

TIC MOB ISC ATR CMP INT CON ACT PR EM

Conﬁrmatory part of the measurement model

TIC MOV ISC ATR CMP

Exploratory part of the measurement model

Social well-being Social integration Social contribution Social actualization

Psychological well-being Positive relations Environmental mastery Personal growth

4.1. Adaptive individual identity strategies

4.2. Non-adaptive identity strategies and well-being

4.3. Limitations, strengths, and future research

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