Journal of Community Psychology Volume zyxwvutsrqpo 16, October 1988 Coping Responses to Psychosocial Stressors among Mexican and Central American Immigrants Amado M. Padilla, Richard C. Cervantes, Margarita Maldonado, and Rosa zyxwv E. Garcia University of California, Los Angeles This study examined the psychosocial stressors experienced by Mexican and Central American immigrants to the United States. Semistructured inter- views were conducted with 62 respondents, half of whom were males, who were nearly equally divided between Mexicans and Central Americans. Major identified group stressors were obtaining employment and related financial difficulties, the language barrier of not speaking English, and problems in adapting to the life-style of the U.S. Use of a social support network was found effective as a coping response for seeking and obtaining employment, locating a place to live, and overcoming language difficulties. Married respondents with children expressed concern about the availability of drugs and about low moral standards, which they said characterized U.S. soci- ety. Men were found to score higher on a measure of depression than were women. This may be due to greater role strain experienced by men who have limited resources to use in the care of their families. The study of adaptation of recent Latin American immigrants to the U.S. is an area of investigation that has received little systematic attention in the behavioral sciences. Although adaptation, and more specifically “coping,” has progressively become a prom- inent area of investigation in the general population (Billings zyxw & Moos, zy 1984; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978), little is known about specific coping responses used by immigrants. Information of this type is needed given the large rate of growth of the Hispanic immigrant population. Recent estimates indicate that Hispanics will constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States by the year 2000, if not sooner (Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Inc., 1984). The mental health-related needs of this growing community can only be effectively met through a greater under- standing of the psychosocial process of immigration. Systematic information is needed with respect to the specific forms of psychosocial stressors experienced by immigrants and to their adaptations to their new environment. Unlike coping research conducted with other population groups, for example, families of cancer patients (Koocher, 1986), housewives (Kandel, Davies, & Raveis, 1985), and normal community respondents (Pearlin, Menaghan, Lieberman, & Mullan, 198 l), event-specific coping research is absent for Latin American immigrants. Although a few coping studies have been conducted with Mexican-Americans (California Department of Mental Health, 1982; Mendoza, 1981; Perez, 1983), these studies have examined specific and nongeneralizable samples (e.g., university students, pregnant women). Needless to say, these studies shed little light on the specific stress and coping experiences among recent Latin American immigrants. This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Division of Biometry and Ap- plied Sciences, Minority Research Branch, Grant No. MH 24854 to the senior author, and by the UCLA Program on Mexico. Requests for reprints should be sent to Amado M. Padilla, School of Education, Stan- ford University, Stanford, CA 94305. 418