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Acculturation and depressive symptoms in Muslim university students: Personal–family acculturation match
Author(s) -
Asvat Yasmin,
Malcarne Vanessa L.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207590601126668
Subject(s) - acculturation , psychology , mainstream , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , depressive symptoms , identification (biology) , personal identity , psychiatry , immigration , social psychology , self concept , anxiety , philosophy , botany , theology , macroeconomics , archaeology , biology , economics , history
The relationships of personal acculturation and of personal–family acculturation match to depressive symptoms were investigated in a sample of 68 Muslim university students. Two dimensions of personal and family acculturation were assessed: heritage and mainstream culture identification. Participants completed the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Ryder, Alden, & Paulhus, 2000) and the depressive disorder subscale of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (Zimmerman & Mattia, 1999). For personal acculturation, individuals with high personal heritage culture identification reported fewer lifetime (but not past‐year) depressive symptoms. In contrast, individuals with high personal mainstream culture identification reported more past‐year (but not lifetime) depressive symptoms. The hypothesis that a match between personal and family acculturation orientation would be associated with fewer depressive symptoms was supported for heritage culture identification only. For past‐year depression, the two match conditions (low or high personal and family heritage culture identification) were associated with significantly fewer depressive symptoms than a low personal/high family mismatch but did not differ from a high personal/low family mismatch. For lifetime depression, a high personal/high family match was associated with significantly fewer depressive symptoms than all other conditions. Findings suggests that, for Muslims, a match of high personal and high family heritage culture identification may act as a protective factor for the experience of depressive symptoms both in the short term (past year) and in the long term (lifetime).