The effect of acculturation and discrimination on mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among adolescent migrants in Israel.

Abstract

This study examines the role of acculturation, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem in predicting the mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among 1.5 and second generation non-Jewish adolescents born to migrant families compared with native-born Jewish Israeli adolescents in Israel. Participants included n = 65 1.5 migrant adolescents, n = 60 second generation migrant adolescents, and n = 146 age, gender, and socioeconomic matched sample of native-born Jewish Israelis. Participants completed measures of acculturation pattern, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem as well as measures of mental health symptoms and risk behaviors. Results show that migrant adolescents across generations reported worse mental health symptoms compared with native-born Jewish Israelis. However, only the 1.5 generation migrants reported higher engagement in risk behaviors compared with second generation migrants and native-born Jewish Israelis. Our findings further showed that acculturation plays an important role in predicting the mental health status of migrant youth, with those characterized with integrated acculturative pattern reporting lower mental health symptoms compared with assimilated acculturation pattern. Importantly, contextual factors, such as higher perception of discrimination in the receiving culture as well as individual factors such as lower self-esteem and female gender were strongly associated with worse mental health symptoms. The findings manifest the complex relationship between contextual factors and individual level variables in the acculturative process of migrants as well as the importance of examining the effect of migration generation on mental health outcomes.

Migration and mental health: An interface

“…[5] The migrant adolescents have reported worse mental health symptoms and highly engaged in risk behaviors compared with the native Israel counterparts, it was even significantly higher when compared with the second generation migrant adolescents. [6]…”

The Impact of Acculturation Style and Acculturative Hassles on the Mental Health of Somali Adolescent Refugees

“…Similarly, a study comparing immigrant adolescents with native-born Israeli adolescents found that in general, immigrant youth exhibited lower wellbeing than native-born adolescents. More specifically however, assimilated immigrant youth reported higher mental health issues than adolescent immigrants who were integrated [24]. …”

Perceived ethnic discrimination, acculturation, and psychological distress in women of Turkish origin in Germany

“…Additionally, an orientation towards both ethnic and majority identity has been shown to be associated with less perceived discrimination [25,26], and a less distressing adaptation process of immigrants [27]. The health effects of assimilation and separation are less clear, with both having been associated with increased [28,29] as well as decreased mental health [30,31].…”