This study presents select findings from the quantitative arm of a mixed-method community-based study. The study examines ethnic identity, self-esteem, resilience, and mental health in immigrant and Canadian-born Pakistani youth from a systems perspective. Sixty-one youth aged 18–24 years participated in a survey; among these, 28 completed the survey online and 33 completed the paper-based version. Youth reported on demographics, physical health, mental, and social health, and completed the 4-item Current Self-Esteem Scale (CSE), the 15-item Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM), and the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-12). Descriptives’ analysis was applied to the numeric items and content analysis was applied to open-ended questions. Among the sample, 34% youth were male and 66% females, 69% were Pakistani-born, and 20% were Canadian-born. About 36% of the youth had been in Canada for 5 years or less, and 10% reported 5–10 years of stay. Eighty percent of youth (n = 46) reported good to excellent mental health, and 74% felt stressed on most days. Scores for self-esteem (CSE) [6.5 (2.13 SD)], Ethnic Identity MEIM [3.14 (0.21 SD)], and resilience (CYRM-12) [4.23 (0.23 SD)] were moderate to high. Academic success and religious and family connectedness were found to have a positive effect on youth sense of self. Higher levels of ethnic identity and higher rating on mental health in our sample suggests the healthy immigrant effect. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Immigrant Pakistani youth Canadian-born youth Self-esteem Resilience Mental health Ethnic identity

immigrant mental health human controlled study self esteem Young Adult Adolescent male Canada female juvenile clinical article identity Article adult human experiment content analysis quantitative analysis academic success Child