A life course perspective on acculturation and substance use among US immigrants: Investigating the role of age at migration

In this study we incorporate a life course perspective into immigrants’ health assimilation. We examine whether age at migration predicts current smoking and binge drinking and moderates the effect of length of residence on these two health behaviors using a nationally representative sample (N=7,397). Immigrant groups include those from Latin America/Caribbean, East and South Asia/Pacific/Oceania, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe/Central Asia, and Middle East/North Africa. Multivariate logistic regressions are estimated. Results show that age at migration matters in a gendered way across immigrant groups. Arriving at age 0-9 is directly associated with higher odds of binge drinking among adult women. Among adult men, age at migration moderates the association between length of residence and both smoking and binge drinking. Length of residence has more detrimental effects for adolescent migrants (arriving at age 10-18) on smoking, while its detrimental effects are more pronounced for childhood migrants (arriving at age 0-9) on binge drinking. We conclude that adolescence and childhood are critical life stages that are associated with different effects of length of residence when looking at smoking and binge drinking among immigrants.