The Asian Cultural Identity Schedule: an investigation of culture and deliberate self‐harm

Abstract

Acculturation as a process, during which cultural identity is challenged, plays an important role in the psychological wellbeing of minority ethnic groups. This paper introduces the Asian Cultural Identity Schedule, and demonstrates its use in an investigation of acculturation and deliberate self‐harm. The Asian Cultural Identity Schedule (ACIS) consists of 106 questions, from which 12 scores represent acculturation on specific domains. The schedule was used as an interview in two research studies of deliberate self‐harm among Asian adolescents and Asian women. Asian adolescents (N = 22), their parents (N = 22) and a sample of Asian women (N = 54) were interviewed. A half of the subjects in each of these three groups were cases; the rest were controls. The acculturation items are compared among each of three groups of cases and controls, and then between subgroups. The results showed that adolescents were less traditional than their parents on the following items: language, leisure, decision making, food shopping and living with a white person. In the absence of any discordance among control group adolescents and their parents, there are less traditional attitudes to work and marriage held by adolescents who attempted deliberate self‐harm in comparison to their parents. Adolescents who attempt deliberate self‐harm show as untraditional aspirations as their parents, and as control group adolescents. The parents of control group adolescents are more traditional, reflecting a protective effective of traditionalism. Women who attempted deliberate self‐harm show less traditional attitudes to social contact and aspirations than control women. In comparison with control parents, women who attempt self‐harm have less traditional attitudes to food shopping, work and living with a white person, whilst showing more traditional attitudes to religion. It may be concluded that acculturation on specific domains is associated with deliberate self‐harm. Copyright © 1999 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

The Mental Health Status of South Asian Women in Britain

“…In a London-based treatment study, Bhugra and his colleagues (Bhugra et al, 1999b;Bhugra et al, 1999c;Bhugra et al, 1999d) aimed to establish inception rates of attempted suicide for men and women and associated social and cultural factors across four ethnic groups: South Asian, African/African-Caribbean, White and "Other" (mixed) . The sample was drawn from general medicine, accident emergency and psychiatric wards of local hospitals and matched by age with a community group attending a GP surgery.…”

Religion, ethnicity, coping style, and self-reported self-harm in a diverse non-clinical UK population

“…Other explanations offered for cultural differences in self-harming behaviour have included the process of acculturation for migrants (Bhugra, Bhui, Desai, Singh, & Baldwin, 2000) and problematic family relationships among British Asians (Chew-Graham et al, 2002;Cooper et al, 2006). As these studies relate primarily to suicide attempts by migrants to the UK, they may be less salient for people born and educated in the UK.…”

Family environment, expressed emotion and adolescent self-harm: A review of conceptual, empirical, cross-cultural and clinical perspectives

“…Although the prevalence is relatively low in early childhood, self-harm is particularly common among adolescents, with an average age of onset of 12 years (Fox & Hawton, 2004). In the UK, between 20,000 and 30,000 adolescents present to hospital annually because of self-infl icted overdoses or injuries, with some evidence for increasing rates in recent years, especially in young women (Bhugra et al, 1999;Hawton et al, 2003;O ' Loughlin & Sherwood, 2005). There are also many adolescents who do not present to clinical services after a self-harm attempt.…”