Depression and self-esteem are fundamental mental health concerns among all youth ethnic groups in the United States. In contrast to first-generation immigrants, whose socioeconomic disadvantage is not reliably associated with worsened health outcomes; mental health of second-and third-generation immigrants’ appears to be compromised by relative socioeconomic disadvantage. Previous research suggests that perceived discrimination negatively impacts mental health, yet it also appears that socioeconomic standing is positively associated with endorsing experiences of discrimination. Nonetheless, relatively little attention has been paid to examining how the interaction between socioeconomic status (SES) and perceived discrimination’s may explain variability in Latino adolescent mental health.

Using longitudinal data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), which includes data from approximately one thousand second-generation Latino immigrant adolescents sampled while attending the 8^th and 9^th grades in two metropolitan areas of the United States, we explore the associations between parental socioeconomic status (measured using income, education, and occupational status), perceived discrimination, and adolescent mental health outcomes (depression and self-esteem). Our analyses include controls for a variety of family, school, and community level characteristics, and our results provide implications for improving the understanding of mental health problems among Latino adolescents.