Citation

Guerrero AP, Hishinuma ES, Andrade NN, Nishimura ST, Cunanan VL. Int. J. Soc. Psychiatry 2006; 52(4): 343-359.

Affiliation

National Center on Indigenous Hawaiian Behavioral Health (NCIHBH), Department of Psychiatry, University of Hawai'i John A Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu 96813, USA. GuerreroA@dop.hawaii.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

17262981

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Because of socioeconomic and acculturative challenges faced by immigrant families, Filipino adolescents in Hawaii may be at risk for academic, behavioral and emotional difficulties. AIM: To determine, among Filipino adolescents in Hawaii, whether measures of economic hardship and lower socioeconomic status (SES) correlate positively with poor school performance, aggressive behavior, substance use, anxiety, and depression; and whether family support and cultural identification correlate negatively with these difficulties. METHODS: 216 Filipino adolescents from four public high schools in Hawai'i (1993-1994) were given surveys that assessed basic demographic information, measures of family support and other social variables, and measures of school performance, depression, anxiety, aggression and substance use. RESULTS: In the total sample, low SES seemed to correlate with poor school performance and behavioral and emotional difficulties. In both the total sample and the sub-sample of adolescents with lower SES, family support was a universally strong protective factor. Learning genealogy was positively correlated with school performance, and speaking a language other than English was inversely correlated with substance use (in the whole sample) and depression (in the lower SES sub-sample). CONCLUSIONS: For Filipino adolescents (in both the whole and lower-SES samples), family support was an important protective factor against academic, behavioral and emotional difficulties. The role of cultural identification as a risk or protective factor among Filipino adolescents deserves further investigation.

Language: en