Ethnic Identity as a Mediator of the Relationship between Discrimination and Psychological Well-Being in South—South Migrant Populations

Abstract

There is abundant evidence about the negative impact of discrimination on well-being, but less research on factors that can reduce this negative effect, mainly focused on North American samples and with incipient development on South–South migration. The objective of this research was to analyze the effect of ethnic identity on the relationship between the experience of racial and ethnic discrimination and psychological well-being in Colombian immigrants living in Chile. A total of 962 immigrants over the age of 18 from three cities in Chile participated. Of these, 50.7% were women. The average age was 35 years (SD = 10.23). Participants were evaluated using Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales, Phinney’s adapted version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Scale, and Krieger’s Discrimination Experience Scale. After the analysis of the measurement models, a mediation model was analyzed using structural equations. The results provide evidence that ethnic and racial discrimination have negative effects on psychological well-being, with the effect of racial discrimination being greater. Likewise, ethnic identity has positive effects on psychological well-being and partially and completely mediates the effects of ethnic and racial discrimination on psychological well-being. The full effect of discrimination on psychological well-being, mediated by ethnic identity, is exercised only by racial discrimination and not by ethnic discrimination.

Discrimination and Health: The Mediating Effect of Acculturative Stress

“…In the present research, the scale for ethnic discrimination had an Alpha of 0.91, while the scale for racial discrimination had an Alpha of 0.93. We have assessed ethnic discrimination separately from racial discrimination, as there is evidence from previous studies that the two types of discrimination function differently [ 31 ].…”

“…In migrant populations, two of the most studied types of discrimination are those based on ethnicity and race, which have been associated with poorer physical and mental health [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], low self-esteem [ 25 , 26 ], and reduced well-being [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Ethnic Identity and Collective Self-Esteem Mediate the Effect of Anxiety and Depression on Quality of Life in a Migrant Population

“…In this context, the aim of the present research is to evaluate the mediating effect that both ethnic identity and collective self-esteem may have on the inverse relationship between the presence of symptoms associated with mental health problems and QoL. We believe that there could be a mediating effect of ethnic identity and collective self-esteem since it has been found that these variables have been able to absorb the negative effect that various variables may have on indicators of well-being in other studies in a similar population [ 23 , 26 , 28 ], possibly exercising a protective role through the strengthening of individual self-esteem, which could be extrapolated to the case of quality of life.…”

“…This research focuses on south-south migration, i.e., people moving from one South American country to another, and in this particular case, Colombians to Chile. Our research group has provided evidence of the influence of negative factors such as discrimination on both their QoL and mental health, as well as reporting the protective effect that ethnic identity and collective self-esteem seem to have on the negative effects that discrimination has on well-being, QoL, or mental health [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. In this context, the aim of the present research is to evaluate the mediating effect that both ethnic identity and collective self-esteem may have on the inverse relationship between the presence of symptoms associated with mental health problems and QoL.…”

Indicators of Identity and Psychological Well-Being in Immigrant Population

“…Ethnic identity has been operationalized as a construct that contains two essential dimensions: exploration, which refers to efforts to learn more about one's own ethnic group about its cultural practices by participating in them, and, on the other hand, commitment, which refers to the degree of involvement and sense of belonging that the individual maintains with his or her ethnic group, which is characterized by a high degree of personal investment in the group. Several works have presented ethnic identity as a variable that positively affects the psychological well-being of migrants (Phinney et al, 2001;Smith and Silva, 2011;Balidemaj and Small, 2019), being a protective factor against the negative effects of perceived discrimination (Brittian et al, 2015;Cobb et al, 2019;Urzúa et al, 2021) or acculturation stress (Hun et al, 2021a,b).…”