American Dreams, Latino Realities: Interrogating the Intersections of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Nativity on Select Acculturative Stressors and Depressive Symptoms among Mexican-Origin Adults.

Abstract

A main tenet of American Dream narratives is the desire to improve one’s socio-economic status. Less central to these dream narratives however, are considerations regarding the costs and consequences not fulfilling one’s goals may pose. Indeed, psycho-social and structural challenges to integrating into the U.S. labor market can serve as important sources of acculturative stress for Mexican-origin populations. Diminishing opportunities for low and semi-skilled labor and the need for dual-income households, make it difficult to maintain highly valued traditional (patriarchal) gender beliefs regarding employment and bread-winning roles. Barriers to social mobility may also negatively influence attitudes towards one’s life chances of socio-economic success. This research explores these two acculturative stress concepts: 1) inability to maintain valued gender roles; and 2) increasingly negative attitudes about one’s life chances of socio-economic success in a sample of Mexican-origin adults. Using data from the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey (MAPSS), the relationships between traditional gender beliefs and attitudes toward life chances of success to depressive symptoms are studied in a sample of 3,012 foreign and US-born Mexican-origin adults. Employing an intersectionality research perspective, the influence of various aspects of one’s social identity (i.e., gender, nativity, and employment status) on the experience of these acculturative stressors is also examined. Higher order interactions are tested for traditional gender beliefs and employment by gender and nativity. Likewise, higher order interactions for attitudes towards life chances of success and employment by gender, nativity, and discrimination are investigated. Results show that more (vs. less) traditional gender beliefs and more (vs. less) negative attitudes about one’s life chances of success are significantly related to higher levels of depressive symptoms, net of demographic covariates and other acculturative stressors (i.e., discrimination, language barriers, and legal status worries). Employment status was the only significant moderator identified in the higher-order interactions. Being employed buffered against the negative effects of traditional gender beliefs and negative attitudes toward success on depressive symptoms for men, but not women. In this research, gendered vulnerabilities and buffers to acculturative stress are identified and their implications for future mental health research are discussed.