Studying Mental Health in the Mexican American Community

Studying Mental Health in the Mexican American Community

Multiple factors impact health, for everyone generally and for Mexican Americans specifically. A study conducted by Dr. Jessica Perrotte (assistant professor, Psychology Department, Texas State University) and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin (including Drs. Michael R Baumann, Raymond Garza, and Willie Hale) investigated the relationships of enculturation and symptoms of depression with health risk behavior in Mexican-American college students.

The study–“The combined relations of gender, enculturation, and depressive symptoms with health risk behaviors in Mexican-Americans” published in Ethnicity and Health–is among the first to consider how enculturation impacts health behaviors along with symptoms of depression and gender. Previous research found “consistent gender differences in health risk behavior (e.g. alcohol use, substance use, and risky sexual behavior) among Latina/os and emphasized the role of U.S. acculturation in this difference,” the team wrote. But questions still lingered about the role of “heritage cultural retention (i.e. enculturation)…[plus] the influence of mental health variables, such as depressive symptoms.”

The team surveyed 677 Mexican-American college students from four universities in New York, California, Florida, and Texas. The team found that males with more enculturation and symptoms of depression were more likely to engage in health risky behaviors than all others surveyed. The study did not find the same in females. “Contrary to previous literature, no relationship was found between behavioral enculturation and health risk behavior in females,” the team wrote. They found that enculturation was associated with depressive symptoms and health risk behaviors among the males surveyed. “Our results indicate that behavioral enculturation is associated with depressive symptoms for males but not females, which in turn is associated with health risk behavior for males but not for females,” said the team.”

The study could help lead to improved mental health services for the Mexican-American community. “Findings from the current effort will assist in the calibration of effective intervention programs designed to reduce health risk behaviors in an at-risk group,” the team concludes.