PART 1
Health Locus of Control
PART 2
CONCLUSIONS
METHODS
DISCUSSION
APPENDIXES
Part II; Culture and Health
Well-being and Mode of Acculturation
Some degree of integration in the society in which you are living is necessary (any mode). Further integration predicts being able to interact effectively in one's environment (assimilated, integrated). This does not necessitate foregoing one's own values, or accepting another's unconditionally. Indeed, what we are dealing with fundamentally are value structures which should not be disparaged according to one or the other's frame of reference. Support from the community is usually based on the mainstream model, however, and so being able to discourse within this model precedes the social support (personal, monetary, etc.) shown to placate stress. Unfortunate, but true. It is also increasingly important to retain support from one's non-mainstream community, if this is an issue. Social support is relevant to health because individuals with less social support, according to Comer (1998), have poorer immune systems. The following case illustrates this: Hazuda, Hafener, Stern, & Eifler (1988), cited in Duffy (1997), confirmed that raises in SES have a beneficial impact on Hispanic American women's health, adding to the equation that acculturation into mainstream society exerts a somewhat stronger influence than does SES. It would seem from this that acculturation/ social support predicted the raises in SES, and that the two had a positive impact on health. (I am suggesting that SES is a form or manifestation of social support.)
Adverse effects on well-being:
The influence of acculturation on health in the literature tell contradictory stories. There are indeed complex interactions between the variables under study. Zambrana, Scrimshaw, Collins, & Dunkel-Schetter (1997) found that acculturation was detrimental to health: Mexican American women who are undergoing the process of immersion in the mainstream culture "experience a decrease in culture-specific protective factors that are integrally related to the quality of the community environment in which they live" (Zambrana, et al., 1997, p. 1025). Risky health behaviors, stress levels, and medical risks all seemed to increase with greater acculturation and decreases in social support of the Hispanic community (Zambrana, et al., 1997). Furthermore,
according to some accounts, continued adherence to traditional Mexican cultural values may predispose individuals to become less involved in some of the problematic health and psychological risks of American society such as increased levels of stress, social isolation (ie. the lack of social support), and substance abuse. -Balcazar, Peterson, & Krull, 1997, p. 17-18.Montgomery (1992) actually conceptualized acculturation as a potential stressor, as "Mexican oriented students were more likely to report themselves as being in better general health and as being more pleased with their physical appearance than were Anglo-oriented or culturally blended groups" (Montgomery, 1992, p. 448-49).
What I imagine most of these studies support is not that assimilation in mainstream America is a ‘health risk' but that forgoing the social support of one's cultural origins for individuals who are subjugated in this culture is. Therefore one's position in society must be factored in in analyses regarding acculturation and health. Montgomery's (1992) findings that separated (Mexican oriented) individuals were better off in some respects than their integrated (culturally blended) counterparts speaks to the complexity of the relationship between acculturation and health. Perhaps each reality model has its positive/ negative effects over health above and beyond acculturation strategy. In addition, it is probable that the more acculturated an individual becomes, the more outrage they will experience over the inequalities existent. Perhaps this may be a source for the stressor Montgomery (1992) associates with acculturation.
Beneficial effects on well-being:
As I have noted, there is a contradictory pattern of evidence as to the effects of acculturation on health. I will now present evidence which indicates a favorable relationship. Tran, Fitzpatrick, Berg, & Wright (1996) write, "the findings indicate, for example, that the level of acculturation has a significant effect upon health status. Less acculturated respondents were found, in other words, to experience higher rates of self-reported health problems than were those with higher levels of acculturation" (p. 163). They name fewer language skills and low education as a factor in the avoidance of health care and a "tendency to perceive themselves as subject to certain health related problems" (Tran et al, 1996, p. 163). It might be said that these individuals feel that their health is out of their control and have developed an external HLC.
