Verdaguer Sandra, Ramya Rachita, Hernández María, Flórez Karen R
Department of Community Health and Social Sciences, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY, USA.
El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin America Studies of College of Liberal Arts and Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
Health Equity. 2023 Mar 23;7(1):197-205. doi: 10.1089/heq.2022.0137. eCollection 2023.
This study examines the association between acculturative stress and psychological distress among Mexican immigrants living in New York City. It takes account factors such as language barriers, legal status, fear of deportation, and avoidance of social health and human services, and how these factors are implicated in the mental health status of the study population.
Study draws from a community-based sample of Mexican American adults from the Social Network of Mexican Americans study recruited from a church-based community center in the Bronx, New York. Eighty Mexican immigrants were included in this analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to display participants' characteristics. Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were run to determine the relationship between acculturative stress and psychological distress, and also with each of the items from the acculturative stress scale. Both scales have been validated among Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants.
A significant moderate positive relationship was found between acculturative stress and psychological distress. Within the acculturative stress scale, those items related to language discrimination, evasion of health services, and feeling guilty for leaving family/friends in home country had significant associations with increased psychological distress.
The findings support the need for interventions that account for the major stressors associated with being a Mexican immigrant in the United States to prevent psychological distress, especially given the anti-immigration policies.
本研究探讨居住在纽约市的墨西哥移民的文化适应压力与心理困扰之间的关联。研究考虑了语言障碍、法律地位、被驱逐出境的恐惧以及避免使用社会健康和公共服务等因素，以及这些因素如何影响研究人群的心理健康状况。
本研究从纽约布朗克斯区一个以教会为基础的社区中心招募的墨西哥裔美国成年人的社交网络研究中抽取基于社区的样本。本分析纳入了80名墨西哥移民。描述性统计用于展示参与者的特征。进行了皮尔逊相关性分析和多元回归分析，以确定文化适应压力与心理困扰之间的关系，以及与文化适应压力量表中的每个项目之间的关系。这两个量表均已在讲西班牙语的拉丁裔移民中得到验证。
发现文化适应压力与心理困扰之间存在显著的中度正相关。在文化适应压力量表中，与语言歧视、逃避医疗服务以及因离开家乡的家人/朋友而感到内疚相关的项目与心理困扰增加有显著关联。
研究结果支持开展干预措施的必要性，这些措施要考虑到与成为美国墨西哥移民相关的主要压力源，以预防心理困扰，特别是考虑到反移民政策的情况下。
