Crisis migration and youth mental health: The moderating influences of culture, context, and community - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Crisis migration has increased significantly over the last decade, with urgent calls within the United States (U.S.) to develop better programs and policies to support newly immigrated youth and their families seeking refuge.1 In recent years, patterns of migration from Venezuela to the U.S. have dramatically increased, as Venezuela continues to grapple with humanitarian, socio-political and economic crises.3,4,15 Many migrant youth from Venezuela have likely been exposed to dire circumstances (i.e., food insecurity) in their country,17,18 only to be met with further stressors such as, language barriers, acculturation stress and prejudice,6,20 upon resettling in the U.S. Given the unique pre and post migration experiences and stressors that can occur, it is critical to understand how to best support the mental health and wellbeing of newly arrived families from Venezuela. The proposed project leverages an existing NIMHD-funded R01 (MD015920) grant examining pre and post migration factors impacting adjustment in recently arriving Venezuelan families seeking refuge in the U.S. The mixed-methods dissertation project at the center of this R36 proposal seeks to understand the mental health impacts of crisis migration on recently arriving Venezuelan youth, and to examine key risk and protective factors that moderate these mental health impacts. Aim 1 will examine links between youth crisis migration experiences in Venezuela and subsequent youth anxiety and traumatic stress symptoms in the U.S. and Aim 2 will evaluate the extent to which cultural, community, and contextual factors (e.g., ethnic pride, neighborhood context) may impact the mental health effects of crisis migration (N=300). Building on these quantitative analyses, Aim 3 employs a qualitative approach to explore caregivers’ perspectives in their own voice (N=15) on individual youth, family, and community protective strengths, as well as caregiver reflections on intersections between socio-political structures and their children’s mental health. Findings from this proposed project can help inform best practices for supporting Venezuelan migrants, as well as other youth populations in the U.S. adjusting in the aftermath of crisis migration.
