The Impact of Acculturative Stress on Mental Health
- Dr. Muneet K. Malhi
- Apr 25
- 4 min read
Ever thought about how your immigrant experience influences your identity, sense of belonging, and mental health? Within your own family, depending on whether you are a 1st gen, 1.5 gen, or 2nd gen immigrant, your family members and you have likely had vastly different experiences learning what it means to be an American.
Generation Definitions:
1st Generation Immigrant = Someone who migrated from one country to another in adulthood. A first generation American immigrant experiences and develops their ethnic identity in their home country prior to immigration to the United States, and engages in a process of acculturation to learn and adapt to mainstream American culture.
1.5 Generation Immigrant = Someone who migrated from one country to another as a young child. American immigrants in this group have had enough cultural experiences in their home country to anchor them in their ethnic identity while acculturating to mainstream American culture.
2nd Generation Immigrant = Someone who was born to and raised by first generation immigrants in their host country. Rather than acculturating to mainstream American culture, these immigrants go through a process called "enculturation" in which they are simultaneously learning about their home and host cultures.
Many researchers have explored the process of acculturation and the impact it has on a first generation immigrant's mental health. Acculturative stress tends to emerge as an immigrant tries to balance perceived discrepancies between their home culture and their host (i.e. American) culture. This specific stress can be caused by experiences such as adjustments to a new language, learning new social norms, intergenerational conflicts, experiences of discrimination, and mourning the loss of a homeland and family.
Acculturative stress can contribute to poor mental health outcomes, including lower self-esteem, increased anxiety, depression, substance use, and suicidal ideation (Dow, 2011). For example, The South Asian Public Health Association reports 1 in 5 US based South Asians report experiencing a mood or anxiety disorder in their lifetime and this data is largely based on foreign born Indians. One study in the UK showed middle-aged Pakistani men and older Pakistani and Indian women reported significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to their white counterparts even after adjusting for differences in socioeconomic status (Weich, 2004).
By contrast, there is not a lot of research on the process that second-generation immigrants experience as they learn two, often opposing, cultures at the same time. Rather than engaging in acculturation, second-generation immigrants enculturate to the mainstream host culture and their ethnic home culture throughout childhood and adolescence. These individuals learn about their ethnic culture through their parents and communities while simultaneously socializing into Western society through their peers, educational institutions, and media.
What we do know, is that children of first generation immigrants are often able to enculturate faster than their parents are able to acculturate, causing a gap in the family’s functioning and often leading to familial conflict. This knowledge gap is referred to as the acculturation gap. The acculturation gap is often stressful for parents and children because it leads to miscommunications and misunderstandings between both parties. The gap increases as second-generation children begin to use English at home, lose their native language, and begin to adopt American behaviors and norms.
The emotional strain that comes with an acculturation gap can be considerable for both parents and children. Parents may feel disappointed or frustrated when their children reject cultural practices or fail to meet expectations that align with their traditions. On the other hand, children may feel misunderstood or caught between competing cultural pressures, leading to a sense of isolation or identity confusion. For children, the desire to fit into the mainstream culture can be intense, and the guilt of distancing themselves from their parents' heritage can weigh heavy. For parents, seeing their children adopt practices or values contrary to their own upbringing can evoke feelings of loss, concern, or fear about the erosion of cultural identity.
South Asian Canadian women identified this cultural conflict as a primary source of stress, which correlated with depression and their ability to cope with common stressors (Karasz et al., 2019). Through research, we now know that mothers' and daughters' levels of anxiety are higher than that of their male counterparts, and associated with the endorsement of non-traditional values such as female autonomy (Masood et al., 2009).
In order to work through generational differences, it is important to have open communication. Often, we do not share our experiences with our parents because we fear they will not understand. While that may be true, we rob them and ourselves of an opportunity to have a healing conversation when we choose not to even try to speak with them.
Open communication includes opportunities to discuss and teach one another about our culture and values. If there is something you learned in school or from co-workers about American culture, share that with your parents, along with why it interests you. At the same time, make an effort to learn more about your parents' childhood experiences. What games did they play? What foods did they most enjoy? How did they celebrate cultural holidays before moving to the US? With this knowledge, we can learn what values are common to us and creatively think of ways to blend traditions. Rather than seeing our cultures as opposing forces, we can find ways to blend traditional customs with new cultural practices. This could mean celebrating Diwali or Eid alongside Western holidays, and integrating practices like family meals or community gatherings into more modern lifestyles.
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