Pacific Islands Families Study: The Association of Infant Health Risk Indicators and Acculturation of Pacific Island Mothers Living in New Zealand

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Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 42(5) 699 –724 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0022022110362750 jccp.sagepub.com

Articles

Pacific Islands Families Study: The Association of Infant Health Risk Indicators and Acculturation of Pacific Island Mothers Living in New Zealand

Jim Borrows1, Maynard Williams1, Philip Schluter2, Janis Paterson3, and S. Langitoto Helu4

Abstract

The Pacific Islands Families study follows a cohort of 1,398 Pacific infants born in Auckland, New Zealand. This article examines associations between maternal acculturation, measured by an abbreviated version of the General Ethnicity Questionnaire, and selected infant and maternal health risk indicators. Findings reveal that those with strong alignment to Pacific culture had significantly better infant and maternal risk factor outcomes than those with weak cultural alignment. In terms of Berry’s classical acculturation model, separators had the best infant and maternal outcomes; integrators had reasonable infant and maternal outcomes, while assimilators and marginalisors appeared to have the poorest infant and maternal outcomes. These findings suggest that retaining strong cultural links for Pacific immigrants is likely to have positive health benefits.

Keywords

acculturation, infant health risk, Pacific health, culture and health

Introduction and Background

People of Pacific ethnicities resident in New Zealand are overrepresented in many adverse social and health statistics. Pacific peoples generally fare worse than the New Zealand population as a whole in statistics relating to health, unemployment, housing, crime, income, education, and nutri- tion (Bathgate, Donnell, & Mitikulena, 1994; Cook, Didham, & Khawaja, 1999). Despite the

1Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand 2School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand, and the University of Queensland, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Australia 3School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand 4School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Corresponding Author: Jim Borrows, C/-Professor Philip Schluter, School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies, AUT University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, New Zealand. Email: jborrows@talk.co.nz

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