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Acculturation and psychiatric disorder: a study of Greek Cypriot immigrants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Venos Mavreas  and
Paul Bebbington
Venos Mavreas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School, Greece; MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Paul Bebbington*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School, Greece; MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Paul Bebbington, MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

Data are presented from a study of acculturation and psychiatric disorder in 291 Greek Cypriot immigrants from the general population of Camberwell, south London. We hypothesized that ‘pre-acculturation’ would protect against mental disorder, that difficulties in the period immediately after migration would increase the risk of disorder, and that disorder would be least common among those in the middle range of the acculturation spectrum.

Of pre-acculturation factors, only previous knowledge of English was associated with reduced prevalence. Difficulties in the settling-in period were clearly related to current disorder. No relationship was apparent between present acculturation and disorder, but this disguised an interesting but unpredicted gender effect: in males, disorder was most prevalent in the highly acculturated; in females, in the least acculturated.

Type
Orginal Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 1990 , pp. 941 - 951
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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