South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African Immigrant Youth: Acculturation and Well-being

Purpose: Scholars explain that immigrant youth face acculturative stress in thier adaptation. These challenges result in difficulties in personal and social settings which include intergenerational conflicts, school performance, identity development, and mental health. This study examined the association between socio-ecological factors and psychosocial adaptation of South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African youth. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design using a self administered survey with a sample of 223 South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African youth. Univariate, Bivariate, Multivariate analysis were undertaken by examining the relationship between ecological factors, acculturation, and psychosocial adaptation. Participants were administered a questionnaire that included the Perceived Social Support Scale, Religious Faith Questionnaire, Perceived Discrimination Scale, Family Cohesion Measure, Ethnic Language Scale, Immigrant Acculturation Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Results: Canonical Correlation and multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the association between ecological factors, acculturation, and psychosocial adaptation. Canonical variates accounted for 51.2% of the variance in psychosocial adaptation and 19.7% of the variance in ecological factors. The results of the first regression analysis reveal that the overall model explains 22 percent of the variance in depression with four of the five factors (family support, religiosity, perceived discrimination, and ethnic language) associated with depression. The results of the second regression analysis found that the overall model explains 21 percent of the variance in self-esteem with two of the five factors (family support and perceived discrimination) were associated with self-esteem.