Recent scholarship suggests a significant association between cross-border ties, or ties maintained with family and friends in countries and communities of origin, and the mental health of immigrants and their descendants. To date, this research has been exclusively cross-sectional, precluding conclusions about a causal association between cross-border ties and mental health outcomes. In the present study we undertake a longitudinal analysis of the relationship between cross-border ties and depression measured over a ten-year period for a sample of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinos. Data are from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (1998-2008), a population-based, prospective study of Latin American-origin adults 60 years and older. We find that cross-border ties reported at baseline were significantly associated with depression in subsequent study waves, even after controlling for the presence of depression at baseline, albeit with substantial differences by gender and nativity. Specifically, communication with family and friends in Latin America and travel to Latin America at baseline were each significantly associated with greater odds of depression for immigrant women, but with lower odds of depression for U.S.-born Latina women over the study period. Travel to Latin America at baseline was significantly associated with lower odds of depression for Latino men across the study. Across all models we control for depressive symptomatology at baseline to account for the reciprocal nature of depressive symptoms and engagement with social ties, including cross-border ties. Our findings suggest that cross-border ties may represent a unique source of both resilience and risk for the long-term mental health of immigrant Latinos and their descendants. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

Social ties Transnationalism Cross-border ties Latinos Depressive symptoms

symptomatology prospective study depression immigrant South and Central America longitudinal study Latin America mental health human Prospective Studies Longitudinal Studies middle aged Internationality controlled study health status Aged international cooperation procedures Hispanic Americans United States cross-sectional study Humans psychology Hispanic California male female Aged, 80 and over very elderly nationalism elderly population Psychometrics Latino people Article psychometry major clinical study adult migration Emigration and Immigration devices immigrant population