Physical and Mental Health Consequences of Aging in Place and Aging Out of Place Among Black Caribbean Immigrants

Abstract

Our purpose in this article was to examine the influences of age group, timing of immigration, and race/ethnicity on self-reported health, self-esteem, and serious mental disorders among Black Caribbean immigrants to the United States. Analyses of the recently collected National Survey of American Life (Jackson et al., 2004) revealed that immigrants have better self-reported physical health and mental health than nonimmigrant ancestry group members. Age group, however, moderates and complicates this relationship. Black Caribbeans who immigrated more recently tend to have better self-reported health; older, more recent immigrants have lower self reported health than those who are older and have lived longer in the United States. Similar results were found for the prevalence rates of reported any lifetime or 12 month Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) mental disorders.