Segmented assimilation and attitudes toward psychotherapy: a moderated mediation analysis

Abstract

The present study examines the relations between acculturative stress, mental health, and attitudes toward psychotherapy, and whether these relations are the same for immigrants of color and White immigrants. This study predicted that acculturative stress would have a significant, negative relation with attitudes toward psychotherapy and that this relation would be moderated by race (immigrants of color and White immigrants) so that as acculturative stress increases, attitudes toward psychotherapy become more negative for immigrants of color but not White immigrants. Finally, mental health was predicted to mediate the relation between acculturative stress and attitudes toward psychotherapy for immigrants of color, but not White immigrants. Participants were 149 first-generation, immigrant, young adults, between the ages of 18 and 29, who identified as White, Black, Latino, or Asian. A significant negative correlation was found between acculturative stress and attitudes toward psychotherapy. A moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that the negative relation between acculturative stress and attitudes toward psychotherapy was mediated by mental health symptoms for immigrants of color but not White immigrants.