Doctoral Dissertation Research: Acculturation and Mental Health among Immigrant Communities

文化适应是指接触到一个新的社会而产生的文化变化的过程和后果。最近的研究表明，在美国的移民积极构建，谈判，并实现自己的成功框架成为美国人在他们的种族社区。在这种情况下，个人的美国化是由移民自己的社会经济背景和轨迹与他们的种族社区的影响。本研究旨在探讨移民如何在族群层面上定义文化适应，以及在何种情境下，他们的努力与成功相一致会影响他们的心理健康。除了培养一名文化人类学博士生外，这项研究还揭示了移民结果的多方面经验与健康差距之间的关系，其结果将广泛传播给学术和非学术受众。本博士论文项目结合参与观察、半结构式访谈和问卷调查，探讨：1）移民在其族群社区中对“成为美国人”的共同成功框架的认知和实现方式是否存在不同模式; 2）不同的模式是否解释了移民心理健康的差异，而这些差异不能单独用线性文化适应量表来解释。该项目通过将注意力转向个人的生活经历以及文化和社会结构之间的连锁关系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价值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.