title: Disentangling immigrant status in mental health: psychological protective and risk factors among Latino and Asian American immigrants.
abstract: This study aimed to disentangle the psychological mechanisms underlying immigrant status by testing a model of psychological protective and risk factors to predict the mental health prevalence rates among Latino and Asian American immigrants based on secondary analysis of the National Latino and Asian American Study. The first research question examined differences on the set of protective and risk factors between immigrants and their U.S.-born counterparts and found that immigrants reported higher levels of ethnic identity, family cohesion, native language proficiency, and limited English proficiency than their U.S.-born counterparts. The second research question examined the effect of the protective and risk factors on prevalence rates of depressive, anxiety, and substance-related disorders and found that social networking served as a protective factor. Discrimination, acculturative stress, and family conflict were risk factors on the mental health for both ethnic groups. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, Department of Psychology, Consortium for Multicultural Psychology Research, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. fleong@msu.edu
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leong
authors.forename: Yong S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Zornitsa
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kalibatseva
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000523:psychology; D060756:Social Networking; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Asian immigrants; Latino immigrants; U.S.-born Asian Americans; U.S.-born Latinos; acculturation stress; chain migration; ethnic identity; family cohesion; language proficiency