Risk factors for mental health of Technical Intern Trainees from the Philippines / 国際保健医療

ABSTRACT

Introduction  The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors related to the mental health of technical intern trainees from the Philippines in Japan, which focus on the relationship between their acculturation strategies and mental health.Method  Mental health, acculturation strategies, acculturative stress, job stress, social support and demographic factors including Japanese language proficiency were used for the variables in the English version of self-administered questionnaire. A total of 180 (115 men, 47 women and 16 gender unreported) Filipino technical intern trainees participated in this study. The data of 132 (95 men, 37 women) participants who completely answered the questionnaires were analyzed.Results  Results showed that gender, marital status, existence of children, Japanese language proficiency, acculturation strategies and acculturative stress were significantly related to the mental health of Filipino technical intern trainees. Results also showed that social support was significantly related to Japanese language proficiency and acculturation strategies for acquisition of Japanese culture. Conclusions  Findings suggest that factors contributing to the worsening of mental health of Filipino technical intern trainees are (a) being male, (b) existence of a child/children, (c) single marital status, (d) low Japanese language proficiency, (e) low acquisition of Japanese culture, and (f) high acculturative stress. Findings also suggest low levels of social support are risk factors related to low Japanese language proficiency and low acquisition of Japanese culture. Support programs for improvement in Japanese language skill and familiarizing with Japanese culture may be an effective way to maintain positive mental health in Filipino technical intern trainees. In addition, an establishment of environment to be able to easily and adequately receive psychological support from their family members living in the Philippines may be important to their mental well-being.