Recent immigrants saw biggest spike in mental distress as anti-immigrant sentiment increased

Key takeawaysAll immigrants were affected. Even California immigrants living in the U.S. for 15 years or more experienced 50% increases in serious psychological distress.Citizenship status matters. California ’s immigrant adults with and without a green card saw more than double the increases in serious psychological distress than adults who were naturalized citizens.Effects of English proficiency. Immigrants who spoke only English were the sole subgroup not to show an increase in serious psychological distress.Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are widely known to have harmful impacts on mental health, but a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research revealed large disparities in rates of serious psychological distress across immigrant subgroups in California.Serious psychological distress was defined as severe, diagnosable mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety that warrant mental health treatment within a population. It was based on the number and frequency of symptoms reported in the year prior to being surveyed.Recent immigrants were the most affected. For immigrants living in the United States fewer than five years, rates of serious psychological distress increased 140%, from 5% of those surveyed between 2015 –17 to 12% for those surveyed between 2019–21.By comparison, adult immigrants overall saw a 50% increase — from 6% to 9% — according to the brief, which is based on 2015–21 data from the center’s annual Califor...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news