title: Acculturative stress, social support, and coping: relations to psychological adjustment among Mexican American college students.
abstract: This study examined the relations between acculturative stress and psychological functioning, as well as the protective role of social support and coping style, in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (67% female, 33% male; mean age = 23.05 years, SD = 3.33). In bivariate analyses, acculturative stress was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Moreover, active coping was associated with better adjustment (lower depression), whereas avoidant coping predicted poorer adjustment (higher levels of depression and anxiety). Tests of interaction effects indicated that parental support and active coping buffered the effects of high acculturative stress on anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms. In addition, peer support moderated the relation between acculturative stress and anxiety symptoms. Implications for reducing the effects of acculturative stress among Mexican American college students are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0308, USA. ecrockettl@unl.edu
authors.forename: Lisa J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Crockett
authors.forename: Maria I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Iturbide
authors.forename: Rosalie A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Torres Stone
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McGinley
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raffaelli
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carlo
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*