This article provides a profile of a range of important variables for assessing diversity among different Latino groups from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is a nationally representative study of the mental health needs and mental health services use of the Latino population of the United States. The NLAAS employs a stratified area probability sampling design. There are 2,554 respondents in the Latino portion of the NLAAS. The article demonstrates through a detailed presentation of a wide range of variables the diverse experiences of Latino groups in their encounters with U.S. culture. Language use and migration experiences show considerable variability within and across Latino groups and are promising areas for analysis of their mental health consequences.
Abraido-Lanza, A.F., Armbrister, A.N., Florez, K., & Aguirre, A.N. (2006). Toward a theory-driven mode of acculturation in public health research. American Journal of Public Health , 96, 1342-1346.
2.
Alegria, M., Mulvaney-Day, N., Torres, M., Polo, A., Cao, Z., & Canino, G. (2007). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders across Latino subgroups in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 97, 68-75.
3.
Alegria, M., Shrout, P., Sribney, W., Guarnaccia, P., Woo, M., Vila, D., et al. (2007). Understanding differences in past year mental health disorders for Latinos living in the U.S. Social Science and Medicine, 65, 214-230.
4.
Alegria, M., Sribney, W., Woo, M., Guarnaccia, P., & Torres, M. (2007). Looking beyond nativity: The relation of age of immigration, length of residence, and birth cohorts to the risk of onset of psychiatric disorders for Latinos. Research in Human Development , 4, 19-47.
5.
Alegria, M., Takeuchi, D., Canino, G., Duan, N., Shrout, P., Meng, X., et al. (2004). Considering context, place and culture: The National Latino and Asian American Study. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13, 208-220.
6.
Alegria, M., Vila, D., Woo, M., Canino, G., Takeuchi, D., Vera, M., et al. (2004). Cultural relevance and equivalence in the NLAAS instrument: Integrating etic and emic in the development of cross-cultural measures for a psychiatric epidemiology and services study of Latinos. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13, 270-288.
7.
Anderson, M., & Fienberg, S. (1999). Who counts? The politics of census-taking in contemporary America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
8.
Benet-Martinez, V., & Haritatos, J. (2005). Bicultural Identity Integration (BII): Components and psychosocial antecedents. Character &Personality , 73, 1015-1050.
9.
Bureau of the Census. (2000). U.S. Census 2000 . Washington, DC: Department of Commerce.
10.
Cervantes, R.C., Padilla, A.M., & Salgado de Snyder, N. (1990). Reliability and validity of the Hispanic Stress Inventory. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 12, 76-82.
11.
Cervantes, R.C., Padilla, A.M., & Salgado de Snyder, N. (1991). The Hispanic Stress Inventory: A culturally relevant approach to psychological assessment. Psychological Assessment, 3, 438-447.
12.
Chun, K. M., Organista, P. B., & Marin, G. (Eds.). (2003). Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research. Washington, DC: The American Psychological Association.
13.
Escobar, J.I., & Vega, W.A. (2000). Mental health and immigration's AAAs: Where are we and where do we go from here?Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 188(11), 736-740.
14.
Felix-Ortiz, M., Newcomb, M.D., & Myers, H. (1994). A multidimensional measure of cultural identity for Latino and Latina adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 16(2), 99-115.
15.
Flannery, W.M., Reise, S.P., & Yu, J. (2001). An empirical comparison of acculturation models . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(8), 1035-1045.
16.
Good, B.J. (1994). Medicine, rationality and experience: An anthropological perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
17.
Heeringa, S.G., Wagner, J., Torres, M., Duan, N., Adams, T., & Berglund, P. (2004). Sample designs and sampling methods for the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies (CPES). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13(4), 221-240.
18.
Herskovits, M.J. (1938). Acculturation: The study of culture contact. New York: J. J. Augustine.
19.
Kessler, R., Berglund, P., Chiu, W.T., Lumler, O., Heeringa, S., Hiripi, E., et al. (2004). The US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R): An overview of design and field procedures. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13(2), 69-92.
20.
Kim, B., & Ominzo, M. (2006). Behavioral acculturation and enculturation and psychological functioning among Asian American college students. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic MinorityPsychology, 12, 245-258.
21.
Kleinman, A. (2006). What really matters: Living a moral life amidst uncertainty and danger. New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
Marin, G., & Gamba, R.J. (1996). A new measurement of acculturation for Hispanics: The Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (BAS). Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 18, 297-316.
23.
Pennell, B.E., Gebier, N., Chardoul, S., Carr, D., Pennell, S., Torres, M., et al. (2004). Plan and operation of the National Survey of Health and Stress, the National Survey of American Life, and the National Latino and Asian American Survey. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13, 241-269.
24.
Phinney, J.S., Horenczyk, G., Liebkind, K., & Vedder, P. (2001). Ethnic identity, immigration and well-being: An interactional perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 493-510.
25.
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R.G. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation . New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
26.
Portes, A., & Zhou, M. (1993). The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530, 74-96.
27.
Rao, J.N.K., & Scott, A.J. (1984). On chi-squared tests for multiway contingency tables with cell proportions estimated from survey data. Annals of Statistics, 12, 46-60.
28.
Redfield, R., Linton, R., & Herskovits, M. (1936). Memorandum for the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist, 36, 149-152.
29.
Reichman, J.S. (2003). The relationship of acculturation and folk medical beliefs in recently immigrated Mexican nationals. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International Dissertations.
30.
Rogler, L.H., Cortes, D.E., & Malgady, R.G. (1991). Acculturation and mental health status among Hispanics: New directions for research. American Psychologist, 46(6), 585-597.
31.
Rumbaut, R. (1997). Assimilation and its discontents: Between rhetoric and reality. International Migration Review, 31, 923-960.
32.
StataCorp. (2004). STATA statistical software release 8.2College Station, TX: Stata Corporation.
33.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ( 2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity—A supplement to mental health. Rockville, MD: Author.
34.
Vega, W.A., Kolody, B., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alderate, E., Catalano, R., & Carveo-Anduaga, J. (1998). Lifetime prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders among urban and rural Mexican Americans in California. Archives of General Psychiatry,55, 771-778.
35.
Wallen, G., Feldman, R., & Anliker, J. (2002). Measuring acculturation among Central American women with use of a Brief Language Scale. Journal of ImmigrantHealth, 42, 95-102.
36.
Zane, N., & Mak, W. (2003). Major approaches to the measurement of acculturation among ethnic minority populations: A content analysis and an alternative empirical strategy. In K. M. Chun, P. B. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research. Washington, DC: The American Psychological Association.
