Health & Fitness - Age affects Asian immigrant mental health

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Age affects Asian immigrant mental health

SEATTLE (UPI) -- Asian-Americans who immigrate to the United States before age 25 have poorer mental health than those who immigrate at age 25 or older, researchers say.

Lead author Janxin Leu of the University of Washington says the study is noteworthy because it shows that using traditional measures of socioeconomic status -- number of years of school and household income -- to predict health outcomes isn't accurate for individuals who immigrate when they are children or young adults.

The study found that immigrants who arrived in the United States before they were age 25 attained higher levels of education and income than did older immigrants, however, 13 percent of the younger immigrants reported symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder in the previous 12 months compared to 9 percent of those in the over age 25 group.

"The under-25 group experiences a lot of stress, the so-called long reach of childhood that comes at a formative time of development," Leu says in a statement. "As adults, the under-25 group is doing better with English language skills and has higher levels of education and income but is experiencing more disease as adults. Early stressors are overcoming gains in income and education later in life."

The study included data from more than 1,400 foreign-born Asian-Americans -- 32 percent are Chinese, 20 percent are Filipinos and 16 percent are Vietnamese.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 07/15/2008

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