Emotional Challenges of Undocumented Young Adults: Ontological Security, Emotional Capital, and Well-being (original) (raw)
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Social Science & Medicine, 2017
Exclusionary immigration policies, as a form of structural racism, have led to a sizeable undocumented population that is largely barred from access to resources in the United States. Existing research suggests that undocumented immigration status detrimentally impacts mobility, yet few studies have tested the impacts of legal status on psychological wellbeing. Most importantly, we know little about how changes to legal status impact wellbeing. Announced in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program allows eligible undocumented youth to apply for temporary lawful status. Drawing on crosssectional survey data from 487 Latino immigrant young adults in California collected in 2014 and 2015, we analyze the predictors of three specialized outcomes related to immigrants' psychological wellbeingddistress, negative emotions, and deportation worry before and after a transition from undocumented to lawfully present status. Results show that retrospective reports of past psychological wellness, when all respondents were undocumented, are predicted primarily by socioeconomic status. However, reports of current psychological wellness are predicted by DACA status. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, the positive emotional consequences of transitioning out of undocumented status for immigrant young adults.
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 2016
Undocumented immigrant young adults growing up in the United States face significant challenges. For those qualified, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program's protections may alleviate stressors, with implications for their mental health and wellbeing (MHWB). We conducted nine focus groups with 61 DACA-eligible Latinos (ages 18-31) in California to investigate their health needs. Participants reported MHWB as their greatest health concern and viewed DACA as beneficial through increasing access to opportunities and promoting belonging and peer support. Participants found that DACA also introduced unanticipated challenges, including greater adult responsibilities and a new precarious identity. Thus, immigration policies such as DACA may influence undocumented young adults' MHWB in expected and unexpected ways. Research into the impacts of policy changes on young immigrants' MHWB can guide stakeholders to better address this population's health needs. MHWB implications include the need to reduce fear of deportation and increase access to services.
Journal of Applied Communication Research, 2018
Drawing from resilience theory, we explored the strategies that Mexican immigrant youth used to cope with stressors from being undocumented. On the basis of semi-structured interviews with 30 high school students who emigrated from Mexico to the United States, we identified several stressors from being undocumented, including having limited opportunities, fear of deportation, and exposure to negative reminders of their undocumented status. To manage such stressors, students utilized individual coping strategies (e.g. diversion, reframing, normalizing). In addition, the families of undocumented youth employed various coping strategies to help buffer their children against stressors from being undocumented (e.g. protecting the family unit, positive future, emotional support, limited communication). From our findings, we developed a preliminary model that describes the stress and coping of the undocumented youth in this study, which can extend past theorizing on resilience and thriving, as well as inform the design of community-based programs and policies for undocumented youth and their family.
Invisible Lives and Hidden Realities of Undocumented Youth
This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of undocumented youth and the mental health impacts of living in daily fear of detention and deportation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the repercussions of living without immigration status, and the descriptive data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results indicate that lack of immigration status is associated with mental health issues, particularly anxiety. Absence of immigration status is implicated as a decisive social factor influencing individuals’ mental and social well-being.
A social ecological study of psychological distress among recently immigrated, Latina young adults
Journal of Latinx Psychology, 2019
The present study examined potential individual-, cultural-, and interpersonal-level determinants of psychological distress among young adult Latina immigrants during their initial months in the United States (US). Five hundred thirty participants (aged 18-23 years old) immigrated an average of one year before assessment. Higher levels of psychological distress (as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory, Derogatis & Fitzpatrick, 2004) were associated with undocumented immigration status, more immersion in the dominant (US) society, and more acculturative stress. Participants who more strongly endorsed certain marianismo beliefs [i.e., Latina women should be (a) the spiritual leaders of their family and are responsible for the family's spiritual growth and (b) virtuous and chaste] indicated less distress. Participants who endorsed the belief that Latina women should be subordinate and self-silencing to maintain harmony in relationships reported more intense distress. Women who endorsed the belief that Latinas should be the main source of strength for their family also reported more distress. Participants' attachment to their social network served as a moderator of several direct effects. Participants who experienced close attachment to their social network and more ethnic immersion reported substantively less distress than other participants did. Participants reporting lower attachment and lower endorsement of the virtuous and chaste belief experienced more distress than their peers did. Participants indicating lower attachment and higher endorsement of subordinate and self-silencing beliefs also reported more distress than peers did. Finally, participants who spent less time in the US and reported lower
Sufren Los Niños : Exploring the Impact of Unauthorized Immigration Status on Children's Well-Being
Family Court Review, 2012
The present study examines the effect of unauthorized immigration status on child well-being at a time of elevated immigration rates, economic decline, and unprecedented local lawmaking related to immigration. Immigrant families today are likely to differ from those of the past in that they are more likely to be from Latin America or the Caribbean and include unprecedented numbers of unauthorized immigrants. In addition, they are settling in destinations that have not historically had immigrant populations. The present study draws on interviews with 40 families from an emerging immigrant destination in north central Indiana to help illuminate the ways in which unauthorized immigration status influences child well-being. Results illustrate that unauthorized status extends beyond the individual to families and that mixed-status family situations create unique challenges for these families. More specifically, these results show the ways in which unauthorized immigrant status may impact family stress and uncertainty, health outcomes, and educational attainment and may result in increased social isolation for children in immigrant families.
Depression and Anxiety Among First-Generation Immigrant Latino Youth
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2010
We examined how the migration and acculturation experiences of first-generation Latino youth contributed to their psychological well-being. Data came from the Latino Adolescent Migration, Health, and Adaptation (LAMHA) study, which surveyed 281 first-generation Latino immigrant youth, ages 12-19. Using logistic regression, we evaluated how migration stressors (i.e. traumatic events, choice of migration, discrimination, and documentation status) and migration supports (i.e. family and teacher support, acculturation, and personal-motivation) were associated with depressive symptoms and anxiety. We found that migration stressors increased the risk of both depressive symptoms and anxiety. Time in the US and support from family and teachers reduced the risk of depressive symptoms and anxiety. Compared to documented adolescents, undocumented adolescents were at greater risk of anxiety, and children in mixed-status families were at greater risk of anxiety and marginally greater risk of depressive symptoms.