Navigating urban life: a path analytic study of acculturation, mental health, and self-construal among Tani tribal youth in India

The mental health of the tribal students has been ignored in India and globally. The present study focuses on Tani tribal youth in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, who are of Sino-Tibetan origin and followers of animistic faiths. Many Tani youth migrate to bigger Indian cities for education and experience psychological distress related to acculturation. This study examined psychological acculturation and acculturative stress as correlates of psychological distress and mortality anxiety, with self-construal as a mediator. A correlational design was employed and involved a homogeneous sample of 231 Tani youth (94 males and 137 females) who had migrated to metropolitan cities for education. Purposive sampling was used to select participants who completed self-report measures of the study variables. Path analyses with the percentile bootstrap method were used to test the proposed mediation model. Significant positive associations were found between acculturative experiences and mental health issues such as dysfunctional self, anxiety, and depression. Acculturative experiences were also positively correlated with interdependent self-construal (except for psychological acculturation). Interdependent self-construal significantly mediated the relationship between acculturative experiences, psychological distress, and mortality anxiety. The findings suggest that interdependent self-construal is associated with higher levels of psychological distress in the context of acculturation among Tani youth and underscore the importance of culturally sensitive mental health interventions that address the unique acculturative stressors faced by indigenous students in urban settings.