Mental Health Outcomes of Latin American Children by Parent Nativity Status

Overview: This study explores the mental health outcomes of Latin American children by parent nativity. Eight models were developed to examine depression and anxiety symptomology across four subgroups of parent nativity. Making friends, discrimination, parental incarceration, and other predictors were found to be significantly associated with anxiety and depression symptomology.Proposal text: According to the US Census Bureau (2020), there are a total of over 58 million Latin Americans in the United States (US), over 18 million of those are children (Kids Count Data Center, 2020). Youth are one of the subgroups that are more susceptible to mental distress due to immigration and acculturation among Latin Americans (Mental Health America, 2021). Furthermore, Latin Americans have made up more than 50% of the US population growth over the past decade (Krogstad, 2020). As we move into the future, it is expected that by 2060, Latin Americans will make up close to 30% of the population (Mental Health America, 2021). These staggering statistics make research in understanding mental health outcomes of this population pertinent in terms of overall child health across the nation. Without identifying the unique experiences of immigrant children, clinicians may run the risk of pathologizing their experiences, which may lead to stereotypes and alienation of some Latin American children (Rogers-Sirin et.al. 2014). While prior scholarly work has investigated outcomes of children from non-immigrant families compared to immigrant families (Caballero et. al., 2017; Logan et. al., 2012) this is the first study, to this author’s knowledge, exploring the mental health outcomes of Latin American children in the US of more than two levels of parent nativity and the subgroup of children being US born with parents unidentified using the theory of acculturative stress.
The aim of this study was to explore the mental health outcomes of Latin American children in the US by four levels of parent nativity using the theory of acculturative stress. The four groups of parent nativity include first-generation families, second-generation families, third-generation families, and U.S.-born children with parents not listed. The 2020 National Survey of Children’s Health was used to obtain a sample of 4,444 Latin American children stratified into four groups by parent nativity status. Following the confirmation of between-group differences using Pearson’s Chi-Square, binomial logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression was used to create eight models analyzing outcomes of depression and anxiety symptomology for each of the four groups. The single consistent significant acculturative stress predictor throughout all models of depression and anxiety symptomology among the sample was difficulty making friends. Acculturative stress factors such as discrimination based on race and sexual orientation among second and third-generation children and parental incarceration among first-generation children were also found to be significantly associated with anxiety and depression symptomology. This study also highlights the importance of examining sociodemographic factors in their relation to outcomes of depression and anxiety on Latin American children. Attention is also called to the need for further examination of factors such as discrimination and parental incarceration on children in specific generational groups. Implications for practice and research are discussed.