By Venera Bekteshi, PhD, LICSW
Acculturative stress is the psychological and emotional strain that comes with adapting to a new culture. It goes beyond homesickness. It can affect how you sleep, how you feel in your body, and how you see yourself.
The difference is depth and duration. Homesickness is missing what you left behind. Acculturative stress is the ongoing work of holding two worlds at once: the expectations you grew up with and the ones you live among now. It can persist for years, long after the early disorientation of arrival fades.
Over the years, I have dedicated much of my research to understanding how immigrants experience acculturative stress and how it affects their psychological well-being. One important finding from my research is that acculturative stress is not simply about learning a new language or adapting to unfamiliar customs. It is also shaped by discrimination, family relationships, economic circumstances, migration experiences, and the social environment in which people build their lives. I developed a framework, the Contextual Influence on Acculturative Stress framework, to describe how these circumstances shape stress and well-being. In my research with Mary van Hook, we found that acculturative stress did not always lead to psychological distress. Whether it did depended on these broader circumstances.
What causes acculturative stress?
Acculturative stress arises from the demands of adapting to a new culture while maintaining connections to your own. These demands are not abstract. They show up in daily life.
Language and communication
Speaking a second language all day can be tiring, even when you are fluent. Translating for family members, missing the humor in a conversation, or explaining your name again adds to the load. You may speak two languages and feel fully heard in neither. In my 2024 study of 257 Mexican immigrant women, I found that stronger English-language proficiency was associated with lower levels of acculturative stress.
Discrimination and being treated as foreign
When people make assumptions about where you are from, how you speak, or what you believe, it compounds the strain. Facing discrimination, whether subtle or overt, can make belonging feel conditional. Discrimination has consistently emerged as an important factor in my research. In my comparative study of Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican women, discrimination was linked to acculturative stress and psychological distress in all three groups, while many other factors differed from one group to the next.
Family expectations and generational conflict
Parents and children often see the move differently. Parents may carry the values of the place they left, while children grow up between two sets of rules. What feels like independence to one generation can feel like abandonment to another. These conflicts can be common and painful, as a 2025 review of research on immigrant youth shows. In my study of Cuban-born women with Jennifer Bellamy, conflict between family and cultural values went with higher psychological distress.
At the same time, family relationships can be a source of strength. My research has examined the role of familismo, a cultural value emphasizing family relationships, connection, and responsibility. In my 2024 study of Mexican immigrant women, stronger familismo values went with lower psychological distress.
Work and rebuilding a career
Professional credentials do not always transfer. People who held respected positions in their home countries may start over in lower-status work. The loss is not just financial. It can also involve identity and recognition. In research conducted with Jennifer Bellamy, we found that financial constraints were among the factors associated with psychological distress among Latina immigrants.
Identity and belonging
You may feel like an outsider both here and back home. Neither place feels entirely yours. That sense of being between cultures, and fully part of neither, can be a painful aspect of acculturative stress. But adapting to a new culture does not necessarily mean abandoning your original cultural identity.
How do you know if what you are feeling is acculturative stress?
The signs often overlap with anxiety and depression, but they may be connected to experiences of migration, cultural adaptation, family expectations, or discrimination. A 2024 review that pooled 46 studies found a moderate link between acculturative stress and depression, anxiety, and psychological distress among young people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds in the United States. Some associations were stronger among first-generation immigrants.
Emotional and mental signs
- Persistent sadness or irritability that does not lift
- Worry that is hard to turn off, especially about family or your place here
- Feeling disconnected from both cultures, like you belong nowhere
- Exhaustion from switching between languages and cultural rules all day
Physical signs
- Sleep problems, including trouble falling asleep or waking tired
- Headaches, stomach discomfort, or tension
- Feeling drained even when you have not done much
Physical symptoms can have several causes, so persistent or unexplained symptoms should also be discussed with a healthcare professional.
Social and relational signs
- Withdrawal from people, including family or friends from either culture
- Conflict with parents, partners, or children about how to live
- Loneliness, even when surrounded by others
In my research with Puerto Rican-born women, my colleagues and I found that racial discrimination, difficulties visiting family abroad, and age at immigration were associated with higher levels of acculturative stress. In another study involving low-income women of Mexican descent, my colleagues and I found that greater acculturation was associated with increased psychological distress. This challenges the assumption that becoming more accustomed to American culture necessarily improves mental health. Acculturative stress does not affect everyone in the same way, and the stress is not a personal failure.
Is acculturative stress the same as culture shock?
No. Although they overlap, they are not the same experience.
Culture shock describes the disorientation that often comes with encountering a new environment: unfamiliar streets, different food, a new language, and social rules that do not yet make sense. This disorientation often decreases as people become more familiar with their surroundings. Acculturative stress can reach deeper and last longer. It may involve ongoing identity questions, family conflict, discrimination, and the feeling that you must choose between different parts of yourself.
In a review I conducted with Sung-Wan Kang of 30 studies on acculturative stress among Latino immigrants in the United States, we found that acculturative stress was shaped by interacting historical, economic, developmental, cultural, and interpersonal factors. These included discrimination, family separation, financial circumstances, English-language skills, cultural conflict, and social support. Our findings reinforced an important point: adapting to a new country is not simply a matter of time or familiarity. The circumstances surrounding that adaptation matter.
Children of immigrants can also experience acculturative stress, even if they were born in the country where they live. They may grow up navigating their family's cultural expectations alongside those of their school, peers, and wider community. That pressure can be an experience of acculturative stress rather than simply culture shock.
What helps with acculturative stress?
Acculturative stress can be addressed through therapy that takes culture seriously. This is not about assimilation or letting go of where you come from. It is about finding ways to navigate different cultural expectations without losing your sense of self.
Culturally responsive therapy
Culturally responsive therapy recognizes that your stress is not just personal. It can come from real pressures tied to migration, discrimination, family responsibilities, financial insecurity, and living between different cultural expectations. My research has shown, again and again, that immigrants from different countries, and even from the same country, face different pressures. In therapy, this means taking time to understand your individual experiences, your values, and the relationships that matter to you.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy, often shortened to CBT, can help you recognize and address patterns of thinking that intensify emotional distress. You learn to identify thoughts, examine whether they are accurate or helpful, and develop different ways of responding. For example, the thought "I do not belong anywhere" can be explored in ways that recognize both the reality of your experiences and the possibility of developing a meaningful sense of belonging. When working with acculturative stress, I believe these techniques should be applied with sensitivity to the real social and cultural pressures a person faces.
Strengths-based work
Strengths-based work looks at what your culture and your journey have given you. Resilience, bilingualism, family relationships, community support, and the ability to understand more than one cultural perspective can all be meaningful strengths. These are not consolation prizes. They are important resources. In my review with Sung-Wan Kang, family values and social support were among the factors that protected against acculturative stress.
Therapy for acculturative stress also addresses the specific pressures you experience, whether that involves family conflict, discrimination, work, or identity.
When should you consider talking to someone?
If acculturative stress is affecting your sleep, mood, relationships, or ability to manage daily life, therapy may help. You do not need to wait until the stress becomes overwhelming.
Signs it may be time to reach out
- You feel stuck between two worlds and cannot see a way forward
- Conflict with family is constant and painful
- You withdraw from people or activities that used to matter
- Worry or sadness is there most days, not just occasionally
- Physical symptoms persist without a medical explanation
Talking to a therapist who understands acculturative stress means that your cultural background and experiences can be recognized as meaningful parts of your life. You should not have to spend your therapy sessions convincing someone that your family relationships, cultural identity, or experience of discrimination matter. These experiences deserve to be understood.
Why this work matters to me
I came to the United States from Kosovo, and my experience of immigration has profoundly shaped both my personal journey and my professional work. During my doctoral studies at Boston College, I focused my research on acculturative stress among immigrant women. Over the years, I have continued studying how discrimination, language barriers, family relationships, cultural values, migration experiences, and social circumstances influence psychological well-being. This work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including The British Journal of Social Work, Ethnicity & Health, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, BMC Women's Health, and Social Sciences.
But for me, acculturative stress has never been just an academic subject. You may be building a new life while missing the people, places, language, and familiar ways of living that once gave you a sense of belonging. You may feel grateful for opportunities in your new country while also grieving what you left behind. These feelings can coexist.
When we work together, I will not ask you to choose between who you were and who you are becoming. My goal is to help you understand your experiences, strengthen your ability to navigate challenges, and find ways to honor the different parts of your identity.
Acculturative stress is not a diagnosis, and it is not a weakness. It is a response to the real demands that can arise when adapting to a new cultural environment. With the right support, those demands can become more manageable, and belonging does not have to feel like a choice between two halves of yourself.
If acculturative stress is affecting how you move through your days, a free 15-minute consultation can help you decide whether therapy is the right next step. I offer online therapy for adults and teens across Illinois and Minnesota, in English or Albanian. You can book a consultation or send me a short note to start the conversation.
Selected research
My publications
Bekteshi, V. (2024). Decoding acculturative stress and psychological distress in Mexican immigrant women: Insights from a path mediation analysis. BMC Women's Health, 24, Article 667. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03494-1
Bekteshi, V., & Bellamy, J. L. (2024a). Adapting for well-being: Examining acculturation strategies and mental health among Latina immigrants. Social Sciences, 13(3), Article 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030138
Bekteshi, V., & Bellamy, J. L. (2024b). Examining external and internal acculturative factors: Cuban-born women's experience of well-being in the U.S. Social Sciences, 13(2), Article 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020072
Bekteshi, V., & Kang, S.-W. (2020). Contextualizing acculturative stress among Latino immigrants in the United States: A systematic review. Ethnicity & Health, 25(6), 897–914. https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2018.1469733
Bekteshi, V., & van Hook, M. (2015). Contextual approach to acculturative stress among Latina immigrants in the U.S. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 17(5), 1401–1411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-014-0103-y
Bekteshi, V., van Hook, M., & Matthew, L. (2015a). Puerto Rican-born women in the United States: Contextual approach to immigration challenges. Health & Social Work, 40(4), 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlv070
Bekteshi, V., van Hook, M., Levin, J., Kang, S.-W., & Tran, T. V. (2017). Social work with Latino immigrants: Contextual approach to acculturative stress among Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican women. The British Journal of Social Work, 47(2), 447–466. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw003
Bekteshi, V., Xu, Q., & Tran, T. V. (2015b). Psychological distress among low-income U.S.- and foreign-born women of Mexican descent: Impact of acculturation. Women's Health Issues, 25(2), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2014.11.001
Other research cited
Lerias, D., Ziaian, T., Miller, E., Arthur, N., Augoustinos, M., & Pir, T. (2025). The role of acculturative stress on the mental health of immigrant youth: A scoping literature review. Community Mental Health Journal, 61(3), 462–491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-024-01351-x
Tineo, P., Bixter, M. T., Polanco-Roman, L., Grapin, S. L., Taveras, L., & Reyes-Portillo, J. A. (2024). The impact of acculturative stress on internalizing problems among racially and ethnically minoritized adolescents and young adults in the U.S.: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 357, Article 117192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117192