The acculturation modes of Russian speaking adolescents in Latvia: Perceived discrimination and knowledge of the Latvian language

After the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 million ethnic Russians were left living outside Russia. This article reports on research exploring acculturation strategies of ethnic Russian adolescents in Latvia: looking at the most and least preferred strategy, interrelatedness between choice of acculturation strategies and a person's gender or citizenship, as well as the impact of Latvian language knowledge and perceived discrimination on the choice of acculturation strategies. A total of 459 adolescents from secondary schools with Russian as the language of instruction in Riga participated in the study. The article draws on John Berry's two-dimensional acculturation model, based on four different acculturation strategies for ethnic minority and immigrant adaptation in the host society.