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Abstract
Previous research has linked stress to adverse mental health outcomes among Latino adolescents living in the United States. The mechanism through which this process operates continues to be explored, especially in regions of the country where Latin American immigrants and their children have only recently begun to migrate. Our study aimed to contextualize the processes of stress and coping among Latino adolescents growing up in an emerging Latino destination in the United States—North Carolina. All adolescents in our study were either the first- or second-generation children of immigrants from Latin American countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. We used a longitudinal qualitative design, conducting in-depth interviews with 12 parent-adolescent dyads during each adolescent’s first year of high school (2006-2007) and approximately 4 years later (2009-2010). We identified four stress-coping trajectories that varied on the following dimensions: primary sources of stress, buffers countering these stressors, coping approaches, and the effects of these processes on adolescents’ striving for socioeconomic mobility. Our findings underscore the interplay between family, school, and community environments within an emerging Latino destination.
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Author Biographies
Maria Brietzke is a doctoral student in health behavior and public health. Her work seeks to better understand and help reduce health disparities in Latino communities throughout the United States. She focuses on mental health, adolescent health, and the role of stress in shaping health behavior and well-being throughout the life course.
Krista Perreira is a demographer who studies disparities in health, education, and economic well-being and inter-relationships between family, health, and social policy. Focusing on children in immigrant families, her work combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study migration from Latin America and the health and educational consequences of migration. Through her research, she aims to develop programs and policies to improve the well-being of immigrant families and their children.
