How Does Culture Affect Latino College Students' Mental Health?

PRESENTATION TYPE: Individual Poster

CATEGORY/THEME: Epidemiology and Etiology           

TITLE: How Does Culture Affect Latino College Students’ Mental Health?

ABSTRACT BODY:

Background: The rise in mental health problems among college students is a national concern. In a national survey, over 50% of college students reported symptoms of anxiety, and 31% reported difficulties with daily functioning as a result of depressive symptoms (ACHA-NCHA, 2011). Increased demands and responsibilities, living away from home, and lowered social support contribute to college students’ mental health problems (Cleary et al., 2011). For racial/ethnic minority students, cultural experiences such as acculturative stress (Katsiaficas et al., 2013) and discrimination (Huynh, 2012) can further contribute to mental health problems. In this project, we explore whether cultural factors (i.e., ethnic identity; familismo) buffer the relation between acculturative stress, discrimination, and mental health outcomes in a sample of Latino college students.

Method: 198 Latino young adults (18-25 years of age) were recruited from two local universities. Participants mean age was 20.59 years (SD 1.77), 70% were female, 78% were born in the U.S., and 43% reported being the first person in their family to attend college. Participants completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992); Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (familismo subscale; Knight et al., 2010); Riverside Acculturative Stress Inventory (Miller et al., 2011); Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire – Community Version (Brandolo et al., 2005); Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ; measures depressive symptoms; Kroenke et al., 2001); and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond, & Lovibond, 1995).   

Results: On the PHQ, 70% of participants reported minimal to mild symptoms of depression and 15% reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Bivariate analyses revealed that age was not significantly related to any study variables; however, cultural factors (both risk and protective) were related to mental health outcomes. Specifically, familismo was negatively associated with mental health problems, whereas acculturative stress and discrimination were positively associated with mental health problems. Multiple regressions revealed that familismo moderates the relation between acculturative stress and mental health problems, with higher levels of familismo serving as a protective factor against the effect of acculturative stress on depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. 

Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of helping Latino college students remain connected to their families as a way of promoting mental health. The implications of these findings can inform the development of more culturally competent prevention programs.