Nativity, Primary Language Spoken in the Home, and Mental Health Outcomes Among Asian-American Youth

Background and Purpose: Research has documented that nativity and language are associated with mental health outcomes among Asian-American youth (Romero et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2009; Delgado et al., 2011). However, there is little research on the group differences in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation by ethnic segments differentiated on nativity and primary language spoken in the home. The purpose of this study was to compare 1) four Asian-American subgroups categorized by nativity and primary language spoken in the home based on the mean scores of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation during adolescence, early young adulthood, and young adulthood and 2) ethnic differences in the mean scores of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among Asian- and European-American youth.

Methods: The data for this study came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add health). The current study used three waves (Waves I, III, and IV) of the Add Health data with a subsample of Asian- and European-American youth who completed the in-home interviews. European-American youth were used as the reference group. A total of 1,418 Asian- and 8,369 European-American youth were analyzed. Constructs were measured by: 1) a short version of 9-item CES-D scale for depressive symptoms; 2) one item on suicidal ideation; 3) nativity (U.S. born or Foreign born); 4) primary language spoken in the home (English or Other language). Linear regression and modified linear probability models were used for data analyses.

Results: Analyses suggested that group mean differences in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation were trivial among three of the four Asian-American subgroups. Therefore, these subgroups were merged into one group and the following three groups were compared: 1) Asian-American youth who were born in the U.S. and who spoke English in the home (AA1); 2) all other three Asian-American groups (AA2); 3) European-American youth (EA).

There were three statistically significant group differences in the mean of adolescent depressive symptoms between AA1 and EA (means=0.74 and 0.62; t = 2.93, p < .01) and the means of early young adulthood depressive symptoms between AA1 and EA (means=0.61 and 0.47; t = 3.12, p < .01) and between AA2 and EA (means= 0.57 and 0.47; t = 2.18, p < .05). For suicidal ideation, there were three statistically significant group differences in the means of adolescent suicidal ideation between AA2 and EA (means= 0.10 and 0.14; t = 2.31, p < .05) and between AA1 and AA2 (means= 0.18 and 0.10; t = 3.10, p < .01) and the mean of young adulthood suicidal ideation between AA2 and EA (means= 0.02 and 0.08; t = 3.47, p < .01).

Conclusions and Implications: Findings of this study suggest that Asian-American youth who were born in the U.S. and who spoke English in the home had higher mental health problems than other three Asian-American youth and European-American youth at each developmental stage. These results emphasize the importance of identifying risk factors leading to mental health disparities in Asian-American youth for social work practice and policy.