Original article
Acculturation and the health and well-being of U.S. immigrant adolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00210-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the association of acculturation, as measured by language spoken at home, with the health, psychosocial, school, and parental risk factors of adolescents of various racial/ethnic groups.

Methods

Using the U.S. component of the 1997–98 World Health Organization Study of Health Behavior in School Children, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted of records for adolescents in four racial/ethnic groups to explore the relationship between the language spoken at home and outcome variables regarding health status and risks, psychosocial and school risk factors, and parental factors. Data were analyzed using Software for the Statistical Analysis of Correlated Data (SUDAAN).

Results

Adolescents of all racial and ethnic groups who primarily speak a language other than English at home are at elevated risk for psychosocial risk factors such as alienation from classmates and being bullied, and parental risk factors such as feeling that their parents are not able or willing to help them. Those who speak a combination of languages are also at risk for being bullied and for high parental expectations. Language spoken at home is generally not associated with health and safety measures for adolescents across racial/ethnic groups.

Conclusions

Adolescents whose primary language at home is not English experience higher psychosocial, school, and parental risks than non-Hispanic white English-speakers. New immigrant youths of all races and ethnic groups would potentially benefit from preventive and risk-reduction services.

Section snippets

Methods

The data used in this study are drawn from the 1997–1998 World Health Organization Study of Health Behavior in School Children (HBSC), a cross-national research study focusing on the health, health behaviors, and lifestyles of young people 25, 26. This is a nationally representative survey sample of youth in grades 6 to 10 in U.S. schools. The subjects included students who answered anonymous standardized questionnaires during the spring of 1998 in 386 schools in the United States. The

Results

The demographic distribution of the study population is displayed in Table 1. In three of the racial/ethnic groups, females represented just over half of the study population, although males were the majority among Asian respondents. In all four groups, the respondents were concentrated in the mid-adolescent age group (aged 12–15 years). Among all of the non-Hispanic groups, more than half of respondents' mothers had more than a high-school education, but this percentage was lower among

Discussion

This analysis demonstrates the complex relationships among immigration, race/ethnicity, and linguistic assimilation. Adolescents of all racial and ethnic groups from a non-English home environment are at higher risk of a range of psychosocial and parental risk factors than the majority population of non-Hispanic white English-speakers. Adolescents who speak other languages at home, exclusively, or in combination with English, are particularly likely to report feelings of vulnerability,

Acknowledgements

The opinions expressed in this paper are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the institutions with which the authors are affiliated.

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