Life Satisfaction, Acculturative Stress, Ethnic Identity, and Gender Role Attitudes among Armenian American Women

The relationships between life satisfaction, acculturation, acculturative stress, ethnic identity, and gender role attitudes among Armenian American women were explored. The convenience sample of 204 women of Armenian descent (ages 18 -77 years) residing in Southern California and in Phoenix, Arizona, completed a survey including the following measures: Demographic questions, the Armenian Ethnic Orientation Questionnaire (AEOQ-R), the Acculturation Rating Scale for Armenian-Americans-modified version (ARSAA), the Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental scale of acculturative stress (SAFE), the Traditional-Egalitarian Sex Role Scale (TESRS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The Multicultural Assessment and Intervention Process (MAIP) model was used as an organizing framework that identifies cultural factors related to wellbeing. In a stepwise regression analysis predicting satisfaction with life acculturative stress turn out to be the sole significant predictor. Those who scored lower on acculturative stress also tended to report higher life satisfaction, explaining 11% of the variance. Furthermore, women who scored higher on ethnic identity tended to be older, scored lower on acculturation and on egalitarian gender role attitudes, and reported higher acculturative stress. Younger women and those who were more educated tended to be more acculturated, and reported more egalitarian gender role attitudes.