Cultural Psychology: The Effect Of Stress On The Mental Health Of Immigrants

This syndrome relates the relation of stress with the living conditions a homeless immigrants develops while migrating. This model is consider of factor that an immigrants suffers when migrating. Some factor that contribute to immigrant stress are: loneliness, failure, fighting to survive and fear (Navarro-Lashayas, 2014, p. 713).

Mental health is a person’s emotional and physiological well-being; some immigrants come to the country hoping for an easier and happier life, however, this is not always the case. As stated previously in lecture, assimilating to a new language, new food, and different cultural norms can be mentally draining. Experiences like exposure to war, death of loved ones, violence, oppression, and torture will likely make one mentally unstable and further complicates the resettlement process. The process of assimilating into a new cultural is mentally taxing to the soul, you are having to throw away all that you know and create a facade in order to be accepted. In my opinion, refugees and immigrants display poor mental health on arrival due to a combination

According to acculturation theory (Berry et al., 1987), the psychological experience of adapting to a new culture becomes manifested as acculturative stress for children. Acculturation theory identifies how immigrant children’s mental development is hindered as a result of acculturation stress. Acculturation stress that directly results from the acculturative process can appear as mental health problems. Since culture may influence an immigrant child throughout his or her entire life, reducing acculturative stress is important for them to live in the new home country. Understanding the role of acculturation in the lives of immigrants is an essential component to understanding the overall mental health of Asian American immigrant children.

This study examines two important aspects of the mental and physical health of immigrants and this was referred to as the ‘healthy immigrant effect’. The article compares the mental health of immigrants and minorities in Canada to those who are Canadian (native born), or were brought to Canada at a young age. It shows that the mental health of Asians and Blacks was significantly better compared to their native born Canadian counterparts. Latin American men were also found to have better mental health compared to their native born Canadian counterparts. Even though mental health declines the longer they reside in Canada, evidence has suggested that living among your community is a factor that helps immigrants’ mental health. The weakness in

Social/interpersonal stressors are characterized as the challenges associated with having to recreate family and social support, changing gender and family roles, and intergenerational conflicts between children and parents (Arbona et al, 2010).

The thesis of this article is how immigrants and refugees experience stress and mental health issues when permanently migrating to another country and how medical professionals attempt to identify and address the issues. When immigrants and refugees lack social acceptance, alienation, rejection and other adversities they are subjected to mental and psychological issues during the experience of migrating.

Factors such as social support, fluency in English, and no health insurance, and no translators can impact the acculturation process in Mexican Americans (Johnson, Carrol, Fulda, Cardarelli, & Cardarelli, 2010). When individuals migrate from one culture to another, there is every likely the individual’s cultural and ethnic identity will change. The degree of acculturation will be determined by individual, kinship, and societal factors (Bhugra, 2004). “Individuals who have family and peer social supports tend to experience less acculturation stress and those who are experiencing high stress tend to experience fewer symptoms of mental distress” (Crockett, Iturbide, Torres Stone, 2007; McGinley, Raffaelli, & Carlo, 2007; Hovey,

There are multiple barriers that prevent recent immigrants to Canada from accessing mental health services including culture, stigma, and affordability. One of the barriers that prevents immigrants from seeking mental health services is language proficiency (Ohtani, Suzuki, Takeuchi, & Ochida, 2015). Language barriers and their implications on mental health care will be reviewed. Brisset et al. (2013) highlights the importance of dialogue between the health care practitioner and the client receiving care. This inhibits the practitioner’s ability to form a diagnosis, and to collaboratively decide on a course of treatment. Recent immigrants and refugees have a higher likelihood to suffer from psychiatric disorders (Brisset et al, 2013).

Furthermore, there is also a difference on how adolescents and their parents adjust to the process of immigration and their mental health. According to Scuglik and Alarcon (2005), adolescent immigrants are most likely to suffer more mental health problems than adult immigrants. For example, adolescent Somali immigrants experience more psychological distress compared to their parents. The reason on why adolescent Somali suffer more mental health problems than their parents is because their process of adapting to a new culture and environment is sometimes more intense. Thus, it is harder for them to get used to a new lifestyle, adolescents are at an age where everything seems to be more difficult and challenging. In addition, children are most likely to struggle with their fluency in English more than their parents because

The effects on these young immigrants can be serious psychologically speaking. These detriments and inconveniences in the route of the day by day life might be unpleasant and in the long run lead to negative feelings, for example, dissatisfaction, bitterness, nervousness, and a feeling of unreliability, which thus, will specifically help levels of mental trouble. New foreigners who have lived in the nation for a brief length and who have limited English

New immigrants expect and usually face numerous challenges prior to and after arriving at their new home country. A recent comprehensive review of the health of immigrant youth in Canada revealed that immigrant youth experiences stress as they leave familiar settings behind and struggle to acculturate to their new country of residence (Salehi, 2010). Research has shown that immigrant youth have higher rates of mental health issues related to negative migration expeirences. In addition, immgirants are at an increased risk for secondary school dropout as they face greater obstacles compared to native youh in academic success (Anisef, Brown, Phythian, Sweet, & Walters, 2010). Thus, there is a need to aid immigrant youth in its transition and assimilation process to reduce the likelihood of negative

Our book describes stress as “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and tax one’s coping ability” (Weiten, 2014). Stress is not necessarily a traumatic, life destroying event. It can be as simple a small change in one’s daily schedule. People will have multiple stresses throughout their lifetime. Some will be little and daily, but overtime these add up and can affect you in many ways. Stress can be positive or negative and can take many forms; a few being frustration, internal conflict, change, and pressure. All of which make almost a daily appearance in my life (Weiten, 2014).

Stress is induced by life events .Lazarus and Flokman in (Cavanaugh and Blanchard –Field (2005) point out stress is defined by the person and that no two people experiences stress the same event in exactly the same way. Each individual has a specific tolerance for stress depending on general level of adjustment, the internal and external resources available to that person, flexibility of learned coping mechanisms and the degree and type of stress being experienced .The rise in stress that results from emotional

Stress, America’s silent killers. Stress affects people of all ages, ethnicities and genders. Due to its complex nature the concept of stress is constantly being studied. Extensive research has discovered that stress can cause both psychological, and physiological issues. I’m writing on the concept of stress because it is something I have been able to identify with as a transitioning college student. It is also something I know many people can identify with but don’t necessarily know how to deal with.

Furthermore, the perception and understanding of mental health by ethnic minority immigrants are also focal points in Canadian research. To illustrate, a study by Simich et al. (2009, p. 253) explores the coping mechanisms of recent ethnic minority immigrants as they learn to adjust into the host society’s culture; a process called ‘cultural negotiation.’ Further research conducted by Donnelly et al. (2011, p. 279) analyzed the personal understandings of mental health through the perspectives of ten Canadian immigrant and refugee women from China and