Pre-migration and post-migration factors may influence the health of immigrants. Using a cross-national framework that considers the effects of the sending and receiving social contexts, we examined the extent to which pre-migration and post-migration factors, including individual and neighborhood level factors, influence depressive symptoms at a 2-year follow-up time point. Data come from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, a population-based prospective cohort of Puerto Ricans between the ages of 45 and 75y. The association of neighborhood ethnic density with depressive symptomatology at follow-up was significantly modified by sex and level of language acculturation. Men, but not women, experienced protective effects of ethnic density. The interaction of neighborhood ethnic density with language acculturation had a non-linear effect on depressive symptomatology, with lowest depressive symptomatology in the second highest quartile of language acculturation, relative to the lowest and top two quartiles among residents of high ethnic density neighborhoods. Results from this study highlight the complexity, and interplay, of a number of factors that influence the health of immigrants, and emphasize the significance of moving beyond cultural variables to better understand why the health of some immigrant groups deteriorates at faster rates overtime. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Depressive symptomatology Pre-migration and post-migration factors Latinos/Hispanics Acculturation immigrant mental health Ethnic density

pre migration factor post migration factor prospective study depression Puerto Rico immigrant demography Massachusetts poverty population density follow up mental health human Prospective Studies sex difference middle aged Aged social interaction Health Surveys language ethnology Hispanic Americans neighborhood Residence Characteristics Humans migrant psychology Hispanic male Emigrants and Immigrants Acculturation female population research cultural factor Latino people Article adult Social Environment migration Puerto Rican Sex Factors cohort analysis ethnicity cultural influence Boston health survey