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

Date
2012-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of California Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems
Abstract

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) (Pennelletal.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ラ measures frequently used to proxy acculturationラwith self-rated health. Our findings illustrate the complexity of measuring acculturation and its influence on health for immigrants.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Kimbro, Rachel Tolbert, Gorman, Bridget K. and Schachter, Ariela. "Acculturation and Self-Rated Health among Latino and Asian Immigrants to the United States." Social Problems, 59, no. 3 (2012) University of California Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems: 341-363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2012.59.3.341.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Link to license
Citable link to this page