Attachment, sense of coherence, and mental health among Chinese American college students: Variation by migration status

Abstract

Informed by Antonovksy's salutogenic model, the current study examined sense of coherence as a mediator in the relationship of parent and peer attachment and college challenges with depressive symptom level in three groups of Chinese American college students. Due to differential acculturation, we hypothesized that peer relationship would be more salient for the most acculturated American-born Chinese, parent relationship would be more salient for the least acculturated, late arriving immigrants, and both parent and peer attachment would contribute to the well-being of early arriving immigrants who have been significantly exposed to both cultures. A sample of 112 American-born Chinese, 121 early immigrants, and 110 late immigrants completed paper–pencil surveys. Sense of coherence mediated the effect of attachment and college challenges on depressive symptoms in all three groups. Furthermore, our hypotheses regarding American-born Chinese and early immigrants were supported. For late immigrants, both parent and peer attachment predicted sense of coherence, but only parent attachment contributed to depressive symptom level. Implications for mental health interventions are discussed.