As an immigrant population becomes more prominent in an established culture, research strategies for examining intragroup differences are needed to understand their health care risks and strengths. However, acculturation also must be taken into account. Our objective in this secondary analysis was to identify the most useful acculturation parameter for examining depressive symptoms in relation to strengths and resources among women of Mexican descent living in the United States during the vulnerable perinatal period and to examine other intragroup differences among the women by childbearing status (pregnant or postpartum). Our secondary analysis was done with a subsample of 129 women from a larger cross-sectional study of 315 women of Mexican descent who were recruited from three urban community health centers and an associated bilingual school in the United States. Exposure to the United States in childhood, a poor sense of mastery, and dissatisfaction with life were more related to depressive symptom experience than childbearing status or more traditional demographic variables such as age, income, or education.

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