Abstract
Acculturation is often found to increase substance use among immigrants in the U.S., but such effect may depend on how immigrants are attached to their co-ethnic community. Meanwhile, the high socioeconomic status of some new immigrant groups also challenges the classical assumption that ties to co-ethnic community are associated with deviance. With a sample (n = 960) collected from a population of Chinese students in a large public university in the U.S., we tested how do the interplays between acculturation and co-ethnic ties affect substance use. This study establishes that: (1) different dimensions of acculturation have opposite effects on substance use; (2) acculturative stress does not explain the association between acculturation and substance use; (3) acculturation increases the likelihood of substance use only when one has weak attachment to their co-ethnic community. The findings are consistent for three dependent variables: smoking, drinking, and drunkenness, and for the different constructs of acculturation and co-ethnic ties. Ties to co-ethnic community may provide important social support for immigrants, while acculturation may alleviate the insular subculture that promotes at-risk behaviors. We encourage policy makers to consider the cooperative nature of acculturation and cultural retention for the improvement of health among this growing population.
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Notes
\({n_0}={\left( {\frac{{{z_{\frac{\alpha }{2}}}S}}{e}} \right)^2}=353\), assuming \(~{z_{\frac{\alpha }{2}}}=1.96\) s = 0.5, and e = 0.05.
Excluding Asian Americans.
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The funding was provided by John Templeton Foundation (Grant No. 56480).
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The authors (Xiaozhao Y. Yang, Fenggang Yang) declare no conflict of interest involved during any stage of the conduct of this research.
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Yang, X.Y., Yang, F. Acculturation Versus Cultural Retention: The Interactive Impact of Acculturation and Co-ethnic Ties on Substance Use Among Chinese Students in the United States. J Immigrant Minority Health 20, 546–560 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0598-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0598-0