Objective. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to deepen our understanding of how Chernobyl-related, and Non-Chernobyl related—demographic, migration-related, and personal-characteristic factors mediate the long-term mental health of Chernobyl disaster survivors who have chosen to relocate to the United States. Specifically, this study explored how variables such as geographical proximity, knowledge about the disaster, educational level, self-rated English language proficiency, American acculturation, reasons for immigrating and cumulative number of negative lifetime events were related to the long-term mental health of disaster victims exposed to a toxic disaster, specifically the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Methods. The present study is a secondary analysis of 306 subjects from data previously collected by Dr. RoseMarie Perez Foster between 1999 and 2001, in an investigation of the mental-health and psychosocial affects of Chernobyl disaster in a cohort of then-recent immigrants to the United States from the former Soviet Union. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze Chernobyl related and Non-Chernobyl related factors as predictors of depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Results. The findings of the secondary data analysis indicated that the Chernobyl-related factor of proximity was a predictor of poor mental health outcomes. Less knowledge was associated with greater likelihood of developing PTSD. Among Non-Chernobyl related demographic variables, education was associated with increased likelihood of predicting anxiety in the bivariate analysis. Migration variables of English language fluency and American acculturation were found to be significant predictors of psychological distress in the bivariate models. Positive reasons for immigration "positive pull" had no effect on the mental health outcomes, while the personal characteristic factor of cumulative negative lifetime events was found to be a significant predictor of long-term psychological distress.