Poster #210 - Exploring the healthy immigrant effect in a sample of Montreal’s schools adolescents

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Background :The better health of recent immigrants to developed countries has come to be known as the ‘healthy immigrant effect’ (HIE).This effect and its underlying factors have been well studied in the adult population but much less in the adolescents where heterogeneous patterns (mixed results) have been found in previous studies ( Vang, Sigouin, Flenon and Gagnon 2015). The aim of this study is to explore this effect by comparing three adolescent groups of different immigration status regarding mental health and other risk factors such as smoking, alcohol and substance use.
Method: This cross-sectional descriptive exploratory study used the data from the Coventure project, a longitudinal survey of secondary school students in Montreal. The sample consisted of 2756 students of 1.5 generation (n=333)(born outside Canada but arrived to the country in their early teans), second generation (n=890)(participants born in Canada with a least one parent born outside Canada) and third generation (n=1533)(participants and both parents born in Canada). Mental health was measured with 11 items of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), which assesses the level of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The level of smoking, alcohol and substance use was assessed with the DEP-ADO. One-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of generation status on mental health and the risk factors.
Results : With the BSI, no statistical difference was found between the 1.5 generation and the second or third generation on depression and anxiety subscales or suicidal ideation item. For the identified risk factors, the 1.5 generation demonstrated less substance use than third generation but not less than the second generation (F(2,2724)= 42,92, p <0.001). On a single item analysis, the same results were found for alcohol use (F(2,2724)= 95,76, p <0.001), cannabis use (F(2,2724)= 15,3, p <0.001), and cigarette use (F(2,2742)= 15,3, p <0.001) where a lesser use of those items was found in the third generation compared to the second and the first one.
Conclusion: In our study, we explored the healthy immigrant effect in our representative sample of Montreal’s adolescent population. We found a statistically significant association between generation status and risky behaviors but a greater variation concerning the association between generation status and mental health as no association was found between generation status and depression or anxiety. These results coincide with previous findings ( Pena, Wyman, Brown, Matthieu, Olivares, Hartel and Zayas 2009) and raise important questions to be addressed in future research such as the factors explaining the differences in findings between adult and adolescent populations regarding the healthy immigrant effect as well as exploring the moderating or mediating factors behind the associations found in this study. Longitudinal studies would also be useful to assess the trajectories of the healthy immigrant effect.

Authors

• Aida Saade, University of Montreal
  Presenting Author

• aram mahmoud, CHU Sainte-JustineResearchCenter,DepartmentofPsychiatry,Universityof Montreal,Montreal,QCH3T1C5,Canada
  Non-Presenting Author