Doctoral Dissertation Research: Acculturation and Mental Health among Immigrant Communities

Acculturation refers to the processes and consequences of cultural change from exposure to a new society. Recent studies show that immigrants in the U.S. actively construct, negotiate, and achieve their own success frame of becoming American within their ethnic communities. In this context, individual Americanization is influenced by immigrants’ own socioeconomic contexts and trajectories in relation to their ethnic communities. This research studies how immigrants define acculturation at an ethnic community-level, and in what context their struggle to be in accordance with the success can affect their mental health. In addition to training a doctoral student in cultural anthropology, this research sheds light on the relationship between the multifaceted experience of immigrants results and health disparities, the results of which will be disseminated broadly to academic and non-academic audiences. This project also broadens the participation of underrepresented groups. This doctoral dissertation project incorporates participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and surveys to examine: 1) whether there are different patterns in the ways immigrants perceive and achieve the shared success frame of “becoming American” in their ethnic community; and 2) whether the different patterns explain variations in mental health among immigrants that cannot be explained by linear acculturation scales alone. The project contributes to the greater understanding of the dynamics and consequences of migration, by shifting attention toward the lived experience of the individual and how the interlocking relationship between culture and social structures results in immigrant health disparities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.