The Role of Racial Microaggressions,Stress, and Acculturation in Understanding Latino Health Outcomes in the USA

A growing body of literature demonstrates important negative health effects from racial microaggressions for racial/ethnic minorities. However, at present, the bulk of the literature is focused on the case of black Americans with relatively little attention as to how this may play out for other racial/ethnic groups. Here, we examine the association of health and racial microaggressions in the case of Latinos. Furthermore, we disaggregate Latinos by language preference in order to see how acculturation to the USA may moderate the effect of racial microaggressions on health outcomes for the group. In a statistical analysis of the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examine the association between stress from racial microaggressions and self-rated health for Latinos of different levels of linguistic acculturation. We find that more acculturated Latinos (measured in terms of language preference) are more likely to experience physical stress from perceived racial microaggressions after accounting for social and demographic factors. Further, this stress is linked to overall poorer self-rated health for the group. However, we find no such association for less acculturated, Spanish-preference Latinos.     

Hiding within racial hierarchies: how undocumented immigrants make residential decisions in an American city

In the United States, the residential segregation of Latinos from whites has persisted but has fallen between Latinos and blacks. Demographers offer the size of the Latino population that is undocumented as one potential explanation for these patterns. However, little work has examined undocumented immigrants’ first-hand accounts of residential decision-making. Drawing on interviews with undocumented-headed, Latin American-origin families in Dallas, Texas, we explore how lacking legal status relates to residential selection. We find that some undocumented families perceive certain neighbourhoods to be ‘off-limits’, not only because of financial constraints, explicit legal impediments to their tenure, or individual racial preferences, but also because they perceive them as high-risk: Most sample households agree that law enforcement patrols areas with white majorities in order to exclude Latinos and, specifically, the undocumented. As a strategy to minimise the perceived risk law enforcement poses to their families’ stability, some undocumented families in the study report opting into neighbourhoods with Latino majorities in order to ‘blend in’, whereas others describe feeling safe in neighbourhoods with black majorities where they can ‘hide in plain sight’. We demonstrate how undocumented families’ perceptions of law enforcement in neighbourhoods with differing racial compositions may partly underlie trends in residential selection and stratification.     

Ethnic Variations in the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Psychological Distress Among Latino Adults

This study investigated the association between SES and psychological distress among Latinos. Data were from the National Latino and Asian American Study’s Cuban (N = 577), Mexican (N = 868), and Puerto Rican (N = 495) adult samples. Regression analysis was used to assess the association between SES measured as education, household income, and wealth and psychological distress for three Latino subgroups, respectively. Results indicate that wealth is the most important predictor for all three Latino groups. Cubans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans are all disadvantaged on wealth possession and being in debt is associated with more psychological distress for them. The health benefit of wealth is especially significant for Cubans and Puerto Ricans. In contrast with findings in many previous studies, household income is not significantly related to mental health. The finding that only wealth is weakly associated with psychological distress among Mexicans suggests that the Hispanic Health Paradox only applies to Mexicans. Education is strongly associated with distress among Cubans, with college degrees producing the largest protection from mental illness. Findings also indicate that physical health and discrimination are strongly associated with psychological distress independent of the SES measures. This study contributes to an understanding of the health significance of SES among Latinos. It highlights the importance of examining ethnic variations in the association of socioeconomic status and mental health among Latinos and of identifying the mental health impact of various measures of socioeconomic status.     

Who has Housing Affordability Problems? Disparities in Housing Cost Burden by Race, Nativity, and Legal Status in Los Angeles

Housing costs are a substantial component of US household expenditures. Those who allocate a large proportion of their income to housing often have to make difficult financial decisions with significant short-term and long-term implications for adults and children. This study employs cross-sectional data from the first wave of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey collected between 2000 and 2002 to examine the most common US standard of housing affordability, the likelihood of spending 30 % or more of income on shelter costs. Multivariate analyses of a low-income sample of US-born Latinos, whites, African Americans, authorized Latino immigrants, and unauthorized Latino immigrants focus on baseline and persistent differences in the likelihood of being cost burdened by race, nativity, and legal status. Nearly half or more of each group of low-income respondents experience housing affordability problems. The results suggest that immigrants’ legal status is the primary source of disparities among those examined, with the multivariate analyses revealing large and persistent disparities for unauthorized Latino immigrants relative to most other groups. Moreover, the higher odds of housing cost burden observed for unauthorized immigrants compared with their authorized immigrant counterparts remains substantial, accounting for traditional indicators of immigrant assimilation. These results are consistent with emerging scholarship regarding the role of legal status in shaping immigrant outcomes in the United States.     

Islam in urban spaces: The residential incorporation and choices of Muslims in Lisbon

This paper examines processes of residential settlement and incorporation of Lisbon's Muslims arriving first in the post-colonial period and later as international labour migrants. Issues related with Islam in the city are under-researched and seen as unproblematic in Portugal due to lower levels of segregation and the contemporary narrative of Portuguese tolerance. Based on an analysis of the spatiality of Islam in the metropolitan area and the individual accounts of 102 Muslims, this paper explores processes of incorporation, residential choice and belonging. The fragmented mosaic of Muslim settlement in local communities shows the role that religion can play alongside culture in creating spaces of belonging producing multiple experiences of the city. In three different localities—the inner city, an inner suburb and on the urban margin—I investigate the ways in which the cumulative action and agency of Muslim migrants over time transform local spaces and emerging structures for consecutive migrants. This paper argues that urban diversity and temporality provide a lens through which to reconceptualise the traditional choice and constraint debate to better understand the complexity of minority residential patterns and their outcomes.     

Nativity and citizenship status affect Latinos’ health insurance coverage under the ACA

ABSTRACT

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to increase health insurance access for the over 47 million uninsured people in the U.S.A., among whom ethnoracial minorities had the highest uninsured rates before the ACA. Studies have shown that Latinos have had the greatest improvements in health coverage under the ACA, but many may be at a significant disadvantage, specifically due to their nativity and immigration status, as the ACA explicitly excludes unauthorised immigrants from most of its provisions. Using the 2015 Latino National Health and Immigration Survey, a nationally representative sample of Latinos (n?=?1493), we find that variation in health insurance access among Latinos can be traced to immigration status. This study finds no differences among U.S.-born versus foreign-born Latinos in the likelihood of being uninsured in 2015. However, among foreign-born Latinos, unauthorised immigrants are five times more likely than naturalised citizens to be uninsured and less likely to visit a primary care provider or clinic, even after controlling for other factors including language, income and education.     

Understanding Differences in College Enrollment: Race,Class and Cultural Capital

Scholarship on race and class differences in educational outcomes has identified cultural capital, or cultural resources that can be utilized to increase educational success, as important mechanisms of educational inequality. However, despite substantial interest, the role of cultural capital in producing inequalities among American students remains unclear. In this research, we use nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study to clarify the relationships among race, social class, cultural capital and 4-year college enrollment. Using a theoretically based approach to operationalizing social class and measures of both cultural capital possession and activation, this research finds that while black students tend to possess fewer resources than their white counterparts at any class level, they activate cultural capital to a greater degree than white students. Results also show that while cultural capital can explain differences between low-income and middle-income students, a persistent middle-class advantage remains for both black and white students. Additionally, results indicate that at any class level, black students are more likely than their white counterparts to attend a 4-year university. Finally, results show that measures of cultural capital possession and activation have generally independent effects on college enrollment.     

“My Life was Filled with Constant Anxiety”: Anti-Immigrant Discrimination,Undocumented Status,and Their Mental Health Implications for Brazilian Immigrants

Immigration reform and the various costs associated with undocumented immigration have been in national headlines in the past few years. The growth of Latinos as the US’ largest ethno-racial minority has sparked debates about the “browning” of the United States and led to an increase in anti-immigrant discrimination. While some researchers have documented the effects of racial discrimination on the mental health of ethno-racial minorities in the United States, less has explored how anti-immigrant discrimination and undocumented status influence the mental and psychological well-being of Latino immigrants, more specifically Brazilian immigrants, in the United States. Relying on data from in-depth interviews conducted with 49 Brazilian return migrants who immigrated to the United States and subsequently returned to Brazil, this paper will examine how their experiences living as racialized and primarily undocumented immigrants in the United States influenced their mental health. Specifically, I demonstrate that respondents experienced ethno-racial and anti-immigrant discrimination and endured various challenges that had negative implications for their mental health. This paper will also discuss additional factors that researchers should take into account when examining immigrants’ mental health and the challenges immigrants encounter in a racialized society with increasing anti-immigrant sentiment.     

Influence of a Community Health Worker Intervention on Mental Health Outcomes among Low-Income Latino and African American Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

This study investigated the influence of a community health worker (CHW) diabetes lifestyle intervention on mental health outcomes. Our study was guided by the principles of community-based participatory research. Data were collected from 164 African American (N = 94) and Hispanic adults (N = 70) participating in a randomized, 6-month delayed intervention group design for improving glycemic control. The intervention time periods were baseline to 6 months for the treatment group and 6–12 months for the delayed group. Linear mixed models were used to conduct longitudinal analyses of the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) scales. In the model adjusted for demographics, the PAID dropped significantly from pre-intervention to post-intervention within both the treatment and delayed groups (p < 0.05) with an average intervention effect of ?6.4 (p < 0.01). The PAID dropped even further within the immediate group from 6 to 12 months. Although the PHQ did not change significantly, the PHQ-2 had an average intervention effect of ?0.3 (p < 0.05) in the model adjusted for demographics. This study contributes to an understanding of how a CHW-led diabetes intervention can result in positive mental health outcomes for Latinos and African Americans with Type 2 diabetes. It also highlights the importance of further exploring what factors may contribute to racial/ethnic variation in mental health outcomes for African Americans and Latinos with diabetes and the role CHWs can play.     

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Arrest: The Role of Individual,Home, School,and Community Characteristics

Contact with the justice system can lead to a range of poor health and social outcomes. While persons of color are disproportionately represented in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems, reasons for these patters remain unclear. This study sought to examine the extent and sources of differences in arrests during adolescence and young adulthood among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in the USA. Multilevel cross-sectional logistic regression analyses were conducted using data from waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 12,752 respondents). Results showed significantly higher likelihood of having ever been arrested among blacks, when compared to whites, even after controlling for a range of delinquent behaviors (odds ratio = 1.58, 95 % confidence interval = 1.27, 1.95). These black–white disparities were no longer present after accounting for racial composition of the neighborhood, supporting the growing body of research demonstrating the importance of contextual variables in driving disproportionate minority contact with the justice system.     

Financial Strain,Negative Interaction,Coping Styles,and Mental Health Among Low-Income Latinos

This study examines the relationship between financial strain and depressive symptoms in later life, and potential psychosocial mediators of this relationship. Drawing on a sample of 214 low-income Latino older adults, we used structural equation modeling to test the direct effect of chronic financial strain on depressive symptomatology, and the indirect effects via social support, negative interaction, and coping styles. Findings indicated that financial strain increased the level of depressive symptoms among this sample. Avoidance and approach-related coping styles emerged as independent determinants of depressive symptoms albeit in opposite directions; higher levels of avoidance coping was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Contrary to previous findings on the general population, findings from the current study indicate that social support and negative interaction were not directly associated with depressive symptoms. Financial strain mediated the effect of sociocultural (nativity status, years of U.S. residence) and social status factors (age, education) on depressive symptoms. This study highlights the differential impact of financial strain and coping styles on psychological well-being, and the potential psychosocial targets of interventions for older adults with chronic health care conditions.     

Attitudes of Black,White, and Hispanic Community Residents Toward Seeking Medical Help

With regard to racial/ethnic health disparities, a variable that has not been well explored is the person’s willingness to seek medical aid when symptoms appear. Until recently, there has been no comprehensive scale to measure these predispositions and their significance for public health. This study’s purpose was to determine whether specific attitudinal differences might constitute barriers to medical help-seeking for racial/ethnic subgroups. In a sample of 380 community residents responding to a mailed survey in the Hartford, CT metropolitan area, racial/ethnic differences were examined for four attitudinal aspects of medical help-seeking: action/intention, cynicism/fatalism, confidence in medical professionals, and fear/avoidance. Multivariate analyses controlling for other demographic, health crisis, and health insurance variables indicated that black, white, and Hispanic subgroups differed strongly on the battery of medical help-seeking attitudes. Although all groups were generally favorable to help-seeking, black and Hispanic respondents expressed more favorable, pro-help-seeking attitudes than did white respondents. Their attitudes were highly significant for action/intention and confidence in medical professionals. This study showed no evidence that racial/ethnic health disparities might result from negative predispositions as barriers to medical help-seeking.     

Goal-Striving Stress and Racial Differences in Mental Health

This study investigated the associations among goal-striving stress, racial related stressors, and mental health. Goal-striving stress was defined as the discrepancy between aspiration for and achievement of a better way of life, weighted by the subjective probability of success, and the level of disappointment experienced if those life goals were not realized. Data are from the National Survey of American Life’s African American (N = 3,570) and non-Hispanic white (N = 891) adult samples. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between goal-striving stress and five mental health outcomes: happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological distress, and depressive symptoms. After controlling for socio-demographic factors, a personal problems checklist, and racial discrimination, goal-striving stress was significantly related to all mental health measures such that as goal-striving stress increased, mental health worsened. Additionally, the relationship of goal-striving stress to mental health was found to be conditional upon race. Specifically, goal-striving stress had a stronger effect among white Americans than African Americans. Goal-striving stress was associated differentially with lower levels of mental health for black and white Americans. Racial differences in the impact of goal-striving stress suggest a need for analyses exploring resilience and coping in relation to the impact of goal-striving stress on black–white differences in mental health.     

Divergent pathways: the road to higher education for second-generation Turks in Austria

The article aims to explore immigrant educational pathways in relation to access to higher education (HE) in the Austrian context. Specifically focusing on Turkish youth, the author presents case studies of students who successfully entered HE in spite of their disadvantaged social, ethnic and geographic background. By further enhancing Ball’s distinction (Ball, Reay, and David 2002) between embedded and contingent choosers, the article provides an in-depth understanding of the cultural and structural context in which these students’ educational choices are played out. Finally, reaching out for Turner’s (1960 Turner, R. H. 1960. “Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System.” American Sociological Review 25 (6): 855–867.10.2307/2089982[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) notion of sponsored mobility, the article reflects on how the process of early selection reduces the opportunities for immigrant youth to access seemingly open and free HE.     

Racial Prejudice and Spending on Drug Rehabilitation: The Role of Attitudes Toward Blacks and Latinos

We enhance understanding of the prejudice-induced "color coding" phenomenon among whites by determining whether racial and ethnic prejudices are associated with a previously unexplored policy outcome, spending on drug rehabilitation. We examine attitudes toward both blacks and Latinos; the latter is a group largely ignored in previous research. We assess the impact of several types of racial/ethnic views, including those that manifest modern/indirect prejudice (e.g., stereotypes about violence, individualistic causal attributions) and those that reflect social-distance-based traditional prejudice (opposition to residential proximity and to interracial marriage). These relationships are examined using data from the General Social Survey. Bivariate results support the linkage between both traditional and modern prejudice and rehabilitation spending. Logistic regression analyses also indicate that support for rehabilitation is racialized: Attributing race differences in socioeconomic outcomes to "structural" factors, namely discrimination and lack of chance for education, is associated with believing rehabilitation spending is inadequate, controlling for the effects of other racial/ethnic attitudes and background factors. The relationship between this measure of modern prejudice and the outcome is consistent with color coding. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research that further examine the scope of color coding are offered.     

Do Expectations Make the Difference? A Look at the Effect of Educational Expectations and Academic Performance on Enrollment in Post-Secondary Education

Despite the belief that education is the great equalizer in American society, previous research has shown that the promises of educational accomplishments have not extended equally across racial/ethnic groups as minorities are less likely to matriculate to post-secondary education. Using data from the second follow-up and base year of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, we examine the impact of GPA and students’ expectations on the probability of post-secondary enrollment. Specifically, we assess the impact of low achievement on the probability of post-secondary enrollment across racial/ethnic groups. We find that low achievement acts as less of a barrier to post-secondary enrollment for minority students compared with their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Moreover, students with high expectations and low achievement experienced higher probabilities of post-secondary enrollment than students with low expectations and high achievement. Given that minority students are said to have higher expectations, we examine whether the interaction of expectations and achievement varies across racial/ethnic groups. While we did not uncover racial/ethnic differences for low-achieving students with high expectations, our findings suggest that expectations help propel all low-achieving students with high expectations into post-secondary enrollment. This study moves beyond the traditional black/white differences by including a number of racial/ethnic groups.     

How Measurement of Inequalities in Wealth by Race/Ethnicity Impacts Narrative and Policy: Investigating the Full Distribution

In recent decades, analysts and researchers have expanded understanding of economic security by adding wealth to traditional income measures of economic security, documenting substantial and growing inequalities in wealth in the USA that exceed notable income inequalities. Racial disparities in wealth have been well-documented and represent a major barrier to economic equality for communities of color. However, while the racial wealth gap is typically measured at the median due to the substantial skew of the wealth distribution, much remains unknown about racial disparities across the wealth distribution. This study aims to advance analytic discussions about measurement of racial wealth disparities examining recent trends in wealth by race/ethnicity using a more complete view of the wealth distribution. Using the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) from 2001 to 2013, results reveal that racial wealth disparities across the distribution are even more widespread than an examination of central tendencies alone can observe. Also, while all households experienced notable wealth declines in recent years during the Great Recession, African American and Latino households across the distribution of wealth were particularly affected. From 2007 to 2013, the 75th percentile of wealth for African Americans and Latinos fell by approximately 50%, while losses for whites at the third quartile were just 15%. Similar differences in impacts of the economic downturn are seen across the distribution. Examination of net worth trends over the period reveals that losses were disproportionally experienced by households of color across the wealth distribution.     

Racial Wage Disparity in US Cities

This paper estimates the conditional wage gaps between black and white full-time male workers at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level using data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses. The magnitudes of the wage gaps are found to vary substantially across location. As predicted in Becker's (The economics of discrimination, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1957) seminal theory on wage discrimination, we find that the wage gaps are greater in MSAs that have a larger proportion of black workers in the labor force. This is the most consistent result across all specifications and years. We also find the gaps to be greater where there is an overrepresented black population in jail and a more segregated population if the MSA is in the South. The proportion of workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement in the private sector is associated with greater relative black earnings. We find that although the relationship between race and wages has diminished over time as famously suggested in Wilson (The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978), the significance of race remains.     

The Fate of Obamacare: Racial Resentment,Ethnocentrism and Attitudes about Healthcare Reform

Health care has been a contentious issue in American politics for decades, and scholars are beginning to understand the reasons behind public support for, and opposition to, healthcare reform. Using national survey data, we measure the impact of various racial attitudes, including Racial Resentment and Ethnocentrism, on white support for healthcare reform. We measure participants’ attitudes across a range of important dimensions of healthcare reform and examine a randomized experiment with a control group that frames legislation as “recent” healthcare reform and a treatment condition that frames legislation as “President Obama’s” healthcare reform. The findings demonstrate that racial attitudes and Ethnocentrism continue to play a role in both support and opposition to healthcare reform.     

Perceived Racial Discrimination as a Predictor of Health Behaviors: the Moderating Role of Gender

Perceived racial discrimination (PRD) has been implicated in undermining the mental and physical health of racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., Williams et al. in Am J Public Health 93:200–208, 2003; Wong et al. in J Pers 71:1197–1232, 2003). Researchers have begun to explore the indirect role of health behaviors as one factor in helping to explain this relationship. The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between PRD and a wide range of health behaviors using a prospective, longitudinal design and to explore the role of gender in moderating these relationships. Using data from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study, we examined the relationship between adolescent PRD (accumulated across ages 14–21) and health behaviors (i.e., diet, substance use, exercise) at age 30 in a sample of middle-class black men and women. Using structural equation modeling, results revealed that more cumulative PRD during adolescence was associated with less healthy eating, more substance use (among men), and more exercise (among women) in young adulthood. Implications of these findings for understanding the role of health behaviors in explaining the link between PRD and health outcomes are considered.