Prevalence and Associated Factors of Mental Health Problems Among Internally Displaced Persons In-Transit in Mexico

Ietza Bojorquez, Israel Ibarra-González, Gabriel Pérez-Duperou and Carlos Hernández

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2026, vol. 72, issue 3, 638-646

Abstract: Background: Little is known about the mental health of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in-transit to their intended destinations. Many Mexican IDPs travel to the Mexico-United States border to apply for asylum, and remain there for weeks or months. Aims: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms among in-transit IDPs in the Mexico-United States border. Method: Cross-sectional, non-probability survey in shelters in Tijuana (September–October 2023). Participants were adult, Mexican IDPs. We evaluated depression and anxiety with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), and post-traumatic stress symptoms with the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5). As independent variables, we considered social stratifiers, loss of social networks, time since displacement and in Tijuana, and direct experiences of violence. Results: Among 247 participants, 69% had mild-severe depression and anxiety (50% in heterosexual cis-men, 76% in heterosexual cis-women, and 64% in sex- and gender-diverse persons), and 50% post-traumatic stress symptoms (33% in heterosexual cis-men, 56% in heterosexual cis-women, and 33% in sexually- and gender-diverse persons). Heterosexual cis-women had higher scores than heterosexual cis-men (β = .67, p  

Keywords: migrants; forced displacement; mental health; depression; anxiety; post-traumatic stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640251377112 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:72:y:2026:i:3:p:638-646

DOI: 10.1177/00207640251377112

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().