THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH, ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CROSS- CULTURAL ANALYSIS Loren Albeg Sara Castro Olivo,

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH, ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Loren AlbegSara Castro Olivo, PhDValerie PerryUniversity of California, Riverside

INTRODUCTION

MENTAL HEALTH 20% of U.S. school-age children report

symptoms related to mental health disorders (Surgeon General Report, 1999)

66% of the 20% do not receive proper treatment (Surgeon General Report, 1999)

10% of U.S. school-age children 9 and older report serious emotional disturbances (Surgeon General Report, 1999)

These percentages are even higher for underrepresented ethnic minority groups (Surgeon General Report, 2001)

MENTAL HEALTH: ETHNIC MINORITIES Ethnic minorities are less likely to receive

proper treatment for mental health problems (Surgeon General Report, 1999; Gonzales & Kim, 1997; Vega &Rumbaut, 1991).

50% of students with serious emotional disturbances drop out of high school (President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003)

Dropout rates are higher for ethnic minority students (National Institute on the Education of At-Risk Students, 1996)

By 2026 48% of children will be from racial and ethnic minority groups (Surgeon General Report, 2001)

MENTAL HEALTH AND ACADEMICS

American schools reach 48 million students for 1,080 hours per year (Kolbe et. al 1997; Gresham 1995)

Schools are in a unique position to provide preventative mental health care (President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003)

Mental health is essential to learning! (President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003)

Mental health is related to academic performance (Mistry, Benner, Tan, & Kim, 2009; Schwartz & Gorman, 2003)

ACCULTURATIVE STRESS

Acculturative stress represents the negative “side effects” of  acculturation, including pressures to retain aspects of the heritage culture as well as pressures to acquire aspects of the receiving culture (Rodriguez, Myers, Mira, Flores, & Garcia-Hernandez, 2002)

Ex: Collectivism vs. Individualism

ACCULTURATIVE STRESS, MENTAL HEALTH, & ACADEMICS

Ethnicity related factors and acculturative stress are potential risk factors for school failure (Altschul, Oyserman, &Bybee, 2008; Supple et al., 2006; Schwartz, Zamboanga, and Jarvis, 2007)

Theory and some of our preliminary data indicate that acculturative stress, mental health and academic performance are related (Blanco-Vega, Castro-Olivo, & Merrell, 2008; Castro Olivo, 2006).

GOALS

AIMS OF THE PRESENT STUDY

1) Add to the literature on mental health, acculturative stress, and academic performance

1) Apply the relationships between mental health, acculturative stress, and academic performance across cultures

2) Inform practice

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) Are mental health symptoms associated with academic performance?  

2) Is acculturative stress associated with academic performance?

3) Is acculturative stress associated with mental health symptoms?

4) Do acculturative stress levels and mental health symptoms differ by English language proficiency level/ primary language?

5) Do acculturative stress levels and mental symptoms differ by race/ethnicity?

METHODS

PARTICIPANTS

Performing Arts Magnet School: a middle school in the Inland Empire1,633 enrolled in 2008-2009 school year72% Hispanic/Latino79% Socioeconomically disadvantaged30% English Learners

N = 6626 boys; 40 girlsMedian Age: 13 yrs48% English Language Learners

PARTICIPANTS CONTINUED…

PARTICIPANTS CONTINUED..

MEASURES

Academic Performance Student records Teacher Report on Academic and Class Performance School Functioning subscale of Behavior and Emotional

Rating Scale-2nd Edition (BERS-2): Youth Rating Scale School Belonging subscale of People in My Life (PIML).

Acculturative Stress Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC)

Mental Health Symptoms Test

RESULTS

RESULTS

Question #1: Are mental health symptoms associated with academic performance?

Variables Analyzed: Measure of mental health symptoms:

Symptoms Test (child report) Measures of academic performance:

California State Test scores (2009) GPA Teacher Report on Academic and Class Performance School Functioning subscale of the BERS-2 (child

report) School Belonging subscale of People in My Life (child

report)

QUESTION #1 RESULTS

QUESTION #1 RESULTS

QUESTION #1 RESULTS

QUESTION #1 RESULTS

RESULTS CONTINUED…

Research Question #2: Is acculturative stress associated with academic performance?

Variables Analyzed: Measure of Acculturative stress:

Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC)-child report

Measures of academic performance: California State Test scores (2009) GPA Teacher Report on Academic and Class Performance School Functioning subscale of the BERS-2 (child

report) School Belonging subscale of People in My Life (child

report)

QUESTIONS #2: RESULTS

QUESTIONS #2: RESULTS

RESULTS CONTINUED…

Research Question #3: Is acculturative stress associated with mental health symptoms?

Variables Analyzed: Measure of Acculturative stress:

Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC)-child report

Measure of Mental Health Symptoms: Symptoms Test (child report)

QUESTIONS #3: RESULTS

RESULTS CONTINUED…

Research Question #4: Do acculturative stress levels and mental health symptoms differ by English language proficiency level/ primary language?

Variables Analyzed: Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC)-child

report and Symptoms Test (child report) were analyzed by California English Language Development (CELDT) Level and Primary Language Spoken at Home

QUESTION #4: RESULTSMEANS BY CELDT LEVEL

N: 1 M: 22 SD: -

N: 10 M: 18 SD:7.3

QUESTION #4: RESULTSMEANS BY CELDT LEVEL

N: 1 M: 12 SD: -

N: 10 M:14.3 SD: 5.4

QUESTION #4: RESULTSCELDT

QUESTION #4: RESULTSMEANS BY PRIMARY LANGUAGE

N: 31M: 14.58 SD: 9.8

N: 31M: 14.58SD: 9.8

N: 31M: 18.19SD: 8.04

N: 62M: 16.39SD: 9.07

QUESTION #4: RESULTSMEANS BY PRIMARY LANGUAGE

QUESTION #4: RESULTSPRIMARY LANGUAGE

RESULTS CONTINUED…

Research Question #5: Do acculturative stress levels and mental symptoms differ by race/ ethnicity?

Variables Analyzed: Acculturative Stress Inventory for Children (ASIC) and

Symptoms Test were analyzed by race/ethnicity

QUESTION #5: RESULTSMEANS BY DICHOTOMIZED ETHNICITY

QUESTION #5: RESULTSMEANS BY DICHOTOMIZED ETHNICITY

CONCLUSIONS

Known: Acculturative stress is significantly related to mental

health Mental health is significantly related to academics

Unknown: Is acculturative stress directly and significantly related

to academic performance? Do levels of acculturative stress and mental health

symptoms differ by ethnicity? Do levels of acculturative stress and mental health

symptoms differ by English language development level or primary language spoken at home?

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND FUTURE

RESEARCH

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Culturally adapted interventions that

specifically address acculturative stress and mental health Ex: Jovenes Fuertes

Potential Target Group?:

FUTURE DIRECTIONS AND LIMITATIONS

Continue data collectionMiddle schoolsHigh schools

Continue recruiting a more diverse sample

Determine directional relationships between variables

LimitationsPotential self-selection biasSampleAnalysis

MENTAL HEALTH SYMPTOMS: A POTENTIAL MEDIATING FACTOR?

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REFERENCES CONTINUED…

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