The Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is inhabited by twenty-six major tribal communities, exhibiting considerable diversity in their sociocultural backgrounds. Several of these tribes, including the Singpho, Khamti, Tangsa, and Tutsa, reside in the border regions that adjoin India and Myanmar. Mental health issues are prevalent among these tribes, often believed to be linked to their ongoing acculturation and alienation. The present study aimed to explore the experiences of alienation and psychological distress in the context of acculturation among Arunachalee borderland tribes, employing the constructivist grounded theory approach (Phase I). Subsequently, the psychological model that emerged in the initial phase was validated using the path analytic approach (Phase II). In phase I, we approached 29 tribal youth (17 males & 12 females) who participated in semi-structured interviews. Results revealed that their distress has three strong thematic explanations in terms of acculturation (central phenomenon), alienation, and identity conflicts. Furthermore, acculturation is sequentially connected to identity conflicts and alienation, which strongly concurs with psychological distress. The emerged psychological model in grounded theory prompted us to validate it using the path analytic method in phase II.
In Phase II, 406 tribal youth were selected through a purposive sampling method, and they recorded their responses on self-report measures of acculturation, alienation, and mental health. The findings demonstrated that alienation and identity conflicts have a significant and direct predictive relationship with mental health issues. Notably, identity conflicts and alienation served as substantial mediators in the relationship between acculturation and mental health issues. The results suggest that the mental health issues of borderland tribal youth are directly linked to their alienation and identity conflicts, and are indirectly related to acculturation. These findings are discussed in the context of existing theoretical frameworks.