Experiences with Depression: Los Angeles Area Female Iranian Immigrants in Late Adulthood

Abstract

This study examined mature Iranian women relocating to the Los Angeles area during or after the 1980s Iran-Iraq War who developed conditions of depression in the aftermath of immigration. Phenomenological research was employed to analyze the participants’ experiences of difficulties faced from war, immigration, and acculturation processes in light of their psychological strengths and challenges. Biographical, narrative-style interviews of four elder Iranian-American women facilitated not only a description of the study phenomenon but also how the participants themselves made sense of their experiences. Loneliness, social marginalization, and acculturative stress were found to be associated with anxiety and depression. Participants’ mechanisms for coping with acculturative stress were influenced by expectations for the future, level of education, family and social support, socioeconomic status, host country language proficiency, and self-perception of their capabilities. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, the interview data yielded four themes: departing Iran, disruption and distress during resettlement, becoming part of a new and different society with a concomitant sense of loss, and experiencing depression. In their fundamental calculus for leaving Iran—to gain security and safety in the United States—the participants had grossly underestimated and were unprepared for the significant emotional and financial consequences and psychological stresses of immigration. Based on its findings, the study suggests that augmenting social worker and caseworker visitations with individual or group therapy sessions and programs of linguistic and cultural learning may improve social contacts and diminish feelings of isolation.