Publications by authors named "Nalini Junko Negi"

The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered social service provision with significant public health implications as social services often target society's most vulnerable with preventative health services addressing social determinants of health. Social service providers serve as crucial linkages to services for low-income Latinx immigrants who face substantial barriers to health and social care. However, little is known regarding how social service providers working with Latinx immigrants navigated service delivery and the rapid transition to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Despite a well-documented relationship between social isolation and health among men, this link has been understudied among marginalized populations such as undocumented immigrant men whose structural social exclusion may impede the cultivation and maintenance of social connections in the United States. This may be particularly so in new immigrant settlement cities that may lack an established Latina/o community or the social infrastructure often needed to ease the process of social integration. Studies that have examined social disconnectedness, social isolation, and/or loneliness have largely focused on individual level factors (i.

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Although recent rhetoric links undocumented immigrants to criminality, reports indicate undocumented immigrants commit less crime than their native-born counterparts and that this vulnerable group may be at increased risk for criminal victimization. Immigrants living in new immigrant settlement cities may be particularly at risk for exposure to criminal victimization due to the vulnerabilities associated with a lack of an established Latino community and limited availability of culturally appropriate social services to provide support. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of victimization and its social and psychological toll of a street-recruited sample of Latino day laborers (LDLs) (N = 25) living and working in Baltimore, a new immigrant settlement city.

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Objectives: The American agricultural industry is heavily reliant on Latina/o workers, yet there is scant understanding regarding the mental health of this population. This gap in the literature is glaring as Latina/o farmworkers are a highly vulnerable group who experience high rates of occupational risks and health hazards. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine individual, social and work-related correlates of depression among Latina/o horse workers.

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The Mexico-USA border is one of the most active borders in the world with many migrant men traveling to the United States to serve as "breadwinners" for their families. Yet knowledge within psychology is limited regarding how Latino migrants' masculine identities may be shaped within the migration context as a vast majority of studies are set within the United States. This gap in the literature continues to exist despite many Latino migrant men's engagement in transnational lifestyles involving multiple migrations between their country of origin and the United States.

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Hispanics are disproportionately affected by substance use and related health harms yet remain underrepresented across scientific disciplines focused on researching and addressing these issues. An interdisciplinary network of scientists committed to fostering the development of social and biomedical researchers focused on Hispanic substance use and health disparities developed innovative mentoring and career development activities. We conducted a formative evaluation study using anonymous membership and conference feedback data to describe specific mentoring and career development activities developed within the national network.

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Latino day laborers (LDLs) are at elevated risks for disease and injury because of the environments in which they work. Despite this recognition, a comprehensive examination of factors related to LDLs' health service use remains unexamined. Using the Andersen model, the current exploratory study examined predisposing (age, education level, location of educational training, legal status, and marital status), enabling (income, trust in medical personnel, whether the respondent has someone they consider their personal doctor, and whether their doctor speaks the same language, perceived barriers to care), and need (self-rated health, number of chronic conditions) variables to predict use of health services among a purposive sample of LDLs ( N = 150).

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Nationally, a new trend in migration has included the settlement of Latina/o immigrants in cities without an established community of Latinas/os. Social services become even more salient in this context in the absence of informal social networks of support. This study, guided by social ecological theory, advances our limited understanding of social services in new immigrant settlement destinations by elucidating contextual and structural factors endemic to the social service delivery process in these new immigrant destinations.

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This phenomenological study elucidates the identity development processes of 12 second-generation adult Asian Indian Americans. The results identify salient sociocultural factors and multidimensional processes of racial and ethnic identity development. Discrimination, parental, and community factors seemed to play a salient role in influencing participants' racial and ethnic identity development.

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Objective: This study examines the factor structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18; Derogatis, 2001) in a hard-to-reach population of mainly undocumented migrant Latino day laborers. While, the BSI-18 has been found to be a valid and reliable measure of psychological distress, cross-cultural assessments in sub-groups of Latinos are scarce withthis being the first study to examine the factor structure of the Spanish version of the BSI-18 with this population.

Methods: A series of principal axis exploratory factor analytic procedures examining one to three-factor models were performed with a street recruited sample of 150 Latino migrant day laborers.

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Reports indicate that the criminal victimization of Latino immigrants in the United States has been increasing yet is often underreported. This may be especially true in new immigrant settlement cities that lack an established Latino community to provide support and feelings of security. New Orleans is an important context to investigate criminal victimization as it has experienced a large demographic shift in Latino composition post-Hurricane Katrina.

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This article presents an exploration of undocumented, Latino male immigrants in the United States, and assesses the impact of new state policies and their implications for social work practice. To meet its aims, we describe the psychosocial risks that they face, and situated these risks within the context of new state policy realities. Implications for practice are presented.

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Day labor is comprised of predominately male and recent Latino immigrants, mainly from Mexico and Central America who work in an unregulated and informal market. Three-quarters of the day labor force is undocumented and live under the federal poverty threshold as work is seasonal and highly contingent on the weather and the local economy. However, in spite of their exposure to significant health risks, little is known about the impact of Latino day laborers' (LDLs) work and life conditions on their mental health.

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Despite the growing number of language minorities, foreign-born individuals with limited English proficiency, this population has been largely left out of social work research, often due to methodological challenges involved in conducting research with this population. Whereas the professional standard calls for cultural competence, a discussion of how to implement strategies for culturally competent research with language minorities is regrettably limited in the social work literature. This article is, to the authors' knowledge, one of the first within the field of social work to tie together unique methodological issues that may arise throughout the research conceptualization, development, and implementation process with this population.

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Whereas the number of girls involved in the juvenile justice system is on the rise, little is known about female juvenile offenders after they reach adulthood. This study aims to explore the meaning that young adult women ascribe to their juvenile court experiences and assess their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to progress in their adult lives. Data on services and support are presented from nine semistructured interviews.

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Day labor is largely comprised of young Latino immigrant men, many of who are undocumented, and thus vulnerable to a myriad of workers' rights abuses. The difficult work and life conditions of this marginalized population may place them at heightened risk for mental health problems and substance use and abuse. However, factors related to Latino day laborers' well-being and substance misuse are largely unknown.

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The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina have contributed to a dynamic demographic shift in the Latino composition of New Orleans. This article focuses on a particularly deleterious pattern of crack cocaine smoking associated with numerous social and health consequences. Utilizing a rapid assessment methodology, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 52 Latino immigrant day laborers in New Orleans.

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The Latino population is the fastest growing group in the United States; thus, it is imperative that social workers and other mental health practitioners be knowledgeable about the current literature on how to effectively serve this population. This article elucidates key issues and knowledge, such as immigration and migration concerns; discusses how to assess for levels of acculturation; examines cultural values; and highlights salient work issues and health disparities that Latinos experience. Recommendations on how agencies and universities can recruit and promote bilingual practitioners are introduced.

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