Acculturation Studies in Spain in the Last Decade

scale, followed by the subsequent process of adaptation of migrant groups into host societies, is causing significant challenges for social research. Furthermore, these population movements involve significant adjustments in the different areas of a person's life, such as the family, social, educational or work spheres (Bronfenbrenner, 1987). This process of cultural and psychological change that arises from contact between culturally different groups is called acculturation (Berry, 2003). Entering into contact with someone from a different culture to one’s own can have a big impact on a person’s quality of life, as their coping strategies must undergo change in order to adapt to the new sociocultural reality around them. Although the first model of the processes of acculturation was produced by Gordon (1964), who proposed a unidirectional acculturation model. Later, Berry (1974, 1980, 1984) concluded that acculturation was a twodimensional process in which both the culture of the migrant group and that of the indigenous culture intervened. Thus, it was Berry who established that the two dimensions (maintaining one’s own cultural values and participation in the host society) were independent and could be combined. Berry (1990) also recognized that it is normally the host society (the dominant group) that imposes its characteristics on the immigrant group (the dominated group) to a greater or lesser extent. And so the Acculturation Model was born, which consists of three elements: the preferences or attitudes of acculturation, specific changes in behavior or acculturation strategies, and the level of difficulty experienced by individuals in coping with the situation in the new society or acculturative stress. Although, initially, Berry uses the terms acculturation attitudes and strategies indifferently, subsequently he differentiates between the two. Firstly, the attitudes of acculturation, as indicated by Sabatier and Berry (1996), refer to the importance that ACCULTURATION STUDIES IN SPAIN IN THE LAST DECADE