Ethnic density is not associated with psychological distress in Turkish-Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch and Surinamese-Dutch ethnic minorities in the Netherlands.

PURPOSE: Ethnic density, the proportion of people of the same ethnic group in the neighbourhood, has been identified as a protective factor with regard to mental health in ethnic minorities. Research on the putative intermediating factors, exposure to discrimination and improved social support, has not yielded conclusive evidence. We investigated the association between ethnic density and psychological well-being in three ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands. We also assessed whether a protective ethnic density effect is related to the degree to which each group experiences discrimination and social support at group level. METHODS: Using multi-level linear regression modelling, we studied the influence of ethnic density at neighbourhood level on psychological distress, measured with the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K10), in 13,864 native Dutch, 1,206 Surinamese-Dutch, 978 Turkish-Dutch and 784 Moroccan-Dutch citizens of the four major cities in the Netherlands. Based on a nationwide survey among ethnic minorities on social integration, ethnic groups were ordered with respect to the intermediating factors. RESULTS: Ethnic density was not associated with psychological distress in any of the three ethnic minority groups. As a consequence, we found no support for either experiences of discrimination or for own-group social interactions at group level as intermediating factors. In all three ethnic minority groups, as well as in the native Dutch group, individual demographic and socio-economic factors emerged as the main explanations for individuals' mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that individual demographic and socio-economic risk characteristics outweigh the influence of neighbourhood attributes on mental health.

Religious coping and depression in multicultural Amsterdam: a comparison between native Dutch citizens and Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese/Antillean migrants.

BACKGROUND: Depressive patients may derive consolation as well as struggle from their religion. Outside the Western-Christian cultures these phenomena did not receive much empirical exploration. The current study aims to describe how positive and negative religious coping strategies relate to depressive symptoms in different ethnic groups in The Netherlands. METHODS: Interview data were derived from the second phase of the Amsterdam Health Monitor, a population based survey, with stratification for ethnicity (native Dutch N=309, Moroccan 180, Turkish 202, Surinamese/Antillean 85). Religious coping was assessed using a 10-item version of Pargament's Brief RCOPE; depression assessment included the SCL-90-R and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. RESULTS: The five positive religious coping items constituted one sub-scale, but the five negative religious coping items had to be examined as representing separate coping strategies. Across the ethnic groups, negative religious coping strategies had several positive associations with depressive symptoms, subthreshold depression, and major depressive disorder: the most robust association was found for the item 'wondered whether God has abandoned me'. Other significant associations were found for interpreting situations as punishment by God, questioning whether God exists, and expressing anger to God. LIMITATIONS: Due to the two-phase design and low participation in this urban sample, the non-response was substantial. Therefore, the study focused on associations, not on prevalences. CONCLUSION: The more or less universal finding about 'feeling abandoned by God' may suggest how depression represents an existential void, irrespective of the religious background.

Similarity in depressive symptom profile in a population-based study of migrants in the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE: Depression is a clinical syndrome developed in Western Europe and North-America. The expression of symptoms and the impact of symptoms on functioning may therefore be expected to vary across cultures and languages. Our first aim was to study differences in depressive symptom profile between indigenous and non-Western immigrant populations in the Netherlands. We hypothesized that differences in expression of depressive symptoms would be more likely in the domains of mood and cognitions, and less likely in the domains of psychomotor and vegetative symptoms. Our second aim was to study ethnic differences in the association of depressive symptoms and general functioning. METHOD: In a random community sample stratified for ethnicity in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, depressive symptoms were assessed by bilingual interviewers using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 2.1) and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Impairments in functioning were measured by the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II). Results were obtained from 812 subjects: N = 321 native Dutch, N = 213 Turkish-Dutch, N = 191 Moroccan-Dutch, N = 87 Surinamese-Dutch. Differences in depressive symptom expression were tested by differential item functioning. RESULTS: The prevalence of DSM-IV depressive disorder and the overall level of depressive symptoms were higher in the Turkish and Moroccan immigrant groups compared to native Dutch subjects. Ethnic differences in item functioning of depressive symptoms were rare, and equally unlikely in all four symptom domains. Depression was equally associated with functional impairment across ethnic groups. CONCLUSION: Although depressive symptoms were more common among migrants than in the indigenous population, both the depressive symptom profile and the associated functional impairments were comparable. These findings may help diminishing concerns about the validity of using existing diagnostic procedures among ethnic minority groups.