Painful Passages: Traumatic Experiences and Post-Traumatic Stress among U.S. Immigrant Latino Adolescents and their Primary Caregivers

Using data from a stratified random sample of 281 foreign-born adolescents and their parents in the United States, this study provides data on migration-related trauma exposures and examines how the migration process influences the risk of experiencing trauma and developing post-traumatic stress dis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International migration review 2013-12, Vol.47 (4), p.976-1005
Main Authors: Perreira, Krista M., Ornelas, India
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Biological and medical sciences
Caring
Disorders
Familism
Hispanic Americans
Immigrants
Medical sciences
Migration
Neighborhoods
Parents
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Poverty
Primary health care
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Risk
Risk assessment
Social Support
Teenagers
Trauma
U.S.A
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using data from a stratified random sample of 281 foreign-born adolescents and their parents in the United States, this study provides data on migration-related trauma exposures and examines how the migration process influences the risk of experiencing trauma and developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We find that 29 percent of foreign-born adolescents and 34 percent of foreign-born parents experienced trauma during the migration process. Among those that experienced trauma, 9 percent of adolescents and 21 percent of their parents were at risk for PTSD. Pre-migration poverty combined with clandestine entry into the U.S. increased the risk of trauma and the subsequent development of PTSD symptoms. Post-migration experiences of discrimination and neighborhood disorder further exacerbated this risk, while social support and familism mitigated it. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding how factors prior to, during, and after migration combine to influence the health of immigrants.
ISSN:0197-9183
1747-7379
DOI:10.1111/imre.12050