Healthy Immigrants? Exploring Depressive Symptoms Among Caribbean and Mexican Immigrants.
Are there disparities in depressive symptoms among immigrant groups from different countries? With data from the New Immigrant Survey (2003), which includes immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica, this paper examines the odds of depressive symptoms using a series of logistic regression analyses. It draws on segmented assimilation and the cumulative inequality theories to understand and explicate the extent to which immigrants' demographic characteristics, pre-immigration experiences, and acculturation in the USA might have an impact on immigrants' mental health outcomes. Being from Haiti; Dominican Republic; Cuba; and a woman, with unfavorable childhood health, and migrated at an early age were statistically significant predictors of depressive symptoms. Compared to Mexican immigrants, Cuban and Dominican immigrants reported higher odds of depressive symptoms, controlling for gender, age, education, and pre-immigration experiences. By contrast, Haitian and Jamaican immigrants reported lower odds of depressive symptoms. Female immigrants had higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms compared to their male counterparts. Relative to immigrants with good childhood health, those with unfavorable childhood health had higher odds of reporting worse health outcomes. In the logistic regression models, immigrants who migrated at older age reported lower odds of depressive symptoms. By shedding light on the health status of understudied Caribbean immigrant groups in comparison with Mexican immigrants, this study challenges the healthy migrant effect and serves as a starting point to guide policies that aim at decreasing health disparities among different immigrant groups.
['Abdul-Malak|Ynesse|Y|0000-0002-9471-4869']
D000328:Adult D017691:Caribbean Region D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison D003462:Cuba D003866:Depressive Disorder D004293:Dominican Republic D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants D005006:Ethnicity D005260:Female D006205:Haiti D006304:Health Status D006630:Hispanic or Latino D006801:Humans D007563:Jamaica D008297:Male D008800:Mexico D008875:Middle Aged D012959:Socioeconomic Factors D014481:United States
Immigration Depressive symptoms Mexicans Caribbean immigrants Race/ethnicity