Doctoral Dissertation Research: Acculturation and Mental Health among Immigrant Communities

文化适应指的是从接触到一个新社会开始的文化变化的过程和后果。最近的研究表明，美国的移民积极地在他们的种族社区内构建、谈判并实现自己的成功框架，成为美国人。在这一背景下，个人美国化受到移民自身的社会经济背景和与其种族社区相关的轨迹的影响。本研究研究移民如何在种族社区层面定义文化适应，以及在什么背景下他们努力与成功保持一致会影响他们的心理健康。除了培养文化人类学博士生外，这项研究还揭示了移民的多方面经历结果与健康差距之间的关系，其结果将向学术界和非学术界受众广泛传播。这一项目还扩大了未被充分代表的群体的参与。本博士论文项目结合了参与者观察、半结构访谈和调查，以考察：1)移民在他们的种族社区中感知和实现“成为美国人”的共同成功框架是否存在不同的模式；以及2)不同的模式是否解释了移民的心理健康差异，这些差异不能仅用线性文化适应量表来解释。该项目通过将注意力转移到个人的生活经历以及文化和社会结构之间的相互关联如何导致移民健康差异，有助于更好地了解移民的动态和后果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.