Bicultural Identity and its Impact on Daily Cultural Stress and Symptoms of Depression among Hispanic Youth

• In Event: Youth Development in a Multicultural World: Antecedents and Consequents of Biculturalism

Abstract

Emerging adulthood among Hispanics may be a period of heightened risk for depression (Alegría et al., 2007). Increasingly, researchers have suggested cultural stressors, such as negative context of reception (i.e., the degree to which youth feel welcomed; Schwartz et al., 2014), heritage acculturative stress (i.e., pressure to maintain the heritage culture) and U.S. acculturative stress (i.e., pressures to adopt the receiving society’s culture; Romero & Campen, 2011) as explanations for these disparities. However, a central tenet of cultural stress theory (Salas-Wright & Schwartz, 2019) is that the harmful effects of cultural stressors may be offset by cultural assets including ethnic identity, U.S. identity, and a biculturally integrated identity (BII). However, the majority of research focusing on these cultural variables has been cross-sectional or long-term longitudinal. Because cultural stressors, acculturation, and biculturalism are dynamic processes that emerge in day-to-day interactions, it is important to conduct diary studies over several days (Schwartz et al., 2020).
In the current study, we sought to explore whether ethnic identity, U.S. identity, BII harmony, and BII blendedness account for daily depression and cultural stress. We also examined individual differences in the relation between cultural stressors and depressive symptoms using a 12-day diary study conducted with 873 Hispanic college students (75.9% female, Mage=21.13 years, SD=7.91). Using multilevel modeling, we explored the daily-level association between depressive symptoms, negative context of reception, and both heritage and U.S. acculturative stress. Results indicated that on average, college students reported feeling greater depressive symptoms than their average scores on days when they experienced greater negative context of reception (β=.249, p<.001), endorsed greater heritage (β=.080, p<.001), and U.S. (β=.043, p<.001) acculturative stress. Utilizing MLM, we also explored the extent to which ethnic and U.S. identity and BII at Day 1 impacted average levels of daily depressive symptoms, negative context of reception, and heritage and U.S. acculturative stress and if these processes moderated the daily-level associations between cultural stressors and depressive symptoms.
As displayed in Table 1, Day 1 ethnic identity negatively predicted average daily depressive symptoms, negative context of reception, and heritage acculturative stress, controlling for gender, age, and nativity. U.S. identity belonging was negatively associated with average daily depressive symptoms but positively associated with greater U.S. acculturative stress. BII Harmony was negatively associated with average daily depressive symptoms, negative context of reception, and heritage and U.S. acculturative stress. Finally, BII Blendedness was associated with lower average daily negative context of reception but also, surprisingly, positively associated with higher heritage acculturative stress. Finally, ethnic identity negatively predicted the strength of the average daily association between daily U.S. acculturative stress and depressive symptoms.
As a whole, these findings highlight the critical and detrimental role of cultural stress vis-à-vis mental health among Hispanic emerging adults (Salas-Wright & Schwartz, 2019). However, although cultural identity was negatively associated with both daily depressive symptoms and cultural stress, in contrast to cultural stress theory, we found no evidence that cultural identity mitigated the negative effect of cultural stress at the daily level. Implications for future research are discussed.

Authors

• Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio
  Presenting Author

• Julie Rodil, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brittani Wyskocil Garcia, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eneyda Nunez-Valencia, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ágnes Szabó, Victoria University of Wellington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Seth Schwartz, University of Miami
  Non-Presenting Author

• Colleen Ward, Victoria University of Wellington
  Non-Presenting Author