Acculturation and Self-Rated Health among Latino and Asian Immigrants to the United States

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The ways in which immigrant health profiles change with shifts in acculturation is of increasing interest to scholars and policy makers in the United States, but little is known about the mechanisms that may link acculturation and self-rated health, particularly for Asians. Utilizing the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) and its data on foreign-born Latinos (N = 1,199) and Asians (N = 1,323) (Pennell et al. 2004), we investigate and compare the associations between acculturation and self-rated health for immigrants to the United States from six major ethnic subgroups (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican). Using comprehensive measures of acculturation, we demonstrate that across ethnic groups, and despite the widely varying contexts of the sending countries and receiving communities, native-language dominance is associated with worse self-rated health relative to bilingualism, and measures of lower acculturation-coethnic ties and remittances-are associated with better self-rated health; and moreover, these associations are only partially mediated by socioeconomic status, and not mediated by acculturative stress, discrimination, social support, or health behaviors. We speculate that immigrants who maintain a native language while also acquiring English, as has been shown for other immigrant outcomes, attain a bicultural fluency, which also enables good health. Surprisingly, we do not find strong associations between duration of time in the United States or age at migration-measures frequently used to proxy acculturation-with self-rated health. Our findings illustrate the complexity of measuring acculturation and its influence on health for immigrants. University of California Press and

Acculturation to Both American and Chinese Cultures Predicts Condom Use Intent Among U.S.-Dwelling Chinese/Taiwanese Men Who Have Sex With Men

“…It is worth noting that Choi et al (2002), Choi et al (2005), and Matteson (1997) used place of birth as a proxy for acculturation. As mentioned earlier, Kimbro et al (2012) also did not find any association between the duration of time in the United States and self-reported health status, but there was a significant relationship between language proficiency and health status. Lin et al (2005) also used language proficiency as an indicator of acculturation.…”

“…This study has empirically tested the protective effect of acculturation to the national and ethnic cultures on the favorable attitude toward condom use among MSM. In line with Kimbro et al (2012), high acculturation to both cultures is associated with better health outcomes. However, this combination of U.S. and Chinese cultures may be quite specific.…”

“…This study extends earlier work on the effect of acculturation on safe sex and uses the IMBP to delineate the mechanism by which acculturation affects the intent to use a condom during anal intercourse with a casual sex partner among MSM. Following Kimbro et al (2012) and Lin et al (2005), acculturation was measured by how proficient respondents’ English was in terms of speaking, writing, and reading. In line with Kimbro et al (2012), which also suggested that bilingual Chinese benefited from cultural flexibility, the current study found that stronger English and Chinese proficiency—“integration” according to the terminology of Berry (1997)—led to a more favorable view of using a condom, which in turn led to a greater intent to do so.…”

“…Based on the National Latino and Asian American Study, a nationally representative survey conducted in 2002-2003, Kimbro, Gorman, and Schachter (2012, found that, compared with bilingual Chinese, Chinese whose dominant language is also Chinese reported worse health status. Their results supported the idea of "cultural flexibility" which is facilitated by proficiency in both English and Chinese.…”

“…Acculturation. Kimbro et al (2012) demonstrated that language proficiency is a good proxy for acculturation. The present study, therefore, operationalizes acculturation to American culture as English proficiency and acculturation to Chinese culture as Chinese proficiency.…”