International Journal of Intercultural Relations
Volume 35, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 523-533

Moderators of Acculturative Stress in Pakistani Immigrants: The role of Personal and Social Resources (Article)

Jibeen T.*
  • a COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Humanities, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

International migration research has focused on the immigrants' mental and physical health issues with little attention paid to factors that facilitate adjustment. Recently cross-cultural researchers have tended to focus on certain psychological and social moderators of stress that differentiate between migrants perceiving higher stress and those remaining relatively unscathed. The present study examined the moderating impact of coping resources (sense of coherence and perceived social support) and coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) on the relationship between acculturative stress and psychological well-being (positive functioning and negative health outcomes) in stress-coping model. On a final sample of 308 Pakistani immigrants residing in Greater Toronto Area a series of moderated hierarchical regression analyses were performed separately for positive and negative health outcomes. Results indicated that sense of coherence and perceived social support moderated between acculturative stress and positive functioning (self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth), and acculturative stress and negative health outcomes (depression, psychosomatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction).The current findings have implications for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers for the identification of resource factors that help to understand the resistant power of growing immigrant population to maintain positive functioning. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Author Keywords

Social support Negative health outcomes Psychological well-being Acculturative stress moderators Sense of coherence coping strategies

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-80052829699&doi=10.1016%2fj.ijintrel.2011.04.002&partnerID=40&md5=f48d9c218a182913264ed967053b408b

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.04.002
ISSN: 01471767
Cited by: 17
Original Language: English