Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms From Adolescence to Adulthood Among Multiple Latino Subgroups

The social determinants approach to mental health and theories of inequalities in developmental psychopathology guide this analysis of Latino/a youth's depressive symptomology from adolescence into adulthood. When applied to Latino/a populations, these frameworks emphasize the importance of national ancestry and immigration group differences in shaping risk and protective factors that will impact life course development of depressive symptoms or other mental health concerns. However, few studies have examined how such factors jointly affect mental health outcomes over time. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study describes levels and trajectories of depressive symptoms, from adolescence into adulthood, among Mexicans (n = 755). Cubans (n = 182), Puerto Ricans (n = 219), and Other Latinos (n = 289). The analysis accounts for associations over time with respondents' sense of belonging, and both subjective (i.e., neighborhood satisfaction, social cohesion, intergenerational roots) and objective (i.e., socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic composition) neighborhood indicators at Wave I. Results indicate evidence of quadratic and cubic age trajectories. The impacts of neighborhood risk and protective factors on depression symptoms differed by various Latino subgroups.