Acculturation Stress and Suicide, Enculturation as a Protective Factor

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Acculturation Stress and Suicide, Enculturation
as a Protective Factor

• Michael B. Trahan
• Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes
• InPsych Scholar
• The University of Montana

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Acculturation

• Acculturation the cultural change that occurs
  when two or more cultures are in persistent
  contact (Garcia Ahler, 1992 pg. 24 as cited by
  Garrett Pichette, 2000).
• depends on the characteristics of both cultures
  and the hopes and aspirations of the individual
  members (Berry as cited by Nwadiora McAdoo,
  1996).

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Acculturation (cont.)

• Two Variant Stances about acculturation
• Unidimensional- the individual identifies with
  one culture or the other (Pawliuk, 1996).
• Dialectical in nature
• Multidimensional- individuals may identify with
  different aspects of both cultures (Pawliuk,
  1996)
• Does not possess a deficit/abundance dialectic

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Acculturation Stress

• Acculturation stress one kind of stress, that
  in which the stressors are identified as having
  their source in the process of acculturation,
  often resulting in a particular set of stress
  behaviors that include anxiety, depression,
  feelings of marginality and alienation,
  heightened psychosomatic symptoms, and identity
  confusion (Williams Berry, 1991, p. 634).
• Previous studies have examined gender differences
  as a result of acculturative stress (Kim, ONeil,
  Owen, 1996 Rodriguez, Myers, Morris, and
  Cordoza, 2000) levels of acculturation (Garrett
  Pichette, 2000 LaFromboise, Coleman, Gerton,
  1993)

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Acculturation Stress (cont.)

• Acculturation stress in minority cultures has
  been associated with various psychological and
  physiological problems.
• Acculturation and the stress involved has been
  studied on multiple ethnic minorities, with few
  studies pertaining to the American Indian
  population.
• Specific studies have been implemented on Latino
  and African American college and university
  students (Rodriguez et al., 2000 Fuertes
  Westbrook, 1996 Vazquez Vazquez, 1995 Young
  et al., 1994).

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Acculturation Stress and Suicide

• Hovey and King (1996) studied acculturation
  stress, depression, and suicidal ideation with
  Immigrant and second generation Latino
  adolescents
• (n 70, 40 females, 30 males).
• Found a positive correlation with acculturative
  stress, depression, and suicidal ideation with a
  quarter of the adolescents studied. (more
  acculturative stress higher reported levels of
  depression symptoms and suicidal ideation).

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Enculturation

• Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, Washienko, Walter, and
  Dyer (1998) defined enculturation as
• the extent to which individuals identify with
  their ethnic culture, feel a sense of pride in
  their cultural heritage, and participate in
  traditional cultural activities (p. 296).

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Culture as a Protective Factor

• Zimmerman et al. (1998) strengthened support for
  previous research that an individual that
  searches for and participates in practices from
  culture of origin, appears to display a
  protective factor against psychopathology.
• Research has suggests a negative relationship b/w
  enculturation and psychopathology.

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Enculturation and Resilience

• LaFromboise, Hoyt, Oliver, and Whitbeck (2006)
  also examined resiliency in American Indian youth
  in terms of enculturation and other factors.
  They found that enculturation was a protective
  entity for the resiliency among American Indian
  youth who participated in their study, the more
  enculturated the youth were, the greater their
  resilience. For each unit increase in
  enculturation, there was a 1.8 times increase in
  the odds of being resilient (p. 202).

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References

• Fuertes, J.N., Westbrook, F.D. (1996). Using
  the social, attitudinal, familial, and
  environmental (S.A.F.E.) acculturation stress
  scale to assess the adjustment needs of Hispanic
  college students. Measurement and Evaluation in
  Counseling and Development, 29, 67-76.
• Garrett, M.T., Pichette, E.F. (2000). Red as
  an apple Native American acculturation and
  counseling with or without reservation. Journal
  of Counseling and Development, 78(1), 3-13.
• Nwadiora, E., McAdoo, H. (1996).
  Acculturative stress among Amerasian refugees
  gender and racial differences. Adolescence,
  31(122), 477-487.
• Pawliuk, N., Grizenko, N., Chan-Yip, A., Gantous,
  P, Mathew, J., Nguyen, D. (1996).
  Acculturation style and psychological
  functioning in children of immigrants. American
  Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66(1), 111-121.

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References

• LaFromboise, T.D., Hoyt, D.R., Oliver, L.,
  Whitbeck, L.B. (2006). Family, community, and
  school influences on resilience among American
  Indian adolescents in the upper Midwest. Journal
  of Community Psychology, 34(2), 193-209.
• LaFromboise, T.D., Coleman, H.L.K., Gerton, J.
  (1993). Psychological impact of biculturalism
  Evidence and Theory. Psychological Bulletin,
  114(3), 395-412.
• Rodriguez, N., Myers, H.F., Morris, J.K.,
  Cardoza, D. (2000). Latino College Student
  adjustment Does an increased presence offset
  minority-status and acculturative stresses?
  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(7),
  1523-1550.
• Williams, C.L., Berry, J.W. (1991). Primary
  prevention of acculturative stress among
  refugees. American Psychologist, 46(6),
  632-641.
• Zimmerman, M.A., Ramirez-Valles, J., Washienko,
  K.M., Walter, B., Dyer, S. (1998) The
  development of a measure of enculturation for
  Native American youth. American Journal of
  Community Psychology, 24(2), 295-310.

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Enculturation and Cultural Mentoring

• Robbins, Scherman, Holeman, and Wilson (2005),
  they examined and defined possible roles for the
  American Indian Grandparent in an effort to
  preserve cultural affinity and recognition for
  American Indian youth.
• Grandparents defined their roles as storytellers,
  and as teachers to pass along cultural beliefs,
  language, religion, and values to their
  grandchildren.