Depression in Latina mothers: Examining the roles of acculturation, enculturation, social support, and family resources.

Abstract

Objectives: Previous findings on the relationship between acculturation and depression have been mixed, such that acculturation has been demonstrated as a protective factor, risk factor, and neutral factor for depressive symptomology. The current study sought to clarify this association by examining the roles of acculturation and enculturation (retention of traditional values and practices) on depression while incorporating contextual variables such as social support and resource adequacy. Method: This study utilized archived data from 308 Latina mothers who participated in a randomized clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a home-based child maltreatment prevention model that was culturally adapted for a midwestern Latino/a community. Results: Findings from this study suggest that although enculturation was negatively associated with depression, this impact was no longer significant when multiple factors were examined. Rather, increased family resources and social support were related to fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, social support and family resources both demonstrated mediating roles between the relation of acculturation and depression. Family resources also mediated the relation between enculturation and depression. Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of assessing access to resources and interpersonal connections when working with Latina mothers experiencing depression.

Predictors of latent class trajectories of depressive symptoms in Latina mothers.

“…This significant effect persisted even after accounting for culture-specific and general risk factors that predicted class membership. These findings are consistent with prior work showing that higher social support predicted less parental stress (McConnell et al, 2011) and depressive symptoms (Espeleta et al, 2019) after accounting for financial and other hardships. As Latina mothers navigate both culture-specific and general stressors across contexts, social support from others may be particularly impactful.…”

“…Among a sample of mothers followed from when their children were 18 months old until they were 14.5 years of age, Skipstein et al (2012) found that mothers with low, stable depressive symptoms reported the highest levels of social support, whereas mothers with high, stable depressive symptoms reported the lowest levels of social support. Espeleta et al (2019) also found that, with Latina mothers specifically, social support was related to fewer depressive symptoms even after accounting for the effect of family resource adequacy (i.e., availability of food, money, health care). Social support may be particularly salient for Latina mothers given Latino cultural values emphasizing social relationships and family unity (Marín & Triandis, 1985).…”

“…The present study examined how trajectories of Latina mothers’ depressive symptoms varied by (a) culture-specific risks, including mothers’ stress responses to anti-immigration actions and news and perceived home–school dissonance in values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations and (b) general risk and promotive factors, including mothers’ financial strain and social support. The study’s latent class growth curve modeling approach to identifying classes of longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms expands upon prior work that has examined Latinx adults’ (e.g., Bulut & Gayman, 2020) and Latina mothers’ symptoms at a single time point (e.g., Crane et al, 2020; Espeleta et al, 2019; Hill et al, 2019) or reported sample averages for changes in Latina mothers’ depressive symptom over time (e.g., Carter et al, 2019; Harris & Santos, 2020; Zapata Roblyer et al, 2017). Although these studies find that symptom patterns cluster into three or four classes (Bulut & Gayman, 2020; Crane et al, 2020) and sample-level symptoms change over time (Carter et al, 2019), few studies have examined multiple longitudinal trajectories within a Latinx sample (cf.…”

Analyzing Gender Differences in Factors Affecting Depression among Multicultural Adolescents in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Migrant women, married to someone in a foreign country, experience acculturative stress while adapting to a new society. Many studies have proved that adapting to a foreign culture can cause psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, and identity confusion among married migrant women [ 20 , 21 ]. Moreover, there is a big communication gap between such couples on account of cultural differences and way of living; thus, marital conflicts are common between these couples.…”

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Social Support, Neuroticism, and Web Content Internalization on the Drive for Thinness among Women Visiting Health-Oriented Websites

“…If we disentangle the indirect effect that positively affects the drive for thinness from the direct effect, we find that support negatively affected the drive for thinness. To interpret this finding, we should acknowledge that perceived support helps to increase overall well-being [74][75][76], which decreases the tendency for unhealthy and disordered eating habits [77,78]. Thus, perceived online social support can actually function as both a risk and a protective factor.…”