Developing Mental Health/Illness Phenotypes of Recently Arrived Latinx Immigrants: A Latent Profile Analysis of Symptom Severity, Trauma Exposure and Individual Characteristics

Background and Purpose: Migration from Latin America to the U.S. has been on the rise in recent years and forced migration has become a prominent form of migration from the region. Yet there is a significant gap in research understanding the mental health outcomes among new immigrants from Latin America and how exposure to trauma shape those outcomes. Our study objectives were to: 1) Leverage latent profile analysis (LPA) to study mental health phenotypes in an understudied immigrant population of recent Latinx immigrant adults arriving to the U.S. southern border; 2) Develop profiles of mental health symptom severity in a population that experiences high levels of trauma.

Methods: We collected 321 surveys with newly arrived Latinx immigrant adults at the U.S. southern border. Participants were recruited, consented and surveyed at a respite center on the U.S. southern border. The study recruited adults 18 years or older, who immigrated from a Latin American or Caribbean country, understood basic Spanish (or English) and arrived to the U.S. within 14 days of participation. We use basic descriptive statistics for demographics of our study sample and use latent profile analysis by creating mutually exclusive classes within our sample based on symptom severity of depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Results: Our sample was 67% female and had an average age of 32 years; 57% came from a Central American country, 35% from a South American country, and 78% of respondents were traveling with children. Our LPA analysis yielded five classes that most efficiently fit the data with Class 1 experiencing the lowest symptom severity and Class 5 the highest. Classes 4 and 5 were significantly more likely than classes 1 and 2 to be female. Classes 4 and 5 experienced significantly higher ACEs scores that Classes 1 and 2. Although traumatic experiences are very prevalent in the full sample, Classes 4 and 5 experience higher proportions of traumatic experiences assessed in our study. Individuals in Class 5 spent significantly more days in Mexico compared to other classes.

Conclusion: This latent profile analysis strongly suggests that recently arrived Latinx immigrants are a diverse population with significant variation in psychiatric symptoms which argues for varied approaches in delivering care for this population. Additionally, this research has important implications for understanding the clinical needs of newly arrived Latinx immigrants and can inform the delivery of existing interventions in culturally sensitive ways.