Acculturative stress and depression among Latino adolescents living in a midwestern metropolitan area with an emerging Latino population

Acculturative stress may explain, in part, why Indiana’s Latino youth face an alarming disparity in depression and suicide rates when compared to whites (65% higher rate of suicide attempts and 24% higher rate of depression than whites).  An academic-community partnership was formed to support this study. 

Objectives:  Describe levels of acculturative stress (AS) in Latino adolescents living in a Midwestern metropolitan area with an emerging Latino population; assess whether AS predicts depression; and assess whether social support, perceived discrimination, and self-mastery mediate this relationship.   

Methods: Recruitment of 86 Latino adolescents (41 males, 45 females), aged 12-19 years, was led by the community partner. Each adolescent completed several well-validated instruments.  Descriptive statistics, bivariate and regression results were generated. 

Results:  58.2% of study participants were experiencing minor (47.7%) or major (10.5%) depression as measured by the PHQ-9.  Using the SAFE scale, participants reported very low/low (58.1%) or moderate (41.9%) levels of AS; none reported high levels.  However, those participants with moderate levels of AS were ten times more likely to have depression (OR = 10.24; 95% CI = 3.20-32.79).  Adolescents lacking high self-mastery were more likely to experience AS (OR= 6.54; 95% CI = 2.39-17.88). 

Conclusions:  The prevalence of depression reported by Latino adolescents in our study was high, and moderate levels of AS were associated with increased likelihood of depression.   The impact of AS may be amplified by the social context of living in a geographic area without a well-established Latino community presence.  Culturally-tailored Interventions to increase self-mastery may be beneficial.