Immigrant Integration and Youth Mental Health in Four European Countries

Abstract

The mental health of children of immigrant background compared to their majority peers is an important indicator of integration. We analyse internalizing and externalizing problems in 14-15-year-olds from England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (n ¼ 18,716), using new comparative data (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries). Studying more than 30 different origin countries, we find that despite potential problems with acculturation and social stress, children of immigrants-particularly from geographically and culturally distant countries-report systematically fewer internalizing and externalizing problems than the majority population, thus supporting the 'immigrant health paradox' found in some studies. However, surprisingly, we do not find that this minority advantage changes with time in the destination country. Externalizing problems are most prevalent in our English sample, and overall Swedish adolescents show the least mental health problems. A plausible account of our results is that there is a positive selection of immigrants on some persistent and intergenerationally transferable characteristic that invokes resilience in children.

The Mental Health Advantage of Immigrant‐Background Youth: The Role of Family Factors

“…If immigrants integrate into the destination country, we would expect to find a convergence toward the majority's health level across immigrant generations or across time spent in the destination country. Although some earlier studies suggested such a pattern (e.g., Harker, ; Montazer & Wheaton, ; Salas‐Wright et al, ), our previous analyses (Mood et al, in press) revealed no or very little convergence in the countries we examined. We have therefore included both the first (born abroad) and second (born in the host country to immigrant parents) generation in our immigrant origin groups, but we controlled for generation in our analyses (which did not alter the results).…”

“…Our review of the literature suggests that characteristics of immigrant families may constitute part of the mechanism underlying the mental health advantage of youth of immigrant background, and our overall hypothesis is that the advantage in mental health observed for children of immigrant background is reduced when these potential mediating factors are accounted for. We build on our previous work (Mood et al, in press) using the same data, where we were able to establish that immigrant–background youth have a mental health advantage in the European countries that we study. This holds for youth with origins in Africa, Latin America, Southern Europe, and the Middle East and to some extent among other Asian origin youths, but not for immigrants from Western countries or from Eastern Europe.…”

“…Internalizing problems is an index constructed from information about how often the respondent feels worried, depressed, and anxious or has headaches, stomachaches, and difficulties falling asleep (see Mood et al, in press). These are commonly used indicators of mental health in youth, with good reliability and validity (cf.…”

“…Not only do they experience acculturation (Berry, ; Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, & Szapocznik, ), but they may also face discrimination, socioeconomic deprivation, and contradictory expectations from parents and peers with regard to norms and behavior. Yet they have been found to have no worse, and in several studies better, mental health in terms of both internalizing and externalizing problems (e.g., Goodman, Patel, & Leon, ; Harker, ; Montazer & Wheaton, ; Mood, Jonsson, & Låftman, in press; Salas‐Wright, Vaughn, Schwartz, & Córdova, ). This paradoxical finding raises the question of what it is that could possibly instill such resilience in these children.…”

The longitudinal association between internalizing symptoms and academic achievement among immigrant and non‐immigrant children in Norway

“…Consequently, Norway experiences a demographic shift and an increase in cultural diversity, and currently many children and adolescents in Norway have an immigrant background (Fandrem, Sam, & Roland, 2009;Oppedal, 2017). A country's success in integrating immigrants' children and successful adaptation of children of immigrants are vital social policy issues for many countries including Norway due to its longterm consequences for well-being of immigrant members and vitality of host countries (Mood, Jonsson, & L aftman, 2016;Motti-Stefanidi, Asendorpf, & Masten, 2012a). The better understanding of adaptation processes, hence, became a necessity for both scholars and policy-makers in the receiving countries (Berry, Phinney, Kwak, & Sam, 2006;Schiefer, M€ ollering, & Daniel, 2012).…”