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Acculturation and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Immigrant Women

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Abstract

Depression is one of the most prevalent health problems for immigrants in the United States (U.S.) and it has been associated with the process of acculturation. A cross-sectional study was conducted to identify subgroups of Korean immigrant women based on their Korean as well as American acculturation levels using cluster analysis and to determine whether these subgroups differ on depressive symptoms in 200 Korean immigrant women aged 20–64. Cluster analysis identified four as the most appropriate number of subgroups: they were designated as Korean cluster (45%), Marginalized cluster (26%), American cluster (22%), and Bicultural cluster (7%). Korean cluster had high scores on Korean acculturation and low American acculturation, Marginalized had low for both, American had high scores on American acculturation, low for Korean acculturation, and Bicultural had high scores for both. Women in the Marginalized subgroup reported significantly higher depression scores than women in the American and Korean clusters. It is important to identify immigrants who do not relate to either their heritage culture or the new host culture and address their mental health risk issues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco, 2 Koret Way, N435A, Box 0606, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0606, USA

    JiWon Choi

  2. College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Arlene Miller & JoEllen Wilbur

Authors
  1. JiWon Choi
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  2. Arlene Miller
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  3. JoEllen Wilbur
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to JiWon Choi.

Additional information

This paper is based on the first author's dissertation research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A part of this paper was presented at the Annual Conference of Western Institute of Nursing, Portland, Oregon, April 2007. We thank Prof. Kathryn Lee for comments on earlier draft of this paper.

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Choi, J., Miller, A. & Wilbur, J. Acculturation and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Immigrant Women. J Immigrant Minority Health 11, 13–19 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-007-9080-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-007-9080-8

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