IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v366y2025ics0277953624010694.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Longitudinal determinants of thriving in Puerto Rican climate crisis migrants on the U.S. mainland: A structural equation model

Author

Listed:
  • Duque, Maria
  • Vo, Duyen H.
  • Montero-Zamora, Pablo
  • Cobb, Cory L.
  • Sahbaz, Sumeyra
  • Ertanir, Beyhan
  • Bautista, Tara
  • Watkins, Lawrence G.
  • Acaf, Yara
  • Macias, Miracle Ashley
  • Alpysbekova, Aigerim
  • Garcia, Maria Fernanda
  • Rodriguez, Jose
  • Bates, Melissa M.
  • Calderon, Ivonne A.
  • Maldonado-Molina, Mildred M.
  • Bartholomew, John B.
  • Pinedo, Miguel
  • Lee, Tae Kyoung
  • Salas-Wright, Christopher P.
  • Schwartz, Seth J.

Abstract

Climate-related disasters pose significant risks to mental health and well-being globally. Individuals from disaster-prone regions, such as Puerto Rico, are at even greater risk. The devastating effects of recurrent hurricanes, compounded with pre-existing structural disparities (e.g., poverty and corruption), can further exacerbate psychosocial vulnerabilities and drive mass migration to the United States mainland. Most research on mental health among climate migrants focuses on risks, whereas promotive factors such as thriving are often overlooked. In the present study, we estimated a longitudinal structural equation model to examine the predictive effect of psychological thriving (i.e., optimism, life satisfaction) on sociocultural thriving (i.e., income, happiness, comfort, job satisfaction), mental distress (i.e., internalizing symptoms, post-traumatic stress) and cultural stressors using three waves of data from 319 adult Hurricane Maria survivor migrants (HMSMs) who relocated to the U.S. mainland between 2017 and 2020. We also examined the mediating effect of prosocial behavior and collective efficacy in this association. Our findings indicate various direct, simple mediation, and serial mediation paths between baseline psychological thriving and outcomes. Life satisfaction and collective efficacy mediated most of the predicted indirect pathways. These results suggest that, despite facing complex challenges, HMSMs are not only adapting to their mainland communities but are also thriving.

Suggested Citation

  • Duque, Maria & Vo, Duyen H. & Montero-Zamora, Pablo & Cobb, Cory L. & Sahbaz, Sumeyra & Ertanir, Beyhan & Bautista, Tara & Watkins, Lawrence G. & Acaf, Yara & Macias, Miracle Ashley & Alpysbekova, Aig, 2025. "Longitudinal determinants of thriving in Puerto Rican climate crisis migrants on the U.S. mainland: A structural equation model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:366:y:2025:i:c:s0277953624010694
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624010694
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117615?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Oswald, Andrew J., 2012. "Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed-effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51523, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Julia K Boehm & Ying Chen & David R Williams & Carol Ryff & Laura D Kubzansky, 2015. "Unequally Distributed Psychological Assets: Are There Social Disparities in Optimism, Life Satisfaction, and Positive Affect?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Zion, Sean R. & Louis, Kengthsagn & Horii, Rina & Leibowitz, Kari & Heathcote, Lauren C. & Crum, Alia J., 2022. "Making sense of a pandemic: Mindsets influence emotions, behaviors, health, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    4. repec:plo:pone00:0130863 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Robert J Ursano & Jodi B A McKibben & Dori B Reissman & Xian Liu & Leming Wang & Robert J Sampson & Carol S Fullerton, 2014. "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Community Collective Efficacy following the 2004 Florida Hurricanes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-9, February.
    6. Charles E. Fritz & Harry B. Williams, 1957. "The Human Being in Disasters: A Research Perspective," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 309(1), pages 42-51, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Drouvelis, Michalis & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2015. "Are happier people less judgmental of other people's selfish behaviors? Experimental survey evidence from trust and gift exchange games," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 111-123.
    2. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "SWB as a Measure of Individual Well-Being," Working Papers halshs-01134483, HAL.
    3. Kelsey J. O'Connor & Stefano Bartolini, 2025. "Effects of Teaching Practices on Life Satisfaction and Test Scores: Evidence From the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(3), pages 749-774, August.
    4. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Daisy Fancourt & Christian Krekel & Sarah Swanke, 2020. "Are happier people more compliant? Global evidence from three large-scale surveys during Covid-19 lockdowns," CEP Occasional Papers 54, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    6. Paul Frijters & Christian Krekel & Raúl Sanchis & Ziggi Ivan Santini, 2024. "The WELLBY: a new measure of social value and progress," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Rui Zhang & Lin-Xin Wang & Jesus Alfonso D. Datu & Yue Liang & Kai Dou & Yan-Gang Nie & Jian-Bin Li, 2023. "High Qualities of Relationships with Parents and Teachers Contribute to the Development of Adolescent Life Satisfaction Through Resilience: A Three-Wave Prospective Longitudinal Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1339-1365, April.
    8. Krekel, Christian & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Fancourt, Daisy & Layard, Richard, 2021. "A local community course that raises wellbeing and pro-sociality: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 322-336.
    9. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Diener, Ed & Tay, Louis & Xuereb, Cody, 2013. "The objective benefits of subjective well-being," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51669, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Bodo Knoll & Hans Pitlik, 2014. "Who Benefits from Big Government? A Life Satisfaction Approach. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 14," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47495, October.
    11. Sumit S. Deole & Yue Huang, 2024. "Suffering and prejudice: do negative emotions predict immigration concerns?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-39, June.
    12. Kristen Cooper & Mark Fabian & Christian Krekel, 2023. "New approaches to measuring welfare," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 123-135, June.
    13. Nattavudh Powdthavee & Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Mark Wooden, 2013. "The Marginal Income Effect of Education on Happiness: Estimating the Direct and Indirect Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Well-Being in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n16, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    14. Mukti Clarence & Viju P. D. & Lalatendu Kesari Jena & Tony Sam George, 2021. "Predictors of Positive Psychological Capital: An Attempt Among the Teacher Communities in Rural Jharkhand, India," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(2), pages 139-160, May.
    15. Adler, Matthew D. & Dolan, Paul & Kavetsos, Georgios, 2017. "Would you choose to be happy? Tradeoffs between happiness and the other dimensions of life in a large population survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 60-73.
    16. Fernandes, Catarina R. & Yu, Siyu & Howell, Taeya M. & Wood Brooks, Alison & Kilduff, Gavin J. & Pettit, Nathan C., 2021. "What is your status portfolio? Higher status variance across groups increases interpersonal helping but decreases intrapersonal well-being," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 56-75.
    17. O'Connor, Kelsey J. & Graham, Carol, 2019. "Longer, more optimistic, lives: Historic optimism and life expectancy in the United States," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 374-392.
    18. Victoria Houlden & Scott Weich & João Porto de Albuquerque & Stephen Jarvis & Karen Rees, 2018. "The relationship between greenspace and the mental wellbeing of adults: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-35, September.
    19. Paola Iannello & Angela Sorgente & Margherita Lanz & Alessandro Antonietti, 2021. "Financial Well-Being and Its Relationship with Subjective and Psychological Well-Being Among Emerging Adults: Testing the Moderating Effect of Individual Differences," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1385-1411, March.
    20. Krekel, Christian & MacKerron, George, 2023. "Back to Edgeworth? Estimating the Value of Time Using Hedonic Experiences," IZA Discussion Papers 16308, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:366:y:2025:i:c:s0277953624010694. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.