Acculturative Stress: Minority Status and Distress

The process of acculturative stress is examined in a survey of 177 Hispanic and 93Anglo freshman college students. A multivariate framework is proposed that includes social class, gender, and ethnicity as precursor variables; demographic and psychological indexes of acculturation; college role stresses experienced by most students; and minority stresses especially relevant to ethnic students as predictors of psychological distress. Social class and ethnicity exert significant effects on college role stresses but not on minority stresses. Level of acculturation is associated with reports of higher levels of minority stress, but it is not significantly associated with psychological distress. However, minority stresses add significant information to the level of psychological distress beyond that accounted by precursor and college role stresses alone. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for longitudinal studies that allow for the examination of causal relationships.