Familial Experiences of Crisis Exposure and Cultural Stress With Depressive Symptoms Among Venezuelan Parent‐Adolescent Dyads in the United States

ABSTRACT Studies suggest that Venezuelan migrant families in the United States face both pre‐migration crisis exposures and post‐migration cultural stressors, both of which may influence their depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined how familial pre‐ and post‐migration stressors additively and interactively predict depressive symptoms among Venezuelan parents and adolescents. We examined whether (a) pre‐ and post‐migration stressors can be modeled as family‐level latent constructs reflecting shared experiences and perceptions between Venezuelan migrant parents and adolescents, and (b) these family‐level constructs are involved in (b1) mediated and (b2) moderated processes leading to parent and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 278 Venezuelan parent‐adolescent dyads in the United States (74% mothers, 50.5% daughters; parent M age = 41.82, adolescent M age = 13.97). Longitudinal structural equation modeling, across two waves of data, was used to test the study hypotheses. Results indicated that both pre‐ and post‐migration stressors among parents and adolescents converged into shared family constructs. Pre‐migration family stressors predicted greater depressive symptoms for both parents and adolescents through post‐migration family stressors (with marginally significant effect for adolescents). Moderated effects differed by reporter: for parents, post‐migration family stressors were more strongly associated with their depressive symptoms when pre‐migration family stressors were higher; whereas for adolescents, the association was stronger when pre‐migration family stressors were lower. Findings highlight the importance of addressing shared family stress in interventions aimed at reducing depressive symptoms among crisis‐affected migrant families in the United States.