Familial Experiences of Crisis Exposure and Cultural Stress With Depressive Symptoms Among Venezuelan Parent-Adolescent Dyads in the United States.

Studies suggest that Venezuelan migrant families in the United States face both pre-migration crisis exposures and post-migration cultural stressors, both of which may influence their depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined how familial pre- and post-migration stressors additively and interactively predict depressive symptoms among Venezuelan parents and adolescents. We examined whether (a) pre- and post-migration stressors can be modeled as family-level latent constructs reflecting shared experiences and perceptions between Venezuelan migrant parents and adolescents, and (b) these family-level constructs are involved in (b1) mediated and (b2) moderated processes leading to parent and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 278 Venezuelan parent-adolescent dyads in the United States (74% mothers, 50.5% daughters; parent Mage = 41.82, adolescent Mage = 13.97). Longitudinal structural equation modeling, across two waves of data, was used to test the study hypotheses. Results indicated that both pre- and post-migration stressors among parents and adolescents converged into shared family constructs. Pre-migration family stressors predicted greater depressive symptoms for both parents and adolescents through post-migration family stressors (with marginally significant effect for adolescents). Moderated effects differed by reporter: for parents, post-migration family stressors were more strongly associated with their depressive symptoms when pre-migration family stressors were higher; whereas for adolescents, the association was stronger when pre-migration family stressors were lower. Findings highlight the importance of addressing shared family stress in interventions aimed at reducing depressive symptoms among crisis-affected migrant families in the United States.