Social Networking, Hardiness and Immigrant's Mental Health

TLDR

Studies of immigrant mental hospitalization rates have yielded inconclusive evidence, and immigrants are often viewed as reactive to stress, yet this study treats immigration as a potential vehicle for personal advancement. The study aims to identify protective factors for voluntary immigrants, hypothesizing that cultivating social networks and personality hardiness reduce psychological strain. The study examines how cultivating social networks and hardiness, along with the nature of those networks and ties to immigrant and host communities, influence adaptation and reduce strain.

Abstract

Previous investigations of immigrant mental hospitalization rates have accumulated inconclusive evidence in regard to native-foreign differentials. We attempt to examine factors that protect voluntary immigrants from psychological impairment. Unlike existing studies, which tend to regard immigrants as merely reactive to stressful life changes accompanying immigration, we assume immigration can be used as a vehicle for personal advancement. We hypothesize that the immigrant's activism in cultivating social networks in the receiving society, and hardiness in the personality repertoire, are the chief means of ameliorating strain. Also examined are issues related to (/) the nature of social networks, (2) ties to the immigrant community and to the host society, and (3) how these ties influence adaptation.