A systematic differentiation of culture- in contrast to migration-related influence factors in diagnostic and therapeutic processes is introduced. "Culture-related" refers to characteristics caused by values, behavior norms and religious attitudes of the ethnic community a person belongs to. ~"Migration-specific" refers to consequences of moving one's residence from one country to another (e.g., absence of familiy, trouble with authorities concerning the legal status or ambivalence with respect to returning to the home country). Based on a theoretic background of these determinants, categories for a content analysis were defined and applied to the treatment records of n = 55 first generation immigrants treated in a psychiatric day clinic of an university hospital. The results suggest that migration biography should not only be considered as affecting vulnerability in the genesis of a mental illness, but rather be classified as a factor of at least as much relevance for therapeutic situations as the usually named cultural diversity: summarizing the results of the qualitative content analysis of the entire treatment courses more cases were influenced by migration specific aspects rather than culture specific aspects. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Therapy Migration immigrants culture qualitative methods

Cultural Diversity Germany ambivalence university hospital Family Therapy Social Identification human Life Change Events ethnic group priority journal religion Mental Disorders day care psychotherapy mental disease Humans Hospitals, University attitude Emigrants and Immigrants Acculturation Risk Factors qualitative analysis cultural factor Narration Psychometrics Article major clinical study migration mental hospital Cultural Characteristics personality assessment