Mary Stopes-Roe

Psychological and social adjustment of Asian immigrants to Britain: A community survey

SummaryA community survey of 50 Indian and 50 Pakistani born residents of Birmingham and 100 matched native controls has been completed. Asians were selected so that the sample corresponded to the known demographic characteristics of the immigrant population and were interviewed in their native languages in their own homes. Measures of psychological disturbance, social adjustment, family relationships, housing and employment history as well as attitudinal measures were employed to test some hypotheses concerning the relationship between migration and adjustment. Analysis revealed that on most indices (psychological symptoms, life events, employment, housing, satisfaction) Asian immigrants were better adjusted than their British neighbours. There were strong indications, however, that the British control groups employed were not representative of the British population at large because of their residence in high immigrant concentration areas. The British groups interviewed may have been less well adjusted than a representative British group would have been and so have exaggerated the difference between British and Asian groups. Within the immigrant groups psychological adjustment was related to age and social class among Pakistani males; experiencing disruptive life events was most important for Pakistani females and British controls, crowding correlated with symptoms for Indian and Pakistani females but not for males, and length of residence in Britain was negatively related to symptom levels for Indian males.

Psychological symptom levels in Indian immigrants to England--a comparison with native English.

A national community survey of psychological symptom levels among samples of Indian immigrants and natives is reported. Using a quasi-random sampling procedure, a sample of 200 Indian-born residents of large towns in England was selected to match the age and sex structure of the total Indian immigrant population. An indigenous population, selected in the same way, was matched with the immigrants for comparison purposes. Psychological disturbance was measured with the Langner 22-Item Scale which has previously been specifically validated for use in this context. Other indices were constructed to test specific hypotheses. The pattern revealed by mental hospital admission statistics was strongly supported by the survey. Indian immigrants as a group experience far less psychological disorder than natives, despite the experiences of migration and of being an immigrant. On other measures Indians also manifested an adjustment superior to that of natives. Among the Indian sample stable psychological adjustment was related to being young at migration, being acculturated to life in England and being socially integrated. A subgroup of higher social status, Indian females who had been upwardly socially mobile, emerged as the only group with a higher than average symptom level. However, even this group was at least as well adjusted as its English counterpart.

Measuring psychological disturbance in Asian immigrants to Britain

Abstract This study attempts to validate previously developed mental health scales for use with Asian immigrants to Britain. It was necessary to prepare such a scale that could be used in community surveys, to investigate the reasons for the apparent over-representation of immigrants in mental hospital admission figures which has been discovered in Britain as well as in other parts of the world. Such a scale needs to be brief (as it would inevitably be used with many other instruments), suitable for general community surveys (it must not contain bizarre symptoms), suitable for administration by lay interviewers, and of demonstrated validity as a measure of psychological disturbance for both immigrant and native groups. Two scales were chosen for investigation because it was thought they might fulfil these criteria: the Langner 22 Item Scale first used in the Midtown Manhattan study and used widely since and the Goldberg 12 item General Health Questionnaire. These scales in English, Gujerati, Punjabi and Urdu were administered to consecutive outpatients at a hospital serving a high immigration area in Birmingham until 42 first generation Asian immigrants and 49 native born British subjects were obtained. Simultaneously a stratified quota sample of Asians and natives were interviewed in the community living in the catchment area of the hospital. The community samples were selected to match the patients on important demographic characteristics. Data are presented concerning the discriminative power and validity of the scales for both Asian and native groups. An item analysis is also reported and it is concluded that it is possible to use a single brief questionnaire measurement of psychological disturbance for both Asian and native groups.

Social class and psychological disorder in natives and immigrants to Britain.

An examination is made of various hypotheses which have been developed to account for the frequently observed inverse relationship between social class and psychological disturbance. Two of these explanations — the social selection and social causation hypotheses — are tested in a study designed to enable an assessment of their relative power to be made. Quasi-random samples of 200 Indian-born, 200 Pakistani-born and 240 native-born residents of England were interviewed and measures of social class, psychological symptoms and other relevant variables made. The results failed to support either of the two hypotheses as the expected social class gradient in psychological disorder only emerged in the native group. Indian immigrants in fact showed a reversal with higher status individuals, especially women, having higher symptom levels. Overall Indian immigrants had significantly fewer symptoms than either of the other groups. The findings are discussed in terms of differential selection for migration and the varying experiences of immigrants after arrival in Britain.