Attachment, acculturative stress, and mental health of Mexican immigrants

ABSTRACT

Mexican immigrants in the United States (US) account for 11.4 million individuals, yet little psychological research has examined the role of adult attachment on their acculturation experience and mental health outcome. This study investigated the relations among adult attachment, acculturative stress, and mental health (i.e., psychological distress, life satisfaction) with a sample of 154 non-US-citizen Mexican immigrants. Results indicated that the direct effects of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance on psychological distress were not significant when considering acculturative stress, but both attachment variables indirectly associated with psychological distress via acculturative stress. Consistent with our hypothesis, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were positively associated with acculturative stress. Higher acculturative stress was positively correlated with psychological distress, but it was not significantly associated with life satisfaction. Further, attachment avoidance was directly associated with life satisfaction, but its indirect effect on life satisfaction via acculturative stress was not significant. Attachment anxiety did not have a significant direct or indirect effect on life satisfaction. Findings highlight the role of acculturative stress in the association of adult attachment and mental health and suggest that psychological interventions targeting at alleviating acculturative stress may be important in reducing psychological distress for non-US-citizen Mexican immigrants with insecure attachment.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult attachment
• acculturative stress
• mental health
• Mexican immigrants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cynthia Ponciano

Cynthia Ponciano received her master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree. Cynthia’s research focuses on acculturation, discrimination, depression symptomology and wellbeing of Mexican immigrants and first-generation college students.

Chiachih D. C. Wang

Chiachih D. C. Wang, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training of the Counseling Psychology Ph.D. Program at the University of North Texas. Dr. Wang’s research areas include cross-cultural variation of adult attachment behavior, acculturation & wellness of immigrant and ethnic minority individuals, racial/ethnic identity development, and training and education of multicultural and international issues.

Ling Jin

Ling Jin, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Research Measurement and Statistics in 2020 from University of North Texas. Her research interests include cross-cultural study, attachment, shame/guilt, trauma/PTSD, and depression among ethnic minority individuals.