1. How Does Culture Affect Latino College Students’ Mental Health?
Vanessa Fuentes, Adriana Rodriguéz, Anna Yaros, Jonathan Brooks, Carla Shaffer, & Rosalie Corona
Department of Psychology & Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development
BACKGROUND
RESULTS
RESULTS (cont.)
Moderation Analyses (cont.)
Table 1. Bivariate correlations
* p < .05
** p < 01
The rise in mental health problems among college-age students is a national concern. In a national survey of college students, over 50% reported symptoms of anxiety, while 31% reported difficulties with daily functioning as a result of depressive-like symptoms (ACHA-NCHA, 2011). Increased demands and responsibilities, living away from home, and lowered social support contribute to college students’ mental health problems (Cleary et al., 2011). Cultural experiences such as acculturative stress (Katsiaficas et al., 2013) and discrimination (Huynh, 2012) may heighten mental health problems for racial/ethnic minority students. In this project, we explore whether cultural factors (i.e., ethnic identity; familismo) buffer the relation between acculturative stress, discrimination, and mental health outcomes in a sample of Latino college students. IV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Age -
Discrimination
.048
Accult. Stress
.009
.546**
Ethnic Identity
.052
.177*
.235**
Familismo
.014
.021
-.054
.181*
DASS
-.049
.359**
.286**
.012
-.263**
PHQ
-.041
.347**
.354**
-.043
-.194**
.752**
Multiple regression revealed that familismo moderates the relation between acculturative stress and mental health problems.
Higher levels of familismo serve as a protective factor against the effect of acculturative stress on depression, anxiety and stress symptoms.
Correlations indicate that discrimination is significantly positively related to acculturative stress.
Both discrimination and acculturative stress were significantly positively related to mental health problems.
Ethnic identity was significantly positively related to both discrimination and acculturative stress.
Familismo was negatively related to mental health symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest the importance of understanding the role of cultural experiences in relation to an individual’s mental health.
Our findings highlight the importance of helping Latino college students remain connected to their family values as a way of promoting mental health.
The implications of these findings can inform the development of more culturally competent prevention programs.
RESULTS (cont.)
Moderation Analyses
METHOD
Table 2. Multiple Regression with two-way interactions
* p < .05
** p < 01 DV
Predictor β t p R2
DASS
Discrimination
Familismo
Disc x Fam
.357
-.305
-.120
5.294
-4.443
-1.744
<.001*
.083
.221
Accult. Stress
Accult. Stress x Fam
.241
-.213
-.149
3.396
-3.010
-2.094
.001*
.003*
.038*
.133
PHQ
.329
-.229
-.011
4.763
-3.250
-.151
.881
.158
.343
-.161
-.107
5.004
-2.356
-1.557
.020*
.121
.164
Participants consisted of 198 Latino young adults (18-25 years of age), with a mean age of years (SD 1.77)
70% female, 78% born in the U.S.
43% reported being first in their family to attend college.
Participants completed:
Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992)
Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (familismo subscale; Knight et al., 2010)
Riverside Acculturative Stress Inventory (Miller et al., 2011)
Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire – Community Version (Brandolo et al., 2005)
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ; measures depressive symptoms; Kroenke et al., 2001)
The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS; Lovibond, & Lovibond, 1995).
References
American College Health Association. (2011). Sample survey: ACHA-NCHA II
Brondolo, E., Kelly, K. P., Coakley, V., Gordon, T., Thompson, S., Levy, E., ... & Contrada, R. J. (2005). The Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire: Development and Preliminary Validation of a Community Version1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35,
Cleary, M., Walter, G., & Jackson, D. (2011). “Not Always Smooth Sailing”: Mental Health Issues Associated with the Transition from High School to College. Issues in mental health nursing, 32,
Huynh, Q. L., Devos, T., & Dunbar, C. M. (2012). The psychological costs of painless but recurring experiences of racial discrimination. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 18, 26.
Katsiaficas, D., Suárez-Orozco, C., Sirin, S. R., & Gupta, T. (2013). Mediators of the relationship between acculturative stress and internalization symptoms for Immigrant origin youth. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,19, 27.
Knight, G. P., Gonzales, N. A., Saenz, D. S., Bonds, D. D., Germán, M., Deardorff, J., ... & Updegraff, K. A. (2010). The Mexican American cultural values scale for adolescents and adults. The Journal of early adolescence,30,
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. (2001). The Phq‐9. Journal of general internal medicine, 16,
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour research and therapy,33,
Miller, M. J., Kim, J., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2011). Validating the Riverside Acculturation Stress Inventory with Asian Americans. Psychological assessment, 23, 300.
Phinney, J. S. (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure a new scale for use with diverse groups. Journal of adolescent research, 7,
This project was funded by small grant award to Dr. Corona by VCU’s Institute for Women’s Health
Figure 1. Interaction between acculturative stress and familismo