Hodges James C, Oh Sehun, Salas-Wright Christopher P
Department of Social Work, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA.
College of Social Work, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43235, USA.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2025 Sep 17. doi: 10.1007/s00127-025-02995-0.
Stress-based theories suggest that sexual minority Hispanic migrants are at increased risk of adverse behavioral health outcomes. However, a body of descriptive evidence shows migrants exhibit improved health outcomes. Responding to calls for intersectional investigations of the 'healthy migrant effect,' we quantitatively examine whether sexual minority status moderates the relationship between English proficiency (a proxy for acculturation) and behavioral health.
We used pooled cross-sectional data from the Hispanic respondents to the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. We used logistic regression models to examine the association of the level of English proficiency with past-year major depressive episode (MDE) and past-year substance use disorder (SUD) and used interactions to examine the moderating effect of sexual minority status.
For both MDE and SUD, sexual minority Hispanic individuals with lower levels of English proficiency had lower odds of reporting adverse outcomes than sexual minority individuals with higher levels of English proficiency and did not have significantly different outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. The direction of these relationships did not change when stratified by gender.
There appears to be a healthy migrant effect with regard to sexual minority Hispanic individuals and behavioral health outcomes. This also suggests that acculturation may be a uniquely important risk factor for this population. Preventative efforts should be targeted at this group to avoid the development of behavioral health concerns.
基于压力的理论表明，性少数西班牙裔移民出现不良行为健康结果的风险增加。然而，一系列描述性证据显示移民的健康结果有所改善。为回应有关对“健康移民效应”进行交叉性调查的呼吁，我们定量研究了性少数身份是否会调节英语水平（文化适应的一个指标）与行为健康之间的关系。
我们使用了2015 - 2019年全国药物使用和健康调查中西班牙裔受访者的汇总横断面数据。我们使用逻辑回归模型来研究英语水平与过去一年的重度抑郁发作（MDE）及过去一年的物质使用障碍（SUD）之间的关联，并使用交互项来研究性少数身份的调节作用。
对于MDE和SUD而言，英语水平较低的性少数西班牙裔个体报告不良结果的几率低于英语水平较高的性少数个体，且与异性恋个体相比，其结果并无显著差异。按性别分层时，这些关系的方向没有改变。
对于性少数西班牙裔个体和行为健康结果而言，似乎存在健康移民效应。这也表明文化适应可能是该人群一个尤为重要的风险因素。预防措施应针对这一群体，以避免出现行为健康问题。
