Acculturation And Mental Health Attitudes Of Iranians In The United States

Download or read book Acculturation and Mental Health Attitudes of Iranians in the United States written by Meisam Safdarzadeh Haghighi and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this research was to investigate changes in the attitudes and willingness of Iranian immigrants towards seeking mental health help relative to the duration of their residence in the United States. Total of 87 adult first-generation Iranian immigrants in the U.S. who immigrated after age 15 were surveyed on acculturation, self-perceived bicultural competence, mental health attitudes, and the willingness to seek professional help for mental health concerns. Regressions and path analyses were conducted to examine the data. The results showed that level of adherence to mainstream American culture significantly predicted self-reported bicultural competence, while adherence to the Iranian culture was not a predictor. Additionally, all participants reported high degree of adherence to Iranian culture. Taken together, these findings suggest that for Iranians, bicultural competence is a function of the degree to which mainstream culture is incorporated into their cultural framework. The current sample also demonstrated a high level of willingness to seek help (i.e., M = 5.63, SD = 1.52 on a 7-point scale). Finally, mental health attitudes significantly predicted the willingness to seek help in all proposed models.