Persons of Arab (North African/ Middle Eastern) descent have faced unique psychosocial stressors due to the socio-political backlash following the World Trade Center attacks. These are compounded by traditional acculturation challenges, leading to increased psychological distress. This study satisfies an urgent need to better understand the acculturation and mental health experiences of Arab Americans by comprehensively and rigorously investigating hypotheses introduced in the previous literature.
Participants were 611 Arab Americans from 35 U.S. states who completed a secure Internet form. Variables assessed were: acculturation (Vancouver Index of Acculturation- Modified Arab Version), acculturative stress (SAFE Acculturation Stress Scale- Revised; included issues of discrimination and American foreign policy), family functioning (Family Assessment Device- General Functioning Subscale), social support (Personal Resource Questionnaire85- Revised), religious coping (Brief Arab Religious Coping Scale), anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies- Depression Scale), and a socio-demographics survey.
Seven research foci were examined. First, 13 socio-demographic indexes hypothesized to relate to acculturation (including SES, generation status, length of residence in the U.S., English vs. Arabic language use, and Arabic TV viewing) were found to relate to American identity in the expected directions, while most indexes did not relate to Arab identity. Second, participants reported significantly higher anxiety and depression compared to normative samples and studies with other ethnic minority groups. Third, as hypothesized, integrated and assimilated individuals reported less stress, anxiety, and depression compared to those who were separated or marginalized.
Fourth, as hypothesized, acculturation stress correlated with anxiety and depression, and both family functioning and social support related to less stress and less psychological distress. However, religious coping did not correlate with mental health. Fifth, contrary to the hypotheses, females did not demonstrate greater stress or psychological distress compared to males. Consistent with hypotheses, Christians demonstrated significantly less acculturative stress, anxiety, and depression compared to Muslims. Finally, structural equation modeling was used to develop a tenable model that explained the complex interactions among SES, acculturation, stress, mental health, and coping resources. Specific and practical recommendations are provided for clinical intervention, community programming and policy planning, and future research.