TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethnically heterogeneous friendships and symptoms of depression and anxiety among Filipino Americans
AU - Chang, Janet
AU - Samson, Frank L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research collaboration was sparked through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Program. We are thankful to Margarita Alegría, who commented on an earlier version of this article. The authors contributed equally to this article. Order of authorship was decided by mutual agreement and determined by who served as corresponding author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Ethnically heterogeneous friendships may be characterized by interactional discord and other challenges, but the potential risks for minority status groups, namely, Filipino Americans, have been overlooked. The present study examined whether ethnically heterogeneous friendships are associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms and whether friendship discord mediates these relationships after adjusting for covariates. Analyses focused on data from the Filipino American Community Epidemiological Study, involving 2,305 Filipino American adult respondents in San Francisco and Honolulu. Participants completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, ethnically heterogeneous friendships, friendship discord, ethnic identity, everyday discrimination, and sociodemographics. Compared with their Filipino counterparts who reported two or less close non-Filipino friends, Filipino Americans who reported three or more very good non-Filipino friends endorsed depressive and anxiety symptoms to a greater extent. Friendship discord also partially mediated these associations between ethnically heterogeneous friendships and symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results suggest that friendship discord may potentially mitigate the benefits of ethnically heterogeneous friendships and contribute to depressive and anxiety symptoms among Filipino Americans.
AB - Ethnically heterogeneous friendships may be characterized by interactional discord and other challenges, but the potential risks for minority status groups, namely, Filipino Americans, have been overlooked. The present study examined whether ethnically heterogeneous friendships are associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms and whether friendship discord mediates these relationships after adjusting for covariates. Analyses focused on data from the Filipino American Community Epidemiological Study, involving 2,305 Filipino American adult respondents in San Francisco and Honolulu. Participants completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, ethnically heterogeneous friendships, friendship discord, ethnic identity, everyday discrimination, and sociodemographics. Compared with their Filipino counterparts who reported two or less close non-Filipino friends, Filipino Americans who reported three or more very good non-Filipino friends endorsed depressive and anxiety symptoms to a greater extent. Friendship discord also partially mediated these associations between ethnically heterogeneous friendships and symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results suggest that friendship discord may potentially mitigate the benefits of ethnically heterogeneous friendships and contribute to depressive and anxiety symptoms among Filipino Americans.
KW - Cross-group friendship
KW - Depressive and anxiety symptoms
KW - Ethnically heterogeneous friendship
KW - Filipino Americans
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U2 - 10.1037/aap0000102
DO - 10.1037/aap0000102
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85040945944
VL - 9
SP - 158
EP - 168
JO - Asian American Journal of Psychology
JF - Asian American Journal of Psychology
SN - 1948-1985
IS - 2
ER -