Predictors of Psychological well-being of Pakistani Immigrants in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

The growing rate of international migration directs health care professionals to focus on immigrants’ mental and physical health issues. This study focused on the risk and resource factors of positive well-being and negative health outcomes of Pakistani immigrants residing in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada. It assessed the impact of coping resources (sense of coherence and perceived social support) and coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) on positive well-being and negative mental health outcomes using a stress-health model. On a final sample of 308 Pakistani immigrants, a series of hierarchical regression analyses were performed. Results indicated that a lower level of acculturative stress, a greater sense of coherence, use of problem focused strategies, a higher level of perceived social support and the demographic variable: higher perceived income comfort level, were together associated with higher positive functioning. The negative mental health outcomes were associated with higher level of acculturative stress, lower sense of coherence, use of emotion-focused strategies, low perceived social support and demographic variables including low perceived income comfort level, non-relevant jobs and younger age of participants’ children. R 2 for the full psychological well-being model was .45. Acculturative stress and demographic variables explained a significant portion (24%) of the total variance associated with negative mental health outcomes ( R 2 = .34). The current findings have implications for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers for the identification of resource factors that could help a growing immigrant population establish and maintain positive functioning.