Mental Health in Mariel Cubans and Haitian Boat People

This article presents prevalence data on four specific mental disorders in samples of 452 Cuban immigrants who arrived during the Mariel crisis and 500 Haitians who arrived at about the same time. The disorders are: Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Alcohol Disorder, and Psychosis. Cubans had higher rates of disorder than Haitians at all levels of education and income, but only in the Cuban sample was the standard inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and rate of mental disorder observed. These and other results presented suggest no single theory can explain the relationship of immigration to the range of specific mental disorders.