Cross-border ties and Arab American mental health

Abstract

Due to increasing discrimination and marginalization, Arab Americans are at a greater risk for mental health disorders. Social networks that include ties to the country of origin could help promote mental well-being in the face of discrimination. The role of countries of origin in immigrant mental health receives little attention compared to adjustment in destination contexts. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the relationship between nativity, cross-border ties, and psychological distress and happiness for Arab Americans living in the greater Detroit Metropolitan Area (N=896). I expect that first generation Arab Americans will have more psychological distress compared to one and half, second, and third generations, and Arab Americans with more cross-border ties will have less psychological distress and more happiness. Data come from the 2003 Detroit Arab American Study, which includes measures of nativity, cross-border ties – attitudes, social ties, media consumption, and community organizations, and the Kessler-10 scale of psychological distress and self-reported happiness. Ordered logistic regression analyses suggest that psychological distress and happiness do not vary much by nativity alone. However, cross-border ties have both adverse and protective effects on psychological distress and happiness. For all generations of Arab Americans, cross-border attitudes and social ties are associated with greater odds of psychological distress and for first generation Arab Americans, media consumption is associated with greater odds of unhappiness. In contrast, for all generations, involvement in cross-border community organizations is associated with less psychological distress and for the third generation, positive cross-border attitudes are associated with higher odds of happiness. These findings show the complex relationship between cross-border ties and psychological distress and happiness for different generations of Arab Americans.

The Health of Arab Americans in the United States: An Updated Comprehensive Literature Review

“…Publications discussing the health behaviors (especially physical activity, alcohol and drug use, and vaccination) of Arab Americans have increased in frequency since the publication of the literature review in 2009 alongside studies focusing on sexual health and female genital mutilation. Since the publication of the last review, a more substantial number of studies have examined the mental health needs of the Arab American population ( 44 , 46 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 56 , 195 – 202 ). Recent studies have improved upon the past literature by providing estimates of depression and depression symptoms among larger groups of Arab Americans alongside the examination of the risk factors (and resiliency factors) associated with this improved mental health but very few studies report on interventions to reduce mental health outcomes.…”

Immigration and Mental Health

“…Transnational social ties and positive attitudes towards connections with the Arab world were associated with greater odds of psychological distress for first through third generation Arab Americans, while involvement in cross-border community organizations was associated with less distress. [64] While further empirical research on transnational ties is needed, these results suggest a complex relationship between connections to the country of origin and psychiatric illness.…”

Reconsidering the Relationship between Age at Migration and Health Behaviors among US Immigrants: The Modifying Role of Continued Cross-border Ties

“…Within the transnationalism framework, cross-border ties are defined as the social connections maintained with close kin in countries-of-origin that, not only include physical contact (such as visits), but may also include financial and cultural aspects of transnationalism. 1 Scholars have found evidence that cross-border contact with family and friends living in countries of origin is significantly associated with mental health and overall wellbeing among immigrant populations in the US (Alcántara, Molina, et al, 2015; Samari, 2016; Torres, Alcántara, et al, 2016). While we are not aware of any empirical work examining the relationship between cross-border ties and alcohol use, some work has found a relationship between cross-border ties and other health outcomes including self-rated health (Afulani, Torres, Sudhinaraset, & Asunka, 2016; Torres, 2013), and health behaviors such as smoking (Alcántara, Molina, et al, 2015) as well as self-reported body mass index (Gorman & Novoa, 2016).…”

“…A transnational framework highlights immigrants'cross-border ties, or contact with family and friends in their country of origin through long-distance communication, remittance-sending, political participation and return visits (Faist, Bilecen, Barglowski, & Sienkiewicz, 2015; Falicov, 2007; Waldinger, 2015). Scholars have begun to develop theory outlining hypothetical cultural and psychological pathways by which these transnational connections may impact health and health behaviors, as well as test the associations between ongoing cross-border connection and these outcomes (Alcántara, Chen, & Alegría, 2015; Alcántara, Molina, & Kawachi, 2015; Gorman & Novoa, 2016; Samari, 2016; Torres, Alcántara, Rudolph, & Viruell-Fuentes, 2016; Torres, Lee, González, Garcia, & Haan, 2016).…”