Abstract
BackgroundPrevious studies demonstrated a positive association between perceived discrimination and mental health problems among immigrants in countries that traditionally host immigrants. Recent trends in international migration show that there has been a significant increase in immigrant populations in East Asian countries. These newer host countries have different social contexts from traditional ones, yet mental health among these immigrants and its relationship to discrimination are under-researched. Thus, this study aimed to examine the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among immigrants in one of the newer host countries, South Korea. Moreover, we investigated if differentiated social support (ethnic, host or other support) serves as a moderator of discrimination for depressive symptoms.MethodsThis study used survey data from the 2012 Korean Social Survey on Foreign Residents (N = 1068), restricted to adults 20 years or older. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to estimate the association between perceived discrimination, social support, and depressive symptoms among immigrants in South Korea.ResultsPerceived discrimination showed a strong positive association with depressive symptoms among immigrants, and ethnic and host support was directly positively associated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, ethnic support moderated the effects of perceived discrimination on depressive symptoms.ConclusionCommunity-level interventions providing immigrants opportunities to increase social networking members from the same country as well as the native-born in a host country may be helpful resources for improving mental health among immigrants in South Korea. Also, raising awareness of racial discrimination among members in South Korea would be crucial.
Highlights
Previous studies demonstrated a positive association between perceived discrimination and mental health problems among immigrants in countries that traditionally host immigrants
This study investigated the main and moderating effects of general support and differentiated social support related to perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms
We found that general social support for perceived discrimination would contribute to reducing depressive symptoms
Summary
Previous studies demonstrated a positive association between perceived discrimination and mental health problems among immigrants in countries that traditionally host immigrants. Recent trends in international migration show that there has been a significant increase in immigrant populations in East Asian countries These newer host countries have different social contexts from traditional ones, yet mental health among these immigrants and its relationship to discrimination are under-researched. Social support refers to emotional, informational, and instrumental supportive functions that significant others (e.g. family members and friends) perform for the individual [11] When immigrants leave their home countries, they lose essential social ties around which they structure their lives [12, 13]. Depending on the particular immigrant group studied, the findings of the stress-buffering effect in the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health were inconsistent in previous research [2, 6, 11, 17,18,19,20]
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