According to the 2000 U.S. Census data, there are nearly 2 million Asian Indians in the United States. As the young Indian-American population continues to grow, it becomes imperative to examine their daily experiences of adaptation.
The aims of this study include: 1) To understand factors involved in the psychological and behavioral adaptation of U.S. and India-born Indian-American men and women by administering a survey to 300 Indian-Americans; 2) To examine the interplay between ethnic identity, cultural value conflict, social support and adaptation among these students; 3) To examine the moderator role of gender in these relationships. 4) To examine group differences between Indian-born and U.S. born participants on the above mentioned variables. Adaptation will be operationalized as low levels of depression social anxiety, loneliness, and absence of substance abuse. Participants will be recruited from targeted cities in the U.S. where the majority of Indian-Americans reside and will answer a survey posted on an Internet website. It is hypothesized that cultural and psychosocial factors will predict mental health and substance abuse among Indian-Americans. ? ?
