Acculturation and severity of depression among first-generation Vietnamese outpatients in Germany

Main Huong Nguyen, Eric Hahn, Katja Wingenfeld, Iris T Graef-Calliess, Anita von Poser, Malte Stopsack, Hannah Burian, Annegret Dreher, Simon Wolf, Michael Dettling, Ronald Burian, Albert Diefenbacher and Thi Minh Tam Ta

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2017, vol. 63, issue 8, 708-716

Abstract: Background: Challenges of migration, particularly concerning the process of acculturation are associated with an increased risk of mental illness. Vietnamese migrants constitute the largest Southeast Asian migrant group in Germany, yet there is no data on the relationship between the mental health status and acculturation among this population. Aims: Therefore, the present study examines the relationship between two well-established dimensions of acculturation, that is, dominant society immersion (DSI) and ethnic society immersion (ESI), the four resulting acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization), and severity of depression. Methods: A sample of N  = 113 first-generation Vietnamese outpatients from a psychiatric outpatient clinic for Vietnamese migrants in Germany was studied regarding their self-reported depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)) and acculturation (Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (SMAS)). Results: Consistent with the hypotheses, patients reported less severe depressive symptoms, when they reported higher orientation toward the German and the Vietnamese society. Moreover, the results showed that integrated patients reported a lower severity of depression compared to marginalized patients, who reported the highest severity of depression. Conclusions: The findings indicate that among a sample of first-generation Vietnamese patients with depression, an orientation to both, the mainstream society and one’s heritage society might serve as a potential resource. The rejection of any orientation to any society is associated with an increased risk for depression.

Keywords: Acculturation; integration; marginalization; migrants; depression; Vietnamese patients; Tiếp biến văn hóa; Hội nhập; Tách ly, NgưỠi nhập cư; Bệnh trầm cảm; Bệnh nhân ngưỠi Việt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764017735140 (text/html)

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:sae:socpsy:v:63:y:2017:i:8:p:708-716

DOI: 10.1177/0020764017735140

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().