Immigration Status and College Students’ Psychosocial Well-Being

Abstract

Differences in psychosocial well-being were examined between college students with abject immigration status (i.e., undocumented, other temporary documentation), students with permanent status (i.e., U.S. citizenship, permanent residency), and students with visas using a set of one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The data were collected from 76 institutions participating in the Healthy Minds Study during the 2018–2019 academic year. Measures of psychosocial well-being included positive mental health, anxiety, depression, discrimination, campus inclusion, and ethnic identity. Results revealed that on all measures, except ethnic identity, students with abject immigration status experienced worse well-being than other students, and these differences were statistically significant. Findings have implications for strengthening campus supports for immigrant students in response to their psychosocial well-being needs.