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Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile

Research has shown that experiences of discrimination cause harm to the health and well-being of people. In terms of the identity of members of a group, a positive evaluation of that group might involve devaluing the out-group as a way of raising the endo-group, causing discrimination toward the out...

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Autores principales: García, Felipe E., Villagrán, Loreto, Ahumada, María Constanza, Inzunza, Nadia, Schuffeneger, Katherine, Garabito, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7829674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33505342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.617465
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author García, Felipe E.
Villagrán, Loreto
Ahumada, María Constanza
Inzunza, Nadia
Schuffeneger, Katherine
Garabito, Sandra
author_facet García, Felipe E.
Villagrán, Loreto
Ahumada, María Constanza
Inzunza, Nadia
Schuffeneger, Katherine
Garabito, Sandra
author_sort García, Felipe E.
collection PubMed
description Research has shown that experiences of discrimination cause harm to the health and well-being of people. In terms of the identity of members of a group, a positive evaluation of that group might involve devaluing the out-group as a way of raising the endo-group, causing discrimination toward the out-group. In the Chilean context, the Mapuche people have historically suffered discrimination and violations of their rights. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between Collective Identity, perceived experiences of discrimination, psychological well-being and distress in the inhabitants of the Mapuche conflict zone according to their sense of belonging to their ethnic group (Mapuche, Mestizo, Caucasian). This descriptive, correlative, and cross-sectional study involved 200 participants, including 94 men (47%), and 106 women (53%), between the ages of 18 and 83 years old (M = 39.02; SD = 13.45), who had lived for at least 1 year in communities in the Araucanía Region. The sample was stratified according their sense of ethnic identity, including 30% Mapuche, 33.5% Caucasian, and 36.5% Mestizo. The results show that participants with a sense of Mapuche ethnicity experienced more instances of discrimination, had a greater sense of collective identity, and that they also supported the Mapuche social movement and its methods. Based on evidence that well-being is directly related to collective identity, the study undertook a regression analysis of emotional distress and the psychological well-being of participants. The interaction between experiences of discrimination and collective identity has a significant influence. Collective identity and experiences of discrimination in themselves as well as the interaction between them, predict psychological well-being. The results suggest that the importance of the Mapuche group’s identity phenomena are related to a broad socio-historical context that leads them to identify themselves as a collective in conditions of inequality. This relationship between well-being and collective identity could be explained by their sense of cultural belonging, which can be a factor in protecting mental health.
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spelling pubmed-78296742021-01-26 Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile García, Felipe E. Villagrán, Loreto Ahumada, María Constanza Inzunza, Nadia Schuffeneger, Katherine Garabito, Sandra Front Psychol Psychology Research has shown that experiences of discrimination cause harm to the health and well-being of people. In terms of the identity of members of a group, a positive evaluation of that group might involve devaluing the out-group as a way of raising the endo-group, causing discrimination toward the out-group. In the Chilean context, the Mapuche people have historically suffered discrimination and violations of their rights. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between Collective Identity, perceived experiences of discrimination, psychological well-being and distress in the inhabitants of the Mapuche conflict zone according to their sense of belonging to their ethnic group (Mapuche, Mestizo, Caucasian). This descriptive, correlative, and cross-sectional study involved 200 participants, including 94 men (47%), and 106 women (53%), between the ages of 18 and 83 years old (M = 39.02; SD = 13.45), who had lived for at least 1 year in communities in the Araucanía Region. The sample was stratified according their sense of ethnic identity, including 30% Mapuche, 33.5% Caucasian, and 36.5% Mestizo. The results show that participants with a sense of Mapuche ethnicity experienced more instances of discrimination, had a greater sense of collective identity, and that they also supported the Mapuche social movement and its methods. Based on evidence that well-being is directly related to collective identity, the study undertook a regression analysis of emotional distress and the psychological well-being of participants. The interaction between experiences of discrimination and collective identity has a significant influence. Collective identity and experiences of discrimination in themselves as well as the interaction between them, predict psychological well-being. The results suggest that the importance of the Mapuche group’s identity phenomena are related to a broad socio-historical context that leads them to identify themselves as a collective in conditions of inequality. This relationship between well-being and collective identity could be explained by their sense of cultural belonging, which can be a factor in protecting mental health. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7829674/ /pubmed/33505342 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.617465 Text en Copyright © 2021 García, Villagrán, Ahumada, Inzunza, Schuffeneger and Garabito. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
García, Felipe E.
Villagrán, Loreto
Ahumada, María Constanza
Inzunza, Nadia
Schuffeneger, Katherine
Garabito, Sandra
Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title_full Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title_fullStr Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title_full_unstemmed Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title_short Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile
title_sort sense of ethnic belonging: relation with well-being and psychological distress in inhabitants of the mapuche conflict area, chile
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7829674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33505342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.617465
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