Samuel Noh

Perceived discrimination and depression: moderating effects of coping, acculturation, and ethnic support.

The authors evaluated the effects of cultural norms and social contexts on coping processes involved in dealing with perceived racial discrimination. Cross-sectional data derived from personal interviews with Korean immigrants residing in Toronto were analyzed. Among the respondents, active, problem-focused coping styles were more effective in reducing the impacts on depression of perceived discrimination, while frequent use of passive, emotion-focused coping had debilitating mental health effects. The present findings lend greater support to a social contextual explanation than to a cultural maintenance explanation of coping processes. They also suggest that, when empowered with sufficient social resources, racial minority individuals of diverse cultural heritages are more likely to confront than to accept racial bias.

Perceived racial discrimination, depression, and coping: a study of Southeast Asian refugees in Canada.

Using data obtained from personal interviews with 647 Southeast Asian refugees in Canada, this study tests hypotheses regarding both the association between perceived racial discrimination and depression, and the roles of coping and ethnic identity in conditioning the nature of the discrimination-depression relation. Refugees who reported that they had experienced racial discrimination had higher depression levels than their counterparts who reported no such experiences. Responding to discrimination through confrontation was not significantly associated with depression. Study findings support the effectiveness of forbearance in diminishing the strength of the association between discrimination and depression. The moderating effect of forbearance was conditioned by the level of ethnic identity: The beneficial effect of forbearance was significantly greater among those holding stronger ethnic identification. Cultural and situational interpretations of the findings are presented.

Overt and Subtle Racial Discrimination and Mental Health: Preliminary Findings for Korean Immigrants

OBJECTIVES We examined differential effects of overt and subtle forms of racial discrimination on 2 dimensions of mental health-positive affect and depressive symptoms, and explored the mediating roles of emotional arousal and cognitive appraisal. METHODS Cross-sectional survey data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a sample (N=180) of adult Korean immigrants living in Toronto, Ontario. Maximum likelihood estimates of path coefficients were obtained using structural equation models. RESULTS Perceived racial discrimination was associated with both the erosion of positive affect and depressive symptoms. Overt discrimination was associated with the erosion of positive affect, and subtle discrimination was associated with depressive symptoms. Effects of subtle discrimination on depressive symptoms were mediated through cognitive appraisal. CONCLUSIONS The results emphasize the salience of subtle discrimination for the mental health of Asian immigrants. Experiences of overt racial bias seemed to be of little importance for the levels of depressive symptoms among those in our sample, although the experience of blatant discrimination tended to reduce positive mood.

Determinants of depression among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in Toronto.

The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of and risk factors for depressive disorder in a random sample of 342 Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in Toronto. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview questionnaire was used to measure depression. The results suggested a lifetime prevalence of depression among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees of 9.8%, which was slightly higher than the lifetime prevalence rate in the Ontario population (7.3%). However, the rate among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees was approximately three times higher than the rate estimated for Southern Ethiopia (3.2%). The data confirmed the significance of known risk factors for depression in immigrants, including younger age, experiences of premigration trauma, refugee camp internment, and postmigration stressful events. The implication of the overall finding is that there is a need to develop mental health intervention programs, particularly for people who have experienced premigration trauma, refugee camp internment, and postmigration stresses.

Measuring depression in Korean immigrants : Assessing validity of the translated Korean version of CES-D scale

Results are reported about the validity of a translated Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), a self-report or interview measure of depressive sympto matology used widely in Asian and other ethnic populations. Compared to Euro-Americans, Asians are more reluctant to endorse CES-D items that tap subjective experiences of positive affect, a response bias resulting in observations of more depressive symptoms among Asians. Thus, it was previously recommended that the four positive affect items be deleted when assessing depressive symptoms in Asian populations, including Chinese and Koreans. This recommendation is reassessed here by comparing psychometric properties of alternate forms of the translated Korean version of the CES-D scale: the original 20-item scale, the 16-item scale in which positive affect items were deleted, and a revised 20-item scale in which positive items were rephrased in negative terms. Results revealed that reliability and validity were highest in the revised 20-item scale.

Depression in Korean immigrants in Canada. II: Correlates of gender, work, and marriage

The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depression by applying DSM-III criteria to a community sample of 860 adult Korean immigrants residing in Toronto, Canada. A total of 2.6% of men (95% confidence interval, 1.1% to 4.1%) and 6.7% of women (95% confidence interval, 4.3% to 9.1%) manifested depressive syndrome, rates not substantially different from those reported in North American community populations. The study also identified the subgroups in which the gender differences in depression were the greatest. Both the role demand (or double burden) and power explanations of gender differences might be supported. The mental health implications of social roles, including gender role, may be better understood from cross-cultural or multicultural perspectives.

Depression in Korean immigrants in Canada. I. Method of the study and prevalence of depression.

This study reports the prevalence and risk factors of depression in a large representative community sample of adult Korean immigrants in Toronto, Canada. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depression by applying DSM-HI criteria, Results in general suggest few differences between the immigrant community and the larger communities in Canada and the United States. Depressive syndrome was present in 4.5% of the sample, a prevalence similar to rates reported by the Epidemiologic Catchment Area studies. The risk factors associated with depression in larger populations were also found to be related to depression in this sample. Gender, marital status, intention to re-migrate, and social support were the most powerful correlates of depressive syndrome. In summary, Korean immigrants in Toronto are not exceptionally vulnerable to depression, and the social support from informal ethnic networks at the time of arrival has long-lasting effects on their mental health. Future research should focus on how the informal social supports available at the time of arrival are maintained by immigrants and the precise ways in which they exert long-term protective effects.

Capitalists, managers, professionals and mortality: Findings from the Barcelona Social Class and All Cause Mortality Longitudinal Study

Aims: To examine the effects of Neo-Marxian social class (i.e. measured as relations of control over productive assets) and potential mediators such as labour-market position, work organization, material deprivation and health behaviours upon mortality in Barcelona, Spain. Methods: Longitudinal data from the Barcelona 2000 Health Interview Survey (n = 7526) with follow-up interviews through the municipal census in 2008 (95.97% response rate) were used. Using data on relations of property, organizational power, and education, social classes were grouped according to Wright’s scheme: capitalists, petit bourgeoisie, managers, supervisors, and skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Results: Social class, measured as relations of control over productive assets, is an important predictor of mortality among working-class positions for men but not for women. Workers (hazard ratio 1.60, 95% confidence interval 1.10—2.35), managers and small employers had a higher risk of death than capitalists. Conclusions: The extensive use of conventional gradient measures of social stratification has neglected sociological measurements of social class conceptualized as relations of control over productive assets. This concept is capable of explaining how social inequalities are generated. To confirm the protective effect of the capitalist class position and the ‘‘contradictory class location hypothesis’’, additional efforts are needed to properly measure class among low-level supervisors, capitalists, managers, and small employers.

Impact of the 2004 Tsunami on Self-Reported Physical Health in Thailand for the Subsequent 2 Years

OBJECTIVES We examined self-reported physical health during the first 2 years following the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. METHODS We assessed physical health with the revised Short Form Health Survey. We evaluated 6 types of tsunami exposure: personal injury, personal loss of home, personal loss of business, loss of family member, family members injury, and familys loss of business. We examined the relationship between tsunami exposure and physical health with multivariate linear regression. RESULTS One year post-tsunami, we interviewed 1931 participants (97.2% response rate), and followed up with 1855 participants 2 years after the tsunami (96.1% follow-up rate). Participants with personal injury or loss of business reported poorer physical health than those unaffected (P < .001), and greater health impacts were found for women and older individuals. CONCLUSIONS Exposure to the tsunami disaster adversely affected physical health, and its impact may last for longer than 1 year, which is the typical time when most public and private relief programs withdraw.

Mediating and Moderating Effects in Ageism and Depression among the Korean Elderly: The Roles of Emotional Reactions and Coping Reponses

Objectives This study evaluated the relationship between ageism and depression, exploring the stress-mediating and stress-moderating roles of emotional reactions and coping behaviors. Methods Data were from the 2013 Ageism and Health Study (n = 816), a cross-sectional survey of urban and rural community-dwelling seniors aged 60–89 years in South Korea. Participants with at least one experience of ageism reported on their emotional reactions and coping responses. The measure yielded two types of coping: problem-focused (taking formal action, confrontation, seeking social support) and emotion-focused (passive acceptance, emotional discharge). Results Although ageism was significantly associated with depressive symptoms (B = 0.27, p < 0.0001), the association was entirely mediated by emotional reactions such as anger, sadness, and powerlessness. Problem-focused coping, especially confrontation and social support, seemingly reduced the impact of emotional reactions on depression, whereas emotion-focused coping exacerbated the adverse effects. Conclusion These findings support the cultural characterization explanation of ageism and related coping processes among Korean elderly and suggest that regulating emotional reactions may determine the efficacy of coping with ageism.