Abstract
To mitigate the negative impact of resource needs on child health, practices serving low-income immigrant families have implemented screening programs to connect families to community resources. Little is known about how duration of US residence relates to patterns of resource needs and indicators of acculturation such as community resource knowledge/experience or self-efficacy. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a convenience sample of immigrant families with young children at an urban primary care clinic. These families were seen 5/2018–1/2020 for well child care, screening positive for ≥1 social need using a tool derived from Health Leads. Analysis of 114 families found that newly arrived families with a shorter duration of US residence (≤5 years) were more likely to report immediate material hardships like food insecurity and need for essential child supplies. Newly arrived families were also less likely to have access to technology resources such as a computer or smartphone. Long-term families with a longer duration of US residence (≥15 years) were more likely to report chronic needs like poor housing conditions, but also reported increased community resource knowledge/experience and increased self-efficacy. Primary care pediatric practices should assess immigration contextual factors to identify subgroups such as newly arrived families with young children to target resources (e.g., increase screening frequency) or enhance services (e.g., patient navigators) to relieve resource needs.
Highlights
-
This was a study of immigrant families with young children at a federally qualified health center with a social resource screening program.
-
Newly arrived immigrant families were more likely to report material hardships like food insecurity, essential child supplies, and technology needs (e.g., computer, smart phone).
-
Given society’s increased reliance on virtual services, screening tools should incorporate technology resources (e.g., computers, high speed internet).
-
Intervention strategies should identify subgroups such as newly arrived families with young children to target resources (e.g., increase screening frequency) or enhance services (e.g., patient navigators) to relieve resource needs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afable, A., Yeh, M.-C., Trivedi, T., Andrews, E., & Wylie-Rosett, J. (2016). Duration of US Residence and Obesity Risk in NYC Chinese Immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 18(3), 624–635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0216-y.
Bornstein, M. (Ed.). (2019). Handbook of Parenting: Volume 4: Social Conditions and Applied Parenting, Third Edition. https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Parenting-Volume-4-Social-Conditions-and-Applied-Parenting/Bornstein/p/book/9781138228740.
Boruszak-Kiziukiewicz, J., & Kmita, G. (2020). Parenting Self-Efficacy in Immigrant Families—A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00985.
Castañeda, H., Holmes, S. M., Madrigal, D. S., Young, M.-E. D., Beyeler, N., & Quesada, J. (2015). Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health. Annual Review of Public Health, 36(1), 375–392. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182419.
Chilton, M., Black, M. M., Berkowitz, C., Casey, P. H., Cook, J., Cutts, D., Jacobs, R. R., Heeren, T., de Cuba, S. E., Coleman, S., Meyers, A., & Frank, D. A. (2009). Food Insecurity and Risk of Poor Health Among US-Born Children of Immigrants. American Journal of Public Health, 99(3), 556–562. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.144394.
Chung, E. K., Siegel, B. S., Garg, A., Conroy, K., Gross, R. S., Long, D. A., Lewis, G., Osman, C. J., Jo Messito, M., Wade, R., Shonna Yin, H., Cox, J., & Fierman, A. H. (2016). Screening for social determinants of health among children and families living in poverty: A guide for clinicians. Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care, 46(5), 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2016.02.004.
Cusick, S. E., & Georgieff, M. K. (2016). The Role of Nutrition in Brain Development: The Golden Opportunity of the “First 1000 Days.”. The Journal of Pediatrics, 175, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.05.013.
Duh-Leong, C., Messito, M.J., Katzow, M.W., Tomopoulos, S., Nagpal, N., Fierman, A.H., & Gross, R.S. (2020). Material Hardships and Infant and Toddler Sleep Duration in Low-Income Hispanic Families. Academic Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.07.003.
Elsayed, A., Amutah-Onukagha, N. N., Navin, L., Gittens-Williams, L., & Janevic, T. (2019). Impact of Immigration and Duration of Residence in US on Length of Gestation Among Black Women in Newark, New Jersey. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 21(5), 1095–1101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0813-7.
Fierman, A. H., Beck, A. F., Chung, E. K., Tschudy, M. M., Coker, T. R., Mistry, K. B., Siegel, B., Chamberlain, L. J., Conroy, K., Federico, S. G., Flanagan, P. J., Garg, A., Gitterman, B. A., Grace, A. M., Gross, R. S., Hole, M. K., Klass, P., Kraft, C., Kuo, A., & Cox, J. (2016). Redesigning Health Care Practices to Address Childhood Poverty. Academic Pediatrics, 16(3, Supplement), S136–S146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2016.01.004.
Final Rule on Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility. (2020, February 24). USCIS. https://www.uscis.gov/archive/archive-news/final-rule-public-charge-ground-inadmissibility.
Frank, D. A., Casey, P. H., Black, M. M., Rose-Jacobs, R., Chilton, M., Cutts, D., March, E., Heeren, T., Coleman, S., Ettinger de Cuba, S., & Cook, J. T. (2010). Cumulative hardship and wellness of low-income, young children: Multisite surveillance study. Pediatrics, 125(5), e1115–e1123. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-1078.
Garg, A., Toy, S., Tripodis, Y., Silverstein, M., & Freeman, E. (2015). Addressing Social Determinants of Health at Well Child Care Visits: A Cluster RCT. Pediatrics, 135(2), e296–e304. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-2888.
Goel, M. S., McCarthy, E. P., Phillips, R. S., & Wee, C. C. (2004). Obesity Among US Immigrant Subgroups by Duration of Residence. JAMA, 292(23), 2860–2867. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.292.23.2860.
Gross, R. S., Mendelsohn, A. L., Fierman, A. H., Racine, A. D., & Messito, M. J. (2012). Food insecurity and obesogenic maternal infant feeding styles and practices in low-income families. Pediatrics, 130(2), 254–261. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-3588.
Hager, E. R., Quigg, A. M., Black, M. M., Coleman, S. M., Heeren, T., Rose-Jacobs, R., Cook, J. T., Cuba, S. A. E., de, Casey, P. H., Chilton, M., Cutts, D. B., Meyers, A. F., & Frank, D. A. (2010). Development and validity of a 2-item screen to identify families at risk for food insecurity. Pediatrics, 126(1), e26–e32. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-3146.
Harpaz, G., & Grinshtain, Y. (2020). Parent–Teacher Relations, Parental Self-Efficacy, and Parents’ Help-Seeking From Teachers About Children’s Learning and Socio-Emotional Problems. Education and Urban Society, 0013124520915597. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124520915597.
Jarlenski, M., Baller, J., Borrero, S., & Bennett, W. L. (2016). Trends in Disparities in Low-Income Children’s Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care by Family Immigration Status. Academic Pediatrics, 16(2), 208–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.07.008.
Jerusalem, M., & Schwarzer, R. (1995). Generalized self-efficacy scale. Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio. Causal and control beliefs 1.1, 35–37.
Masonbrink, A. R., & Hurley, E. (2020). Advocating for Children During the COVID-19 School Closures. Pediatrics, 146(3). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-1440.
McGee, S. A., & Claudio, L. (2018). Nativity as a Determinant of Health Disparities Among Children. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 20(3), 517–528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0667-4.
Novak, N. L., Wang, X., Clarke, P. J., Hajat, A., Needham, B. L., Sánchez, B. N., Rodriguez, C. J., Seeman, T. E., Castro-Diehl, C., Golden, S. H., & Diez Roux, A. V. (2017). Diurnal salivary cortisol and nativity/duration of residence in Latinos: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 85, 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.08.018.
NYC Community District Profiles. (2020). https://communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov/brooklyn/7.
Ro, A. (2014). The Longer You Stay, the Worse Your Health? A Critical Review of the Negative Acculturation Theory among Asian Immigrants. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11(8), 8038–8057. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110808038.
Saunders, N. R., Parkin, P. C., Birken, C. S., Maguire, J. L., & Borkhoff, C. M. (2016). Iron status of young children from immigrant families. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 101(12), 1130–1136. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2015-309398.
Social Needs Screening Toolkit. (2016). Health Leads. https://nopren.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Health-Leads-Screening-Toolkit-July-2016.pdf.
Umubyeyi, A., Mogren, I., Ntaganira, J., & Krantz, G. (2016). Help-seeking behaviours, barriers to care and self-efficacy for seeking mental health care: A population-based study in Rwanda. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51(1), 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-015-1130-2.
Uwemedimo, O.T., & May, H. (2018). Disparities in Utilization of Social Determinants of Health Referrals Among Children in Immigrant Families. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2018.00207.
Wallace, S.P., Torres, J., Sadegh-Nobari, T., Pourat, N., & Brown, E.R. (2012). Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care Reform (p. 51). The Commonwealth Fund.
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Enilda Goico, LMFT for her guidance in the development of this paper and for her service to this patient population. This work was supported by HRSA T32HP22238 (PI: A.H.F.) and CTSI NCATS 1UL 1TR001445 training grants (Trainees: C.D-L., A.N.); and United Hospital Fund/Partnerships for Early Childhood Development consortium: the Altman Foundation, The William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation, and The New York Community Trust (PI: S.T.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by C.D.-L., S.T., A.N., I.S., L.I.G., C.D.C., and A.H.F. The first draft of the paper was written by C.D-L. and all authors commented on previous versions of the paper. All authors read and approved the final paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical Approval
Study procedures were approved by the institutional review board of NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Duh-Leong, C., Tomopoulos, S., Nastro, A. et al. Duration of US Residence And Resource Needs In Immigrant Families With Young Children. J Child Fam Stud 31, 211–219 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02182-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02182-0