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Ethnic clothes 'make teenagers healthier'

15/04/2008

Young people from minority groups will be happier if they are allowed to address according to the customs of their own ethnicity, a study published today claims.

Unlike having friends from their own culture, psychiatrists from Queen Mary's University of London found young people allowed to wear clothes in custom with their ethnic background are likely to be more mentally stable.

They claim teenagers are especially vulnerable to mental health problems and argue clothing and friendships can have an important effect on their lives.

Nearly 1,000 white British and Bangladeshi 11- to -14-year-olds took part in the study.

The Bangladeshi girls wearing traditional dress only were found to be more happy later on in life than those dressing in a mixture of their own and western cultures.

Both male and female white British pupils, mixing clothes from their own and other cultures, enjoyed "relatively good mental health".

"Clothing choices as measures of cultural identity are important for girls and boys, but the pattern of associations differs across ethnic groups," they concluded.

"Traditional clothing choices may bolster self-esteem through a positive group identity; this may help with psychological adaptation if these choices reflect the
local communities' 'lay policy' for managing cultural adaptation when national policies are ineffective."

The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.