Migration and acculturation among Samoans: some sources of stress and support

Joel M. Hanna

Social Science & Medicine, 1998, vol. 46, issue 10, 1325-1336

Abstract: Daily excretion of the stress hormone, epinephrine, has been employed to study potential stressors associated with acculturation and migration. Young men and women from Samoan communities in Hawaii (HI), American Samoa (AS) and Western Samoa (WS) which differ in exposure to American culture were included. Psychosocial factors associated with elevations in hormone excretion were assumed to be stressors, while associations with reduced excretions were assumed to be supportive or buffers. Hormone excretion levels were similar in all locations, but there were different associations which could be attributed to migration and acculturation. Among all migrants (HI) ethnic networks were apparent stressors, while a high degree of community involvement was stressful for migrant women. In sites of culture contact (HI, AS) certain adult members of the extended family were supportive, as was a superior knowledge of Samoan cultural concepts. For women in Samoa (WS, AS) community involvement was supportive. In contrast for men in WS and AS, but not in HI, being of mixed ancestry or having close family of mixed ancestry was stressful. It is concluded that hormone analysis can provide meaningful clues concerning social stressors in acculturating or migrant communities. Also that migration or acculturation do not necessarily result in increased levels of stress.

Keywords: migration; acculturation; epinephrine; stress; Samoa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(97)10065-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:46:y:1998:i:10:p:1325-1336

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().