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Discrimination and mental health of Somali immigrants in North America: a longitudinal study from 2013 to 2019

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Abstract

Purpose

Immigrant mental health is closely linked to the context of reception in the receiving society, including discrimination; past research has examined this relationship only cross-sectionally. This longitudinal study examines the relationships between discrimination and mental health among Somali immigrants living in North America from 2013 to 2019.

Methods

Data for 395 participants (mean age 21 years at Time 1) were collected through the four-wave Somali Youth Longitudinal Study in four cities: Boston, MA, Minneapolis, MN, Lewiston/Portland, ME, and Toronto, ON. Latent linear and quadratic growth models were used to predict mental health symptoms over time and discrimination’s role in these changes.

Results

PTSD and anxiety symptoms decreased from 2013 to 2015 and subsequently increased. Depression was static from 2013 to 2015, worsening thereafter. Increases in discrimination predicted increases in mental health symptomatology at all timepoints.

Conclusion

This study provides support for discrimination’s toxic impact on mental health and suggests that recent increases in discrimination may have contributed to worsening mental health among Somali immigrants living in North America.

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Notes

  1. A non-significant chi-squared test would indicate that a model has zero error which is rather a non-realistic assumption in applied research which is why the statistic is oftentimes abandoned and attention is given solely on descriptive fit indices and residual values.

  2. Statistical non-significance does not mean that zero adjustments were made. Trauma accounted for some miniscule amounts of variance of depression at the commencement of the study, but that effect was not significantly different from zero.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Naima Agalab of the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, who has been a partner in our work with the Somali community from the beginning and has provided leadership and training in their efforts to build community leadership teams in other cities. We thank Somali community advisors Farah Aw-Osman, Fatuma Hussein, Sharif Mohammed, and Rilwan Osman for their guidance and invaluable contribution to this project. We also thank Osob Issa for her efforts on recruitment and obtaining consent. And finally, we thank the community youth who took time to share their stories.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R21 MD012405). The findings and conclusions expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Boston Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Mail Stop BCH 3199, Boston, MA, 02115-5724, USA

    B. Heidi Ellis, Seetha H. Davis & Emma Cardeli

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    B. Heidi Ellis, Georgios Sideridis & Emma Cardeli

  3. Institutional Centers for Clinical and Translational Research, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Georgios Sideridis

  4. School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Saida M. Abdi

  5. Departments of Sociology and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Alisa K. Lincoln

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  1. B. Heidi Ellis
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  2. Georgios Sideridis
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  3. Seetha H. Davis
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  4. Emma Cardeli
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  5. Saida M. Abdi
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Correspondence to B. Heidi Ellis.

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Ellis, B.H., Sideridis, G., Davis, S.H. et al. Discrimination and mental health of Somali immigrants in North America: a longitudinal study from 2013 to 2019. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 57, 1049–1059 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02235-9

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