Immigrant Women’s Experiences of Acculturative Stress

Abstract

We examined the relation of two acculturation stressors, exclusion from ordinary privileges and overt discrimination, to two indicators of psychological well-being (i.e., psychiatric symptoms and satisfaction with life) among a diverse sample of immigrant women living in Ireland ( N = 174). We grouped our sample into “visible” immigrant women of color and “nonvisible” White immigrant women. As expected, visible immigrant women reported more experiences of overt discrimination and fewer experiences of ordinary privileges than did nonvisible immigrant women. The associations of belonging to a visible immigrant group with both psychiatric symptoms and satisfaction with life were each mediated through ordinary privileges and overt discrimination. The magnitude of the two indirect effects was equal for psychiatric symptoms, but for satisfaction with life, the indirect effect through ordinary privileges was stronger. After accounting for ordinary privileges and overt discrimination, the average score for satisfaction with life was higher for visible immigrant women than for nonvisible immigrant women. These findings suggest that visible immigrant women experience exclusion from ordinary privileges to a greater extent than nonvisible immigrant women and that this type of exclusion is at least as detrimental to psychological health as more overt forms of discrimination. Our findings demonstrate the importance of attending to discrimination of both visible and nonvisible immigrants and highlight the importance of ordinary privileges to immigrants’ well-being in their countries of destination. We discuss implications for future research and social policy.