Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine whether gender differences existed and how the predictors were linked to acculturative stress across gender among a national sample of 1639 immigrant Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and other Asian Americans. The data were from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) conducted in 2002 and 2003, the first national epidemiological household survey of Asian Americans in the United States. The participants took part in face-to-face interviews, which were conducted with computer-assisted interviewing software in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English. After fitted bivariate correlations to examine the relationships between acculturative stress and psychosocial variables, data were analyzed using two multiple regressions to identify the most significant predictors of acculturative stress for men and women separately. Results indicated that the psychosocial predictors of acculturative stress varied with gender status. For all men and women, longer years in the U.S., higher English proficiency, and less perceived discrimination predicted related to less acculturative stress. Social network was not the predictor for both men and women. Age of immigration, marital status, family cohesion and social position were additional significant predictors of acculturative stress only for men, but not for women. The implications of these results were discussed.
Highlights
Many immigrant children and families experience acculturative stress, but few relevant empirical studies on psychosocial predictors of the stress have been conducted,especially among immigrant Asian Americans
Given that previous research has reported the gender differences in the risk factors of acculturative stress among immigrants, we examined whether gender differences existed and how the predictors were linked to acculturative stress across gender among Asian American immigrants
Among all respondents (N=1639), about 15.5% reported they feel guilty about leaving family or friends in country of origin; 21.6% did not perceive the same respect in the U.S as in country of origin; 36.6% felt that living out of the country of origin has limited their contact with family or friends; 35.9% found it hard to interact with other people in English language; 25.3% reported being treated badly due to poor or accented English; 24.5% found it difficult to find a job due to Asian descent; 15.3% worried about their legal status
Summary
Many immigrant children and families experience acculturative stress, but few relevant empirical studies on psychosocial predictors of the stress have been conducted,especially among immigrant Asian Americans. In these limited literature, scholars have demonstrated that several sets of factors linked to acculturative stress included socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, social networks, family cohesion and the context of migration exit; immigration related factors such as age of immigration; psychological factors such as depression; Linguistic factors such as English proficiency, native language proficiency and Language preference; and receptivity by the host society such as discrimination.[1,2,3] previous studies often fail to consider that men and women experienced acculturative stress very differently.[4] And less prior studies have examined whether acculturative stress is associated with one factor more than others or whether it is the combination of factors that best explains acculturative stress for immigrant American men and women.
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