Acculturative Stress and Specific Coping Strategies among Immigrant and Later Generation College Students

Abstract

Acculturative stress and specific coping strategies were assessed in a group of 214 multicultural college undergraduates of both sexes who were divided into four generational status groups: early immigrants (immigrated before 12 years of age) and late immigrants (immigrated after age 12), second-generation and third-generation. Also explored was the relationship of acculturative stress to self-esteem, locus of control and loyalty to American culture. The self-administered questionnaire contained the short version of the Padilla SAFE Acculturative Stress Measure, a loyalty toward American culture scale, Rotter's Internal/External Locus of Control scale, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Findings revealed that late immigrant students experienced greater acculturative stress than the other groups. Also, late immigrants coped with stress more frequently by taking a direct, planned action (individualistic) approach, while secondand third-generation groups more often coped by talking to others about the problem (social network). Early immigrants employed both coping strategies.

Acculturative stress, social support, and coping: Relations to psychological adjustment among Mexican American college students.

“…Although college populations are assumed to be more acculturated than Latinos in the general population, our results and those from other studies (e.g., Mena et al, 1987;Padilla et al, 1986) indicate that many later generation college students experience this form of stress. In our Mexican American sample, acculturative stress scores were moderate but showed sufficient variability to permit associations with anxiety and depression in the bivariate analyses (although the association with anxiety symptoms was lost in the regressions when we controlled for state).…”

“…The Social, Attitudinal, Familial and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (Mena et al, 1987) measures stress in four domains: familial (e.g., "Close family members and I have conflicting expectations about my future"), attitudinal (e.g., "I often think about my cultural background"), social ("I don't feel at home"), and environmental ("It bothers me when people pressure me to assimilate"). The 24 items are rated on a scale ranging from 1 (not stressful) to 5 (very stressful).…”

A Bourdieusian Perspective on Acculturation: Mexican Immigrants in the United States

“…This will cause them to use more interpretation attempts and substantially more capital than natives in attempting to decipher and use such ‗code', which may lead to feelings of lacking a sense of order and continuity in their life experiences [36]. Mexican immigants may frequently reflect about their situation and their identities [37], which may negatively impact their habituses [5,38], particularly, in hostile environments [39][40][41].…”

Impacts of Arizona’s SB 1070 on Mexican American Students’ Stress, School Attachment, and Grades

“…To reflect these nuances, Padilla, Wagatsuma, and Lindholm (1985) develop and validate a measure to assess the degree of acculturative stress in individuals, called the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (SAFE). Validations of the instrument incorporate views of acculturative stress that reflect not only the conflict between dominant and non-dominant cultures, but also individuals' perceptions of the need to conform to dominant societal norms (Mena, Padilla, & Maldonado, 1987). More recently, scholars have argued for the need to evaluate acculturative stressors that are unique to certain contexts.…”