TY - JOUR
T1 - Parental immigrant status and adolescent mental health in the United States
T2 - Do racial/ethnic differences exist?
AU - Degboe, Arnold
AU - Belue, Rhonda
AU - Hillemeier, Marianne
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - Aims: To examine the relationship between mental health problems and parental immigrant status in a representative sample of US adolescents aged 12-17. Method: We analyzed the US 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) restricted to 32,849 adolescents aged 12-17. Parents or guardians in random-digit-dial sampled households were interviewed by telephone from April 2007 through July 2008 about one of their children, selected at random. Five mental health measures were used: prior medical diagnoses of (a) depression, (b) anxiety, and (c) behavioral problems; parental reports of the adolescent (d) feeling inferior/worthless, and (e) episodes of being withdrawal from others. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the relationship between mental health problems and parental immigrant status. Results: Overall, 19.4% of adolescents had at least one immigrant parent. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, all adolescents with immigrant parents have decreased odds of behavioral problems (OR 0.43, p<.000), but no significant differences in the odds of depression, anxiety, worthlessness, and withdrawal compared to adolescents with US-born parents. Similarly, White, Black, and Hispanic adolescents with immigrant parents had decreased odds of behavioral problems (OR 0.35, p<.000; OR 0.31, p<.01; and OR 0.24, p<.05, respectively) compared to their counterparts with US-born parents. Conclusion: Evaluation of psychological and mental health problems among adolescents in the United States should take parental immigrant status and other sociodemographic factors into account.
AB - Aims: To examine the relationship between mental health problems and parental immigrant status in a representative sample of US adolescents aged 12-17. Method: We analyzed the US 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) restricted to 32,849 adolescents aged 12-17. Parents or guardians in random-digit-dial sampled households were interviewed by telephone from April 2007 through July 2008 about one of their children, selected at random. Five mental health measures were used: prior medical diagnoses of (a) depression, (b) anxiety, and (c) behavioral problems; parental reports of the adolescent (d) feeling inferior/worthless, and (e) episodes of being withdrawal from others. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the relationship between mental health problems and parental immigrant status. Results: Overall, 19.4% of adolescents had at least one immigrant parent. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, all adolescents with immigrant parents have decreased odds of behavioral problems (OR 0.43, p<.000), but no significant differences in the odds of depression, anxiety, worthlessness, and withdrawal compared to adolescents with US-born parents. Similarly, White, Black, and Hispanic adolescents with immigrant parents had decreased odds of behavioral problems (OR 0.35, p<.000; OR 0.31, p<.01; and OR 0.24, p<.05, respectively) compared to their counterparts with US-born parents. Conclusion: Evaluation of psychological and mental health problems among adolescents in the United States should take parental immigrant status and other sociodemographic factors into account.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00636.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00636.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84867746676
SN - 1475-357X
VL - 17
SP - 209
EP - 215
JO - Child and Adolescent Mental Health
JF - Child and Adolescent Mental Health
IS - 4
ER -