International Journal of Psychology International Journal of Psychology, 2021 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12795 Associations between acculturation, perceived discrimination and subjective well-being among Syrian adolescents living in Turkey Abdurrahim Güler 1 and Murat Yıldırım 2,3 1 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Agri Ibrahim Cecen University, Agri, Turkey 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Agri Ibrahim Cecen University, Agri, Turkey 3 Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK A lthough numerous studies have documented the associations between perceived discrimination, acculturation and well-being in immigrants, far fewer have examined these associations in adolescent immigrants in the context of forced displacement. The focus of this study was to refne our understanding of the link between acculturation, perceived discrimination and subjective well-being in understudied forcibly displaced Syrian adolescents residing in Turkey. The data were collected from 181 Syrian adolescents (53.19% girls) aged between 10 and 16 years (M age = 13, SD = 1.53). The participants completed measures of acculturation, perceived discrimination, positive affect and negative affect alongside demographic variables. The results indicated that boys reported more experience of positive affect while girls reported more experience of negative affect. Younger adolescents reported greater positive affect, higher heritage acculturation and lesser negative affect. Adolescents who had higher host acculturation and experienced low perceived discrimination had a greater positive, whereas adolescents who experienced perceived discrimination had a greater negative affect. Host acculturation and perceived discrimination signifcantly contributed to the variance in explaining positive and negative affect over and above the age and gender. The results elucidate our understanding in terms of acculturation and perceived discrimination that signifcantly contribute to subjective well-being in the context of forcibly displaced Syrian adolescents. Keywords: Acculturation; Perceived discrimination; Subjective well-being; Syrian adolescents; Turkey. Turkey has traditionally sent migrants to western coun- tries but has recently become both a migrant-sending and migrant-receiving country due to neighbouring Syria’s civil war. Prior to the ongoing civil war in Syria, very few Syrians sought to refuge in Turkey. Statistics documented that only 635 asylum applications were received from Syrian nationals between 1995 and 2011 (Kiri¸ sçi, 2014). This fgure changed dramatically after April 2011 and the number of forcibly displaced Syrians has exponen- tially increased in Turkey. The statistics issued by the Directorate General of Migration Management of Turkey (DGMM) show that Turkey currently hosts over 3.5 million forcibly displaced Syrians which include both arrivals and births as of May 2020 (DGMM, 2020). These Correspondence should be addressed to Abdurrahim Güler, Agri Ibrahim Cecen University, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Erzurum Yolu 4 Km 04100, Merkez, Agri, Turkey. (E-mail: aguler@agri.edu.tr, gulerrahim@gmail.com). The authors would like to thank all the participants who voluntarily took part in this study. The authors have no funding to disclose. A.G. conceptualised the study, collected the data and drafted the paper. M.Y. performed the statistical analyses and collaborated in the writing. All authors provided critical revisions. estimates are considered to be conservative both by Turk- ish authorities and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2018). The same report docu- mented that approximately 47% of those registered Syr- ians are under 18 years. The statistics also show that most Syrians (98%) prefer to reside in towns and cities rather than temporary shelter centres or refugee camps (DGMM, 2020). The social acceptance of the Syrians at the outset of the Syrian civil war was at a high level due to accep- tance of cultural differences, and the temporary infux of new arrivals was initially regarded “guests” (Akar & Erdo˘ gdu, 2019). In fact, Syrians who fed to Turkey are recognised as “people with temporary protection” but not © 2021 International Union of Psychological Science