Background: Immigrants and refugees face disproportionate mental health challenges, including elevated depressive symptoms. However, little is known about the socioemotional and systemic factors that contribute to depression in this population in Canada. Depression risk is influenced not only by individual emotional processes but also by social and systemic factors. Emotional dysregulation and heightened negative affect can increase vulnerability, whereas social connectedness to both mainstream society and one's ethnic community may serve as protective factors. Experiences of race-based traumatic stress, discrimination, and systemic marginalization further exacerbate depression risk. Despite these known risks, few studies have comprehensively examined how these emotional, social, and systemic factors interact to influence depressive symptoms among immigrants and refugees. The present study aimed to (1) identify the emotional, social, and systemic predictors of depressive symptoms and (2) examine their combined contributions to depression in this population.


Methods: A total of 183 immigrants/refugees from Canada (Mean age = 30.89; 45.70% women) participated in this study.


Results: At the emotional level, greater emotional dysregulation (B= .07, p = .037) and negative affect (B= .25; p <.001) were more likely to experience higher depressive symptoms (R2= 21.9%). At the social connectedness level, higher social connectedness to mainstream society (B= -.14, p = .017) and own ethnic minority group (B= -.27, p < .001) were less likely to experience depressive symptoms (R2= 22.4%). At the systemic level, more experience of race-based traumatic stress was strongly associated with depressive symptoms (B= .07; p < .001; R2= 33.6%).


Discussion: These findings underscore the substantial mental health burden experienced by immigrants and refugees in Canada and underscore the importance of addressing both socioemotional and systemic factors that contribute to depression. Culturally responsive interventions tailored to the unique experiences of this population may be essential for mitigating depression risk and promoting improved mental health outcomes.