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. 2021 May 17;18(10):5312.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18105312.

Discrimination and Health: The Mediating Effect of Acculturative Stress

Alfonso Urzúa  1 , Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar  2 , Diego Henríquez  1 , David R Williams  3
Affiliations

Discrimination and Health: The Mediating Effect of Acculturative Stress

Alfonso Urzúa et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

There is not much evidence on the effects of south-south migration and its consequences on physical and mental health. Our objective was to examine the mediating role of Acculturative Stress in the association between ethnic discrimination and racial discrimination with physical and mental health. This research is a non-experimental, analytical, cross-sectional study. A total of 976 adult Colombian migrants living in Chile were interviewed. We used the Everyday Discrimination Scale, the acculturative stress scale, and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-12) for health status; we found that racial and ethnic discrimination had a negative effect on physical and mental health. In the simultaneous presence of both types of discrimination, racial discrimination was completely absorbed by ethnic discrimination, the latter becoming a total mediator of the effect of racial discrimination on mental and physical health. Our findings are consistent with the literature, which suggests that there are various types of discrimination which, individually or in their intersectionality, can have negative effects on health.

Keywords: acculturative stress; discrimination; health; mental health; migration; racism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model of direct effects of ethnic and racial discrimination on physical and mental health. Note: * p < 0.05; dashed lines represent non-significant routes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Model of indirect effects of acculturative stress on the relationship between ethnic and racial discrimination and physical and mental health. Note: * p < 0.05; dashed lines represent non-significant routes; ED, ethnic discrimination; RD, racial discrimination; AS, acculturative stress; PH, physical health; MH, mental health.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Model of direct effects of racial discrimination on physical and mental health.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Model of direct effects of racial discrimination, mediated by ethnic discrimination and acculturative stress, on physical and mental health. Note: * p < 0.05; dashed lines represent non-significant routes; ED, ethnic discrimination; RD, racial discrimination; AS, acculturative stress; PH, physical health; MH, mental health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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