The Impact of Acculturative Stress and COVID-19 on Racially Minoritized Immigrants’ Psychological Functioning

Overview: We conducted an online survey of racial-ethnic minority immigrants (Nf202) to understand the relationships between demographic and social factors, COVID impact, acculturative stress, and psychological distress. Findings from multivariate regression showed that higher acculturative stress, higher COVID impact, lower social support, and younger age were associated with increased psychological distress.Proposal text: Background/Rationale

Transnational relocation disrupts access to supports in the country of origin and exposes immigrants to new stressors in the host country. Increasing immigration and diversity in the U.S has fostered greater attention on the acculturation and psychosocial outcomes of racial-ethnic minority immigrants. Racially minoritized people remain at a higher risk for disparate behavioral health outcomes; thus, attention to the specific promotive and inhibitive factors influencing psychological functioning is warranted. Although some studies have observed a mental health advantage for recent immigrants, it is not universal for immigrants from all regions and the advantage decreases over time. Furthermore, the COVID pandemic created additional stressors that worsened psychological distress. Using Berry’s conceptualization of acculturative stress as well as Hovey and King’s acculturative stress framework, this study examines the associations between pre-and post-migration stressors and psychological distress during the pandemic in a sample of racial-ethnic minority immigrants. 

Methods/Methodology 

Using a cross-sectional design with purposive sampling, an online surveying platform was used to collect the responses of 202 racial-ethnic minority immigrants on demographic characteristics, experiences of acculturative stress, psychological distress, social support, and COVID disruptions. Respondents, aged 18-39 years, identified as Black (14%), Asian (59%), or Hispanic (27%) immigrants. Ordinary least squares regression was used to examine associations between psychological distress and different dimensions of acculturative stress while controlling for social support, COVID impact, and demographic characteristics. 

Results

On average, respondents reported moderate psychological distress, moderate acculturative stress, moderate social support, and moderate COVID impact. Pre-migration and post-migration acculturative stress factors predicted higher psychological distress; however, only the subscale of socioeconomic stressors in the host country remained statistically significant after the COVID impact was added to the models. Social support was associated with lower psychological distress, but social support did not moderate the association between acculturative stress and psychological distress. COVID impact predicted higher psychological distress. Older age was associated with lower psychological distress, but no other demographic characteristics predicted psychological distress. The final analytic model explained 46% of the variance in psychological distress. 

Conclusions

Congruent with prior research findings, acculturative stress was associated with higher psychological distress; however, the experiences related to COVID impact nullified the association of pre-migration acculturative stressors and post-migration adaptation to the recipient society. Acculturative stress related to socioeconomic concerns, like meeting basic needs or finding a stable job in the host country, was a robust risk factor. These financial stressors may have been further exacerbated by COVID-related disruptions. Social support was a salient protective factor, but the lack of buffering effect may in part be explained by an increased risk of illness and pandemic-related disruption reported by racial-ethnic minority immigrants compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Although the pandemic is associated with increased psychological distress throughout the general population, future efforts in social work research and practice need to attend to the cumulative impact of acculturative stress and pandemic disruptions inhibiting the psychological well-being of racial-ethnic minority immigrants.