Duration or disadvantage? Exploring nativity, ethnicity, and health in midlife

Objectives. This study examined nativity as a risk factor for poor physical and emotional health for an ethnically diverse population making the trans ition into retirement. The authors addressed whether the health disadvantag e observed for immigrants lessens with increased time spent in the country (supporting theories of assimilation) or increases with duration of residen ce (supporting theories of cumulative disadvantage). Methods. The sample was drawn from Waves 1 and 2 of the Health and Retireme nt Study (FIRS), an in-depth economic, social, and health database of perso ns in midlife and beyond. The analyses were restricted to 9,912 native-born and 1,031 foreign-born individuals. Results. The data revealed that after socioeconomic factors were controlled , foreign-born individuals were at higher risk of poor emotional health tha n their native-born counterparts. Although aging immigrants displayed worse health than the native-born population, this disadvantage was mediated by duration of residence (young age at migration) and socioeconomic incorporat ion. Discussion. These findings extend our understanding of nativity and duratio n as risk factors for poor physical and emotional health. Immigrants may ov ercome the nativity disadvantages found for emotional distress with increas ed duration of residence, but the pattern becomes more complicated with the inclusion of race and Hispanic ethnicity.