The Influence of Social Cohesion, Sense of Belonging, and Neighborhood Safety on Asian American Adolescents: The Mediation Effect of Depressive Symptoms on Substance Use

Background

Depressive symptoms and substance use behavior issues are a growing concern among growing Asian American adolescents. Research has indicated that social cohesion, sense of belonging, and neighborhood safety are significant predictors for the level of Asian American adolescents’ depressive symptoms and substance use.

The current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by testing (b) whether and how social cohesion, sense of belonging, and neighborhood safety influence depressive symptoms and substance use; and (b) whether and how depressive symptoms mediate the relationships of social cohesion, sense of belonging, and neighborhood safety to substance use among Asian American adolescents

Methods

The current study used secondary data from the 2013–2015 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) Teen Data Files collection. Using MPlus version 8.3, a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed with a sample of adolescents at age 12-17, who were answered as Asian (N = 346)

Depressive symptom outcomes: “serious psychological distress scale”. Social cohesion: “social cohesion neighborhood-scale”. Sense of Belonging: e.g., “cares deeply about issues in the community,” “feels connected to others whose work improves society” (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Somewhat Disagree, 3 = Somewhat Agree, and 4 = Strongly Agree). Neighborhood safety: “feel safe in the neighborhood”, “feel safe at school” (1 = Not at all true, 2 = A little true, 3 = Pretty much true, and 4 = Very much true).

Results

A high percentage of participants reported that they have a high sense of social cohesion (M = 9.79; SD = 1.523) and they feel safe in their neighborhood (88.7%) and at school (95.4%). More than half of participants agreed with they care deeply about issues in the community (61.2%) and they feel connected to others whose work improves society (56.2%). Participants showed a moderate level of depressive symptoms (M = 4.14; SD = 3.006). Participants reported they had not ever smoked cigarettes (96%), e-cigarette (92.9%), and drunk alcohol beverages (81.5%).

The SEM analysis found a significant mediation effect of depressive symptoms between social cohesion and substance use. The results identified that participants who had a higher social cohesion level were less likely to show depressive symptoms, which in turn influence fewer substance use (RMSEA = .076 (90% CI = [.060, .092]); CFI = .994; TLI = .991). However, there was no significant direct and indirect effect of sense of belonging and neighborhood safety on substance use.

Conclusions

The results found that social cohesion serves as a protective factor concerning depressive symptoms and substance use in the study population. Also, it offered several valuable insights for research and practice about depressive symptoms among the Asian American adolescent population. The results suggested an increasing focus on strengthening cultural community and family connections. As societies are becoming more diverse, normative goals of socially cohesive societies are becoming even more important. Promoting cultural integration may necessarily reduce mental health problems or risky behavioral health problems, especially in the context of the increasingly diverse immigrant and ethnic-minority population in the United States.