Immigration Generation Status and its Association With Suicide Attempts, Substance use, and Depressive Symptoms Among Latino Adolescents in the USA

This study investigated the relation between suicide attempts & immigration generation status using the Latino subset of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Findings revealed immigrant generation status was a determinant for suicide attempts, problematic alcohol use, repeated marijuana use, & repeated other drug use for Latino adolescents. American-born Latinos with immigrant parents were 2.87 times more likely to attempt suicide than were foreign-born youth. Later-generations of American-born Latino youth were 3.57 times more likely to attempt suicide. Results from the path analysis indicated repeated other drug use may mediate the effect of generation status on suicide attempts. (42 refs.)