The immigrant paradox on internalizing symptoms among immigrant adolescents

Abstract

Understanding the immigrant paradox on health outcomes among UK's immigrant adolescents will greatly complement the research on immigrants that has already been established there by economists and interdisciplinary fields. This study used the first Longitudinal Study of Young People in England 2004–2010 database (N = 15,770) to determine a) whether there was evidence of the immigrant paradox on internalizing mental health symptoms between first generation (n = 753) and second plus generation (n = 3042) 14/15 year old immigrant adolescents in England and b) whether differences (if any) were moderated by ethnicity group membership (Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Asian Other, White Immigrant). Findings demonstrate that overall first generation adolescent immigrants had statistically fewer internalizing symptoms as compared to second plus generation, and that this was especially true for Black African adolescents. Effect sizes measures however indicated that these differences were negligible. Implications for protective factors and future studies are briefly discussed.