Date of Award:

12-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Renee V. Galliher

Committee

Renee V. Galliher

Committee

Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez

Committee

Gayle S. Morse

Abstract

This study was conducted to better understand how acculturation and acculturative stress are related to self-esteem, depression, substance use, and substance use problems in 206 Latina/o youth. Acculturation is the social and psychological process of change that occurs when an individual or group comes in contact with a different culture. The acculturation process can be positive, improving one’s life chances in the new culture, or it could be negative due to the challenging nature of change and adaptation to new cultural and social expectations. This difficulty creates a type of stress, called acculturative stress that has been found to be related mental and health problems.

Acculturative stress was a critical factor in the mental health of Latina/o youth in this study. This was especially true for Latino males, where acculturative stress was a predictor of problems related to substance use, and was related to experiencing lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of depression. However, the effect of acculturative stress was dependent on youth’s level of acculturation in some ways. For example, acculturative stress has a stronger effect for young women who reported weaker connection to White American culture, and young men who reported both high acculturative stress and high orientation to White American culture were most likely to report substance use problems. Thus, it is important for those working with Latina/o youth to understand acculturation and acculturative stress and work towards interventions that help reduce the impact of this type of stress.

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Comments

Publication made available electronically January 24, 2012.

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