Towards a more dynamic perspective on acculturation research

Despite the fact that acculturation has already been described in early definitions as a concept of change, few conceptual and theoretical advances have been made in how this change may be studied. This chapter highlights the dynamics in acculturation. The authors specifically introduce the temporal concepts of acculturative timing, tempo, pace, and synchrony as a means to systematically study in immigrant adolescents when acculturation begins, how long it lasts, how fast it occurs, and how coordinated these changes are across life domains. In addition, they discuss the opportunities and challenges related to the application of these concepts as well as their interplay in explaining acculturative change in immigrant adolescents.