AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY MEDIATES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACCULTURATION ORIENTATIONS AND DEPRESSION FOR SYRIAN IMMIGRANTS

Ersoy Deniz H.

SARMAC, Kildare, İrlanda, 11 - 14 Haziran 2025, ss.1-5, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Kildare
  • Basıldığı Ülke: İrlanda
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-5
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Immigration is a major life transition that requires people to rebuild a coherent sense of self between their heritage and host cultures. Autobiographical memory (AM) supports self-coherence and psychological health, and remembering is shaped by personal goals. Treating acculturation orientations as personal goals, this study examined whether the characteristics of pre-migration memories, post-migration memories and autobiographical future projections mediate the relationship between acculturation orientations and psychological health (depression and anxiety). We expected pre-migration memory features to matter more for the link between heritage orientation and depression, and post-migration features to matter more for the link between host orientation and depression.

The sample was 297 Syrian immigrants living in Türkiye (M_age = 31.20; 149 female). Participants completed the Vancouver Index of Acculturation, the episodic and future subscales of the Survey of Autobiographical Memory, and the Autobiographical Recollection Test. The memory measures were given twice, once for pre-migration experiences and once for post-migration experiences.

Heritage orientation was linked to lower depression through the vividness, coherence, rehearsal, scene and life-story centrality of pre-migration memories. Pre-migration rehearsal was the only significant mediator for anxiety. Host orientation was linked to lower depression through post-migration episodic recall, scene, visual imagery and life-story centrality, and also through pre-migration coherence and scene. Unexpectedly, future projection had a positive indirect effect, linking host orientation to higher depression.

Most indirect effects were significant, but they were small (explained variance 2–6%), and some models fit poorly. The findings suggest that pre- and post-migration memories play distinct roles in acculturation and should be examined separately. They also have implications for interventions that support immigrants’ mental health.