The impact of cultural internalization and integration on well-being among tricultural individuals.

The cultural internalization and competence of a diverse sample of tricultural university students was assessed. Based on recent research on the internalization of cultural norms, it was predicted that (a) having a heritage culture that embraced egalitarian values would be conducive to autonomous internalization and cultural competence, (b) competence and internalization would be associated with positive affect in heritage cultural contexts, and (c) the same positive relations between competence, internalization, and affect would be evident in English Canadian and French Canadian contexts. The study included 113 participants representing more than 35 distinct ethnicities.