Stressed and Helping: The Relations Among Acculturative Stress, Gender, and Prosocial Tendencies in Mexican Americans

Available evidence suggests that stress is not necessarily linked to negative outcomes and, in fact, may lead to increases in sympathy and helping. In this study, we examined whether acculturative stress was associated with prosocial tendencies in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (M...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social psychology 2010-01, Vol.150 (1), p.34-56
Main Authors: McGinley, Meredith, Carlo, Gustavo, Crockett, Lisa J., Raffaelli, Marcela, Torres Stone, Rosalie A., Iturbide, Maria I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
acculturative stress
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adult
Altruism
Behavior
Behavior. Attitude
Beliefs
Biological and medical sciences
Children & youth
College Students
Coping
Developmental Disabilities
Early Adolescents
Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology
Empathy
Evidence
Female
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Gender Differences
Gender differentiation
Gender Discrimination
Gender Identity
Helping Behavior
Helping Relationship
Hispanic Americans
Humans
Hypotheses
Interpersonal relations
Kindergarten
Male
Males
Mental stress
Mexican American
Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans - psychology
Mexicans
Minority & ethnic groups
Noncitizens
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Prosocial Behavior
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sample size
Self Efficacy
Sex
Siblings
Social Behavior
Social behaviour
Social Identification
Social psychology
Stress
Stress, Psychological - ethnology
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Students - psychology
Studies
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sympathy
Teenagers
Victims of Crime
War
Well Being
Young Adult
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Description
Summary:Available evidence suggests that stress is not necessarily linked to negative outcomes and, in fact, may lead to increases in sympathy and helping. In this study, we examined whether acculturative stress was associated with prosocial tendencies in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (M age = 23.05 years; 99 women). Participants completed measures of acculturative stress, sympathy, and prosocial tendencies. The relations between acculturative stress and prosocial tendencies were generally positive but varied by the type of helping and gender. Higher levels of acculturative stress were linked to greater emotional, dire, compliant, and anonymous prosocial tendencies, as well as with fewer costly (altruistic) prosocial tendencies. Sympathy mediated the relations between acculturative stress and prosocial tendencies for men only.
ISSN:0022-4545
1940-1183
DOI:10.1080/00224540903365323