Kim Min Ju
Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
SSM Popul Health. 2021 Mar 20;14:100778. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100778. eCollection 2021 Jun.
This study examined suicidal ideation among Asian immigrant adults in the United States, with consideration of the roles of acculturation and social support. Using the 2002-2003 National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), I conducted latent class analysis with measures of U.S. cultural orientation and Asian ethnic affiliation to create a multidimensional construct of acculturation. Three acculturation groups were identified (assimilated, integrated, separated) that showed different associations with suicidal ideation. Then I analyzed how the association between acculturation status and suicidal ideation is moderated by social support, distinguishing between perceived versus received support. Findings revealed that the buffering role of social support is gender-specific, with perceived support from friends reducing the risk of suicidal ideation only among assimilated women. Implications for future research include further application of acculturation as a multidimensional construct to various health outcomes and behavior as well as to other immigrant subgroups. Public health intervention efforts aimed at preventing suicide should endeavor to promote perceptions of an available social support system among immigrants and aid in establishing sources of support outside the family particularly for immigrant women.
本研究考察了美国亚裔成年移民中的自杀意念，并考虑了文化适应和社会支持的作用。利用2002 - 2003年的全国拉丁裔和亚裔美国人研究（NLAAS），我通过美国文化取向和亚裔种族归属的测量进行了潜在类别分析，以构建一个多维的文化适应结构。确定了三个文化适应群体（同化型、融合型、分离型），它们与自杀意念呈现出不同的关联。然后我分析了社会支持如何调节文化适应状态与自杀意念之间的关联，区分了感知到的支持与获得的支持。研究结果显示，社会支持的缓冲作用具有性别特异性，只有同化型女性中来自朋友的感知支持能降低自杀意念的风险。对未来研究的启示包括进一步将文化适应作为一个多维结构应用于各种健康结果和行为以及其他移民亚群体。旨在预防自杀的公共卫生干预措施应努力促进移民对可用社会支持系统的认知，并协助建立家庭以外的支持来源，特别是为移民女性。
