摘要：Objectives . This study examined the differential effects of poverty on the mental health of foreign-born children, Canadian-born children of immigrant parents, and children of nonimmigrant parents. Methods . Secondary analysis of data from a national Canadian study of children between 4 and 11 years of age was conducted. Results . Compared with their receiving-society counterparts, foreign-born children were more than twice as likely to live in poor families, but they had lower levels of emotional and behavioral problems. The effect of poverty on children's mental health among long-term immigrant and receiving-society families was indirect and primarily mediated by single-parent status, ineffective parenting, parental depression, and family dysfunction. In comparison, the mental health effect of poverty among foreign-born children could not be explained by the disadvantages that poor families often suffer. Conclusions . Poverty may represent a transient and inevitable part of the resettlement process for new immigrant families. For long-stay immigrant and receiving-society families, however, poverty probably is not part of an unfolding process; instead, it is the nadir of a cycle of disadvantage. The apparently good mental health of immigrant children is a paradox. Familial poverty jeopardizes children's mental health and productivity, 1– 3 and immigrant families typically are poorer than their host country counterparts. 4 Nevertheless, immigrant children are at least as healthy as majority-culture children and often outperform them in school. 5– 9 Immigration policy provides a partial explanation. Admission to Canada and the United States is neither random nor easy. As a result of selective immigration, many migrant households consist of well-educated, occupationally skilled, healthy people. 5, 10 Selection probably is only part of the answer, however. Although many newly arrived immigrant families are poor, factors that are specific to immigrant life may invest poverty with a different meaning for newcomers, compared with receiving-country families. For example, poverty in immigrant families apparently does not invoke the panoply of associated risk factors that it does for majorityculture families. 11 In addition, protective factors associated with immigrant family life may counteract some of the negative effects of poverty. 12– 14 To date, few empiric studies have directly examined the effect of poverty on immigrant children's mental health or the role that familial factors may play in mediating the relationship between the two. Using data from a recent national survey of Canadian children, we examined the relation between familial poverty and emotional and behavioral problems among immigrant children, Canadian-born children of immigrant parents, and children of nonimmigrant parents, as well as the role of family environment and social context in explaining the relationship between poverty and mental health in each of these 3 groups. Although material deprivation may exert directly deleterious mental health effects, 14– 17 economic disadvantage also is linked with ineffective parenting, parental psychopathology, intrafamilial hostility, and single-parent families—each of which can be independent, additive sources of mental health risk. 3, 15– 22 Poverty jeopardizes the mental well-being of mothers and fathers 18 —which, in turn, adversely affects the mental health of their children. 18– 20, 22 Intrafamilial hostility is another possible link between economic adversity and mental health: Socioeconomic disadvantage often creates or aggravates marital dissatisfaction, conflict, and aggression within families, 20 thereby jeopardizing children's mental health. 15, 18, 19 Sixteen percent of Canadian children 23 and 25% of US children 24 live in single-parent families. Although single-parent households tend to be poor households, 25, 26 poverty does not account for the association between single-parent family structure and emotional ill health. Regardless of household income, single-parent status increases the risk for childhood psychiatric disorders. 19, 23 In this study we examined putative explanatory links between poverty and mental health among immigrant children, Canadian-born children in immigrant families, and nonimmigrant children. Previous research highlights the importance of ethnocultural context in exploring etiologic links, 27 so we explored possible differences among immigrant and nonimmigrant children from varying ethnocultural backgrounds.
