Examining differences in culturally based stress among clinical and nonclinical Hispanic adolescents.

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to determine if, and how, Hispanic adolescents receiving clinical treatment differ from their peers who are not in treatment on the 8 domains (family economic stress, cultural or educational stress, acculturation-gap stress, immigration stress, discrimination stress, family immigration stress, community or gang-related stress) of cultural stress (HSI-A), and if the relation between cultural stress domains and depressive symptomology differed by group membership (clinical vs. nonclinical). The sample included 1,254 Hispanic adolescents. The clinical sample had significantly higher scores of cultural stress (p < .05) and mean depression scores (< .001). All 8 domains of HSI-A stress were correlated with depression (p < .05). In the general linear models (GLM), only family economic, acculturation gap, family immigration, discrimination, and family drug stress had a unique effect on depression and effect varied by group. Acculturation gap stress was associated with depression for the nonclinical group but not the clinical group (p < .001) and community gang stress was more strongly related to depression for the clinical group (p < .05).