What impacts the psychological health of Filipino American women?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

The researchers investigated psychological health (i.e., levels of depression, anxiety, experiences of discrimination, and self mastery) in a Filipino American sample. Filipino Americans experience health disparities (Nadal, 2011) as they underutilize counseling services when they may have high rates of psychiatric disorders (e.g., Gong, Gage, & Tacata, 2003), and have high risk in terms of cardiovascular disease (Ye, Rust, Baltrus, & Daniels, 2009). Filipino American Women (FAW) specifically, have high rates of metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence (Ancheta, Battie, Tuason, & Ancheta, 2012), and diabetes mellitus (e.g., Araneta, Wingard, & Barrett-Connor, 2002). Using the biopsychosocial model, this study aimed to identify which biological risk indicators differentiate FAW's psychological health, and to investigate which best predict their psychological health. In this cross-sectional study of FAW (N = 377), demographic information, clinical measurements (e.g., hemoglobin A1C, serum glucose, blood pressure) and responses to 5 questionnaires were obtained. Results show that controlling for age, FAW with MetS and those without MetS did not report differences in depressive symptomatology, anxiety, experiences of discrimination, and self-mastery. Other biological risk conditions, such as obesity, waist circumference, high blood pressure, and family history of heart disease did not differentiate FAW's psychological health. Multiple regression analyses revealed that lower income and level of education are significant predictors of depression and anxiety, and higher income and education are significant predictors of self-mastery, more than any biological health variable. Findings highlight the interconnection between biological, demographic, and psychological variables in a minority population.

Publication Title

Asian American Journal of Psychology

Volume

5

Issue

4

First Page

307

Last Page

315

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1037/a0037781

ISSN

19481985

E-ISSN

19481993

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