Stress and Coping in an Ethnic Minority Context

Religious minority identity associates with stress and psychological health among Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh and London

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the association of minority religious identification (Hindu or Muslim) with self-reported stress and psychological symptoms among sedentee and immigrant Bangladeshi women.

METHODS

Women, aged 35-59 (n = 531) were drawn from Sylhet, Bangladesh and London, England. Muslim immigrants in London and Hindu sedentees in Sylhet represented minority religious identities. Muslim sedentees in Sylhet and Londoners of European descent represented majority religious identities. In bivariate analyses, minority religious identity was examined in relation to self-reported measures of stress, nervous tension, and depressed mood. Logistic regression was applied to examine the relationship between these variables while adjusting for marital status, parity, daily walking, and perceived financial comfort.

RESULTS

In bivariate analyses, religious minorities reported more stress than religious majorities in all group comparisons (p < .05), and minority Muslims reported more nervous tension and depressed mood than majority Muslims (p < .05). In logistic regression models, minority Muslims had greater odds of high stress than majority Muslims (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.18-3.39). Minority Muslims had greater odds of stress (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.51-6.17) and nervous tension (OR 3.37, 95% CI 1.66-6.87) than majority Londoners. Financial comfort reduced odds of stress and symptoms in all models.

CONCLUSIONS

Socioeconomic situation, immigration history, and minority ethnicity appear to influence the relationship between religious identity and psychosomatic symptoms in Bangladeshi women. Attention to personal and socioeconomic context is important for research examining the association between religion and mental health.

Stress, coping, and well-being among the Yup`ik of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta: the role of enculturation and acculturation

OBJECTIVES

To report on the relationships between cultural identity and stress, coping, and psychological well-being in Yup'ik communities.

STUDY DESIGN

A quantitative self-administered questionnaire.

METHODS

A health and wellness survey was completed by a total of 488 Yup'ik participants (284 women and 204 men) from 6 rural villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. Respondents were fairly equally distributed across an age range of 14 to 94 (mean +/- SD = 38.50 +/- 17.18).

RESULTS

Participants who reported living more of a Kass'aq way of life (greater acculturation) reported experiencing greater psychosocial stress, less happiness, and greater use of drugs and alcohol to cope with stress. Participants who reported identifying more with a traditional Yup'ik way of life reported greater happiness, more frequent use of religion and spirituality to cope with stress, and less frequent use of drugs and alcohol to cope with stress.

CONCLUSIONS

In conjunction with previous research, the data strongly indicates that in general, Yup'ik people in the Y-K Delta tend to associate stress and negative health outcomes with the process of acculturation, and health and healing with the process of enculturation. Research that focuses on documenting the intrinsic strengths of indigenous worldviews may contribute to positive transformations in community health.

On the Limits of Coping

This study examined the effects of four coping dimensions—active coping, avoidance, distraction, and support—on conduct problems, depression, and achievement in a multiethnic, inner-city sample of early adolescents. The main effects of coping were examined, along with stress X coping interactions. For girls, active coping interacted with family and community stress to predict conduct problems and grades, respectively, and with community stress to predict depression. These interactions revealed a classic stress-buffering effect for active coping. For boys, although active coping interacted with community and peer stress to predict depression and with community and family stress to predict grades, these findings did not support the stress-buffering effect. Although avoidant coping was positively associated with depression and poor grades at low levels of stress, it was associated with more adaptive functioning on these outcomes at higher levels of stress.

Evidence for a curvilinear dose-response relationship between avoidance coping and drug use problems among women who experience intimate partner violence

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are at heightened risk for drug use problems. While prevailing models of drug use suggest that IPV-exposed women use drugs in an effort to escape or avoid negative affect, a dearth of literature has examined the role of avoidance coping in drug use problems within this population. Given recent suggestions that flexible, situationally appropriate use of avoidance coping may be adaptive, particularly when confronted with highly stressful situations, we hypothesized that avoidance coping and drug use problems would demonstrate a curvilinear, U-shaped dose-response relationship. Participants were 147 community-recruited women experiencing IPV. Consistent with our hypotheses, moderate levels of avoidance coping were associated with lower levels of drug use problems, whereas high and low levels of avoidance coping were associated with higher levels of drug use problems. Findings highlight the complex relationship between avoidance coping and drug use problems and suggest that avoidance coping, when used in moderation, may be an adaptive strategy for coping with relational conflict among women who experience IPV.

A qualitative analysis of barriers, challenges, and successes in meeting the needs of Hurricane Katrina evacuee families

Hurricane Katrina caused many individuals to evacuate to towns and cities throughout the United States. Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a treatment program designed to help clinicians and other disaster relief workers address the needs of adults, youth, and families immediately following disasters. We conducted focus groups with disaster relief and evacuee service providers in the Kansas City Metro Area as an exploratory study to identify their perceptions of the needs of evacuees. Participants identified a number of mental health needs, as well as displacement-related challenges, including loss of social support, material loss, unemployment, and other stressful life events that were secondary to the hurricane. Many of these needs are consistent with principles presented in the PFA manual. We also found that service providers faced unique challenges when attempting to assist evacuees. We discuss implications of these findings for treatment programs and provide suggestions for addressing barriers to care.

Latino Parent and Adolescent Perceptions of Hoped-for and Feared Possible Selves for Adolescents

The authors examined Latino parent and adolescent reports of hoped-for and feared possible selves for adolescents. Twenty-nine Latino parents (18 mothers, 11 fathers) and their 18 adolescents participated in semistructured individual interviews. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded for themes via content analysis. Themes that emerged included achievement, interpersonal, personal characteristics, financial-material, cultural roots, and risk behaviors. More parents than adolescents mentioned feared interpersonal selves such as being a teenage parent. Findings suggest that Latino parents and adolescents express hopes and fears for future outcomes that are not consistent with the high rates of school dropout and teen pregnancy among Latino adolescents. Results shed light on strategies for program and policy prevention efforts.

Perceived ethnic discrimination and social exclusion: newcomer immigrant children in Canada

This article examines relationships between perceived ethnic discrimination, social exclusion, psychosocial functioning, and academic performance among newcomer immigrant children from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines using a subsample from the New Canadian Children and Youth Study of children aged 11-13 years (1,053) living in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and the Prairies. Bivariate analysis showed that 25% of children reported being treated unfairly by peers and 14% by teachers because of who they are. Regression analyses revealed that perceived ethnic discrimination by peers and teachers was negatively related to children's sense of social competence in peer relationships. Children's self-esteem and sense of academic competence were negatively related to perceived discrimination by teachers. One in 5 children reported feeling like an outsider, with boys revealing higher levels of psychological isolation than girls. More than 1 in 10 were socially isolated and reported never participating in organized activities. This may reflect economic exclusion, as over one third of respondents belonged to families living below the Canadian Income Adequacy Measure. Psychological isolation, social isolation, and economic exclusion were significant predictors of children's sense of academic competence and actual academic grades. Variations exist across age, sex, ethnicity, family structure, parental education, region of settlement, and length of time since arrival in Canada.

Language Measurement Equivalence of the Ethnic Identity Scale With Mexican American Early Adolescents

The current study considers methodological challenges in developmental research with linguistically diverse samples of young adolescents. By empirically examining the cross-language measurement equivalence of a measure assessing three components of ethnic identity development (i.e., exploration, resolution, and affirmation) among Mexican American adolescents, the study both assesses the cross-language measurement equivalence of a common measure of ethnic identity and provides an appropriate conceptual and analytical model for researchers needing to evaluate measurement scales translated into multiple languages. Participants are 678 Mexican-origin early adolescents and their mothers. Measures of exploration and resolution achieve the highest levels of equivalence across language versions. The measure of affirmation achieves high levels of equivalence. Results highlight potential ways to correct for any problems of nonequivalence across language versions of the affirmation measure. Suggestions are made for how researchers working with linguistically diverse samples can use the highlighted techniques to evaluate their own translated measures.

The Mexican American Cultural Values scales for Adolescents and Adults

This research evaluates the properties of a measure of culturally linked values of Mexican Americans in early adolescence and adulthood. The items measure were derived from qualitative data provided by focus groups in which Mexican Americans' (adolescents, mothers and fathers) perceptions of key values were discussed. The focus groups and a preliminary item refinement resulted in the fifty-item Mexican American Cultural Values Scales (identical for adolescents and adults) that includes nine value subscales. Analyses of data from two large previously published studies sampling Mexican American adolescents, mothers, and fathers provided evidence of the expected two correlated higher order factor structures, reliability, and construct validity of the subscales of the Mexican American Cultural Values Scales as indicators of values that are frequently associated with Mexican/Mexican American culture. The utility of this measure for use in longitudinal research, and in resolving some important theoretical questions regarding dual cultural adaptation, are discussed.

TRAJECTORIES OF ACCULTURATION AND ENCULTURATION IN RELATION TO HEAVY EPISODIC DRINKING AND MARIJUANA USE IN A SAMPLE OF MEXICAN AMERICAN SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS

This study examines the longitudinal relations of multiple dimensions of acculturation and enculturation to heavy episodic drinking and marijuana use in a sample of 300 male, Mexican-American, serious juvenile offenders. We track trajectories between ages 15 and 20 and also consider the effects of participants' time spent residing in supervised settings during these years. Results showed some (although not entirely consistent) support for the hypothesis that bicultural adaptation is most functional in terms of lowered substance use involvement. The current findings demonstrate the importance of examining these relations longitudinally and among multiple dimensions of acculturation and enculturation, and they call into question simple models that suggest that greater acculturation is associated with greater substance use among Mexican-American adolescents.

Developing coping typologies of minority adolescents: a latent profile analysis

Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to develop a coping typology of minority adolescents (M=15.5 years). A multiethnic sample (n=354) was recruited from a program aimed at serving low-income students. LPA revealed three distinct coping profiles. The first comprised adolescents who used a number of specific coping strategies at a low level (low generic copers). The second comprised adolescents who emphasized active/approach strategies (e.g., planning; active copers). The third comprised adolescents who emphasized avoidant/passive strategies (e.g., substance abuse; avoidant copers). Active copers experienced significantly less depression and more stress-related growth than low generic copers. Low generic copers not only experienced significantly less depression than avoidant copers but also significantly less stress-related growth than active copers. Discussion focuses on integrating the current typology with traditional coping taxonomies.

Revisiting Hispanic adolescents' resilience to the effects of parental problem drinking and life stress

Two previous studies found that life stress and parental alcoholism were not as highly related to distress for Hispanic adolescents as they were for European American adolescents (M. Barrera Jr., S. A. Li, and L. Chassin, 1993, 1995). Those findings could be interpreted as evidence of Hispanic youths' resilience, but limitations of the stress measure and the homogeneity of the Hispanic sample threatened this interpretation. The present study improved on those previous studies by using a new measure of uncontrollable stressors and a more heterogeneous Mexican American sample. Participants in this study were 175 Mexican American and 59 European American adolescents and their parents. Unlike the previous studies, results did not show that Mexican American adolescents were more resilient to parental problem drinking or life stress than were European American adolescents. Overall, life stress was related to adolescents', mothers', and fathers' reports of adolescents' psychological distress above and beyond the effects of ethnicity and socioeconomic factors.

Brief report: Initial psychometric properties of the everyday discrimination scale in black adolescents

This study explored select psychometric properties of the Everyday Discrimination Scale in 120 Black adolescents (65 males and 55 females). Youth completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Child Behaviour Checklist-Youth Self-Report Form. A t-test analysis revealed that Everyday Discrimination Scale scores were not significantly different for males and females (p > 0.18). The alpha reliability coefficient was 0.87, with item-total correlations that ranged from 0.50 to 0.70 (mean=0.61). The split-half reliability was 0.83 (p < 0.0001). A principal component analysis yielded one factor, which accounted for approximately 49% of the standardized variance. Correlation analyses indicated that the Everyday Discrimination Scale score was significantly related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms (ps < 0.0002).

Do coping styles differ across sociocultural groups? The role of measurement equivalence in making this judgment

Cross-sociocultural group measurement equivalency is an important issue that generally has not been studied in the coping literature. Measurement equivalency of the COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) was assessed across two sociocultural groups, a sample of 100 Anglo middle-class divorced mothers and a sample of 122 low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. A series of restrictive confirmatory factor analyses revealed that seven of the COPE's subscales may be measuring the same underlying construct across populations. However, scores derived from the subscales may not represent the same magnitude of the construct in these two groups. This study makes an important first step in furthering the understanding of coping strategies in low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. This study also illustrates the importance of testing for measurement equivalency before conducting comparative research in disparate populations.