Chicano Phenotype and Depression

Abstract

Recent Chicano studies revealed that perceptions of discrimination and residential segregation increased whereas schooling and income decreased in accordance with a light-to-dark and European-to-Indian phenotype pattern. This study investigated the mental health implications of these results by examining the relationship of phenotype and the life chance variables of education, family income, and language proficiency to depression by nativity and gender Regression analyses were obtainedforfoursubgroups composed of Chicano men and women born in the United States and in Mexico. The prediction that the darker and more Indian phenotypes would have more depression was supported for U.S.-born males only. The pattern was unexpectedly in the opposite directionforMexican-born women, although in keeping with reports of severe stress due to role change among high-status Mexican women immigrants. Independent of phenotype, loss of Spanish language proficiency was also found to be a significant factor in how often some Chicanos felt depressed.