Immigrant Generational Disparities in Suicide Ideation

• In Event: 4412 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Latina/o/xs and Health

Abstract

Understanding how immigrant status and various dimensions of integration impact well-being is becoming increasingly important with the growth of the immigrant population generally and the growth of the immigrant children population specifically. While research consistently reveals a healthy immigrant paradox, whereby the foreign-born are healthier both physically and mentally, research also suggests that the protective effect of immigrant status wanes quickly with increasing time in the US and with successive immigrant generations. This research assesses how immigrant heterogeneity impacts the risk of suicide ideation --- an acute measure of mental distress. Using data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Survey, this research asks: 1. Does increased exposure to the American mainstream correspond with an increased risk of suicidality? and 2. Are the factors that increase or suppress risk of suicidality immigrant specific? First, we examine the prevalence of suicide ideation among immigrants distinguishing generation (nativity, age at migration, and cohort of migration) and then compare these rates to those found among third-plus US born respondents to assess differences in the relative risk of suicide ideation. Second, melding research on mental illness with research on immigrant generational disparities to better understand the factors that give risk to suicide ideation, we test the predictive capacity of a number of traditional risk factors (e.g., psychiatric disorders, social context, social support) of suicide ideation and immigrant specific risk factors (e.g., age at migration, generation, reason for migration) to investigate whether immigrants are differentially susceptible to suicide. Preliminary findings suggest that strategies that cluster all foreign-born individuals together mask important variation in mental health outcomes found between immigrant groups. Understanding the factors that place individuals at increased risk for suicidality is imperative given that the public health consequences of suicide are disproportionately faced by a rapidly growing segment of the US population.

Authors

• Bianca E. Bersani, University of Massachusetts-Boston

• Melissa Morabito, University of Massachusetts-Lowell