Individual-level measures of acculturation (e.g. age of immigration) have a complex relationship with psychiatric disorders. Fine-grained analyses that tap various acculturation dimensions and population subgroups are needed to generate hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of action for the association between acculturation and mental health.

Study participants were US Latinos (N = 6359) from Wave 2 of the 2004–2005 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 34 653). We used linear χ2 tests and logistic regression models to analyze the association between five acculturation dimensions and presence of 12-month DSM-IV mood/anxiety disorders across Latino subgroups (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, ‘Other Latinos’).

Acculturation dimensions associated linearly with past-year presence of mood/anxiety disorders among Mexicans were: (1) younger age of immigration (linear χ21 = 11.04, p < 0.001), (2) longer time in the United States (linear χ21 = 10.52, p < 0.01), (3) greater English-language orientation (linear χ21 = 14.57, p < 0.001), (4) lower Latino composition of social network (linear χ21 = 15.03, p < 0.001), and (5) lower Latino ethnic identification (linear χ21 = 7.29, p < 0.01). However, the associations were less consistent among Cubans and Other Latinos, and no associations with acculturation were found among Puerto Ricans.

The relationship between different acculturation dimensions and 12-month mood/anxiety disorder varies across ethnic subgroups characterized by cultural and historical differences. The association between acculturation measures and disorder may depend on the extent to which they index protective or pathogenic adaptation pathways (e.g. loss of family support) across population subgroups preceding and/or following immigration. Future research should incorporate direct measures of maladaptive pathways and their relationship to various acculturation dimensions.