Recent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) scholarship emphasizes that differing ACEs affect the onset and course of psychopathology, and that sociopolitical context contributes to ACEs experienced by marginalized youth. Guided by the Immigration-Related Adverse Childhood Experiences Model, we explored the associations between different ACEs-immigration enforcement fear and perceived economic hardship-on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among first and second-generation Latinx youth in immigrant families. Participants (n=306) included students from 11 high schools in two states (58% female; 25% aged 17 or older).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Journey of Hope (JoH) is an evidence-based behavioral health prevention intervention model designed for disaster-affected children and youth. While the in-person JoH model has been extensively delivered and studied, the virtual implementation of this intervention, specifically tailored for the unique needs of children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not been previously explored. In this context, authors of this article adapted the JoH to a virtual delivery model, aiming to provide access to behavioral health preventive services for children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person services were not feasible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Health Care Poor Underserved
April 2024
This study examined mental health needs and risk factors associated with service use among Latinx high school students in two cities in the United States. We explored how socioeconomic characteristics, school location, youth and parental nativity, and self-perceived clinical needs were associated with the odds of youths seeing a mental health provider. Data were collected from 306 Latinx youths during the 2018-19 school year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mexican Americans represent the largest subpopulation among Latinx persons and experience numerous health inequalities for psychological symptoms and behavioral health problems. First generation Mexican Americans are particularly vulnerable to such disparities and past work suggests that the experience of acculturative stress may play a vital role in terms of mental and physical health problems among this population. The current study sought to bridge past work on acculturative stress among first-generation Mexican Americans by exploring the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of the negative consequences of internal sensations) as a potential mediational factor in terms of psychological and behavioral health problems among this group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Discrimination is a minority-related stressor that contributes to mental health disparities between Latinx youth and their racial/ethnic peers. Discrimination activates the body's stress response system, resulting in a higher allostatic load that can cause mental health problems such as PTSD. We explored 1) the relation between perceived discrimination and PTSD symptoms among Latinx immigrant youth, and 2) how gender moderates this relation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than 500,000 US citizen migrant children were residing in Mexico in 2015, and more than half of them had limited, inadequate health insurance despite their citizenship status. The majority of these children lived in Mexican states near the US border. Despite these numbers, knowledge regarding these children and their health has been scarce.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The outbreak of the novel 2019 SARS2-Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to substantial physical and mental health consequences. Rates of mortality and hospitalization are highest among those of racial and ethnic minority persons, including Latinx persons. Further, Latinx persons have been experiencing elevated mental health problems in response to the pandemic compared to non-Latinx Whites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmergent research suggests that trauma-exposed Latinx college students are a particularly at-risk group for eating-related problems. For this reason, there is a need to further understand the cognitive processes that may underpin maladaptive eating among this vulnerable segment of the population. Participants included 304 trauma exposed Latinx college students (84.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psychological well-being of Latinx youth in immigrant families, particularly those who are most vulnerable because of their own or their loved ones' legal status. According to the Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies among Minority Children, discrimination may be one pathway to explain how vulnerability to restrictive immigration policies affects Latinx youth mental health.
Methods: We collected data from 306 Latinx high school students from immigrant families in Harris County, Texas, and Rhode Island to (1) determine the direct effect of immigration enforcement fear (a proxy for the social position of vulnerable legal status) on adolescents' anxiety; (2) explore the effect of immigration enforcement fear on anxiety through the pathway of perceived discrimination; and (3) test whether the different enforcement climates in the two study sites moderate these pathways.
There is a dearth of information on the risk of inadequate and excess gestational weight gain (GWG) among different generations of Hispanic women in the United States. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand the relationship of GWG and immigration across three generations of Hispanic women. The study was conducted using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnaccompanied minors, or "newcomer youths," come to the United States from Mexico and Central America to escape violence and persecution, and to seek financial and academic opportunities. Many newcomer youths arrive with gaps in their formal education attributed to the immigration process and the heterogeneity of their pre-U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough acculturative stress is a known individual difference factor related to poor health, little is understood about its relationship to smoking among Latinx adults. One transdiagnostic factor that may serve a mediational role in the relation between acculturative stress and smoking is anxiety sensitivity. The current study evaluated whether anxiety sensitivity mediated the relations between acculturative stress and smoking among a large sample of adult Spanish-speaking Latinx smokers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Evidence is limited on the risk of maternal smoking before and during pregnancy across generations of Hispanic immigrants.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether immigration generational status predicts maternal smoking behaviors before and during pregnancy among Hispanic women.
Methods: Data on pregnancies in National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 were used.
Between October 2013 and July 2016, over 156,000 children traveling without their guardians were apprehended at the US-Mexico border and transferred to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). During that same period, ORR placed over 123,000 unaccompanied migrant youth-predominantly from Central America-with a parent or other adult sponsor residing in the US. Following placement, local communities are tasked with integrating migrant youth, many of whom experience pre- and in-transit migration traumas, family separation, limited/interrupted schooling, and unauthorised legal status, placing them at heightened risk for psychological distress, academic disengagement, maltreatment, and human trafficking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome research suggests that pain intensity is greater among Latinx persons compared to non-Hispanic-Whites, and that the experience of more intense pain among this group is related to poorer mental health and impairment. Yet, the degree to which pain-smoking relations generalize to Latinx smokers is unknown. The present study tested whether past-month pain intensity among adult Latinx smokers was related to cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, and problems experienced during past quit attempts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol
October 2018
There are elevated rates of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and greater conditional risk of posttraumatic stress disorder among Latinx relative to other racial/ethnic groups. Such trauma-related health disparities serve to exacerbate or maintain acculturative and other types of stress among the Latinx population. Yet, little research has explored what types of individual difference factors may undergird variability in acculturative stress among trauma-exposed Latinx persons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about the specific behavioral health impact of acculturation stressors that affect Hispanic/Latino immigrant sub-groups. These immigration-related stressors and traumatic events may have differential impact on depression depending on country/region of origin. Using a measure of immigration and acculturation stress, the current study sought to determine differences in the impact of stress on six sub-groups of Hispanic immigrants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study examined the role of anxiety sensitivity in the relation between acculturative stress and mood and anxiety symptoms and disorders among Latinos seeking health services at a primary healthcare facility. Participants included 142 adult Latinos (86.6% female, M = 39.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Recent work has highlighted the link between acculturative stress and depression/anxiety symptoms among Hispanic young adults, but the nature of these relations is not well understood. The present study aimed to clarify the relation between acculturative stress and depression/anxiety symptoms by examining anxiety sensitivity, globally and via subfactors, as an explanatory variable.
Method: A cross-sectional sample of 788 Hispanic college students (80.
The present investigation examined the moderating role of mindful attention in the relation between rumination and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, arousal, and total PTSD symptoms) among trauma-exposed Latinos in a primary care medical setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough past work has shown that alcohol use co-occurs with anxiety/depression among Latinos, little work has examined the variables that qualify such associations. The present investigation sought to address whether pain severity (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Research has found that Latinos (versus non-Latino Whites) evince higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet little attention has been given to intra-individual, emotion-related processes to explicate the higher incidence of these symptoms among Latinos.
Method: Participants included 183 trauma-exposed adult Latinos (88.5% female; Mage=37.
Retrospective pre-immigration data on sexual risk and alcohol use behaviours was collected from 527 recent Latino immigrants to the USA, aged 18-34. Two follow-up assessments (12 months apart) reported on post-immigration behaviours. Using a mixed model growth curve analysis, a six-level sexual risk change variable was constructed combining measures of sexual partners and condom use.
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