Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

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

Race and Social Problems volume 9, pages 218–233 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

References

  • Aguirre-Molina, M., Molina, C. W., & Zambrana, R. (2001). Health issues in the Latino community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, K. F. (2013). Diagnosing discrimination: Stress from perceived racism and the mental and physical health effects. Sociological Inquiry, 83(1), 55–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, K. F., & Finch, J. K. (2014). Racially charged legislation and Latino health disparities: The case of Arizona’s S.B. 1070. Sociological Spectrum, 34(6), 526–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aneshensel, C. S. (1992). Social stress: Theory and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 18, 15–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angel, J. L., Buckley, C. J., & Finch, B. K. (2001). Nativity and self-assessed health among pre-retirement age Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. International Migration Review, 35(3), 784–803.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkel, C., Knight, G. P., Zeiders, K. H., Tein, J. Y., Roosa, M. W., Gonzales, N. A., et al. (2010). Discrimination and adjustment for Mexican American adolescents: A prospective examination of the benefits of culturally related values. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(4), 893–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla-Silva, E. (1997). Rethinking racism: Toward a structural interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62(3), 465–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borrell, L. N., & Lancet, E. A. (2012). Race/ethnicity and all-cause mortality in US adults: Revisiting the Hispanic paradox. American Journal of Public Health, 102(5), 836–843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bratter, J. L., & Gorman, B. K. (2011). Is discrimination an equal opportunity risk? Racial experiences, socioeconomic status, and health status among black and white adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52(3), 365–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brondolo, E., Gallo, L. C., & Myers, H. F. (2009a). Race, racism, and health: Disparities, mechanisms, and interventions. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brondolo, E., Ver Halen, N. B., Pencille, M., Beatty, D., & Contrada, R. J. (2009b). Coping with racism: A selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 64–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cobas, J. A., Duany, J., & Feagin, J. R. (2009). How the United States racializes Latinos: White hegemony and its consequences. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cozier, Y. C., Wise, L. C., Palmer, J. R., & Rosenberg, L. (2009). Perceived racism in relation to weight change in the black women’s health study. Annals of Epidemiology, 19(6), 379–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, J. (2000). Social stress and mental health in the southern black belt. Sociological Spectrum, 20(4), 465–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, W., Oths, K. S., & Gravlee, C. C. (2005). Race and ethnicity in public health research: Models to explain health disparities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34, 231–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Escobar, J. I., & Vega, W. A. (2000). Mental health and immigration’s AAAs: Where are we and where do we go from here? Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 188(11), 736–740.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferraro, K. F., & Yu, Y. (1995). Body weight and self-ratings of health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36, 274–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., Boardman, J. D., Kolody, B., & Vega, W. A. (2000a). Contextual effects of acculturation on perinatal substance exposure among immigrant and native-born Latinas. Social Science Quarterly, 81(1), 421–438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., Do, D. P., Frank, R., & Seeman, T. (2009). Could “acculturation” effects be explained by latent health disadvantages among Mexican immigrants? International Migration Review, 43(3), 471–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., Frank, R., & Vega, W. A. (2004). Acculturation and acculturation stress: A social-epidemiological approach to Mexican migrant farmworkers’ health. International Migration Review, 38(1), 236–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., Hummer, R. A., Kol, B., & Vega, W. A. (2001). The role of discrimination and acculturative stress in the physical health of Mexican-origin adults. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 23(4), 399–429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., Kolody, B., & Vega, W. A. (2000b). Perceived discrimination and depression among Mexican-origin adults in California. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 41(3), 295–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, B. K., & Vega, W. A. (2003). Acculturation stress, social support, and self-rated health among Latinos in California. Journal of Immigrant Health, 5(3), 109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flores, E., Tschann, J. M., Dimas, J. M., Bachen, E. A., Pasch, L. A., & de Groat, C. L. (2008). Perceived discrimination, perceived stress, and mental and physical health among Mexican-origin adults. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 30(4), 401–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R., Akresh, I. R., & Lu, B. (2010). Latino immigrants and the US racial order: How and where do they fit in? American Sociological Review, 75(3), 378–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fujishiro, K. (2009). Is perceived racial privilege associated with health? Findings from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system. Social Science and Medicine, 68, 840–844.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gee, G., & Walsemann, K. (2009). Does health predict the reporting of racial discrimination or do reports of discrimination predict health? Findings from the national longitudinal study of youth. Social Science and Medicine, 68, 1676–1684.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, P., Guéguen, A., Schmaus, A., Nakache, J. P., & Goldberg, M. (2001). Longitudinal study of associations between perceived health status and self-reported diseases in the French Gazel cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 233–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Idler, E. L., & Benyamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 21–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Idler, E. L., & Kasl, S. (1995). Self-ratings of health: Do they also predict change in functional ability? Journal of Gerontology, 50B, S344–S353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Itzigsohn, J., & Dore-Cabral, C. (2000). Competing identities? Race, ethnicity and panethnicity among dominicans in the United States. Sociological Forum, 15(2), 225–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez, T. R. (2010). Replenished ethnicity: Mexican Americans, immigration, and identity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaestner, R., Pearson, J. A., Keene, D., & Geronimus, A. T. (2009). Stress, allostatic load, and health of Mexican immigrants. Social Science Quarterly, 90(5), 1089–1111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kam, J. A., Cleveland, M. J., & Hecht, M. L. (2010). Applying general strain theory to examine perceived discrimination’s indirect relation to Mexican-heritage youth’s alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Prevention Science, 11(4), 397–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimbro, R. T., Gorman, B. K., & Schachter, A. (2012). Acculturation and self-rated health among Latino and Asian Immigrants to the United States. Social Problems, 59(3), 341–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulis, S., Marsiglia, F. F., & Nieri, T. (2009). Perceived ethnic discrimination versus acculturation stress: Influences on substance use among Latino youth in the southwest. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50(4), 443–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwate, N. O. A., Valdimarsdottir, H. B., Guevarra, J. S., & Bovbjerg, D. H. (2003). Experiences of racist events are associated with negative health consequences for African American women. Journal of the National Medical Association, 95(6), 450–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layes, A., Asada, Y., & Kephart, G. (2012). Whiners and deniers: What does self-rated health measure? Social Science and Medicine, 75, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J., & Bean, F. D. (2007). Reinventing the color line immigration and America’s new racial/ethnic divide. Social Forces, 86(2), 561–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddali, A. O. (2014). The immigrant “other”: Racialized identity and the devaluation of immigrant family relations. Indiana Law Journal, 89(2), 643–702.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKanders, K. M. (2010). Sustaining tiered personhood: Jim Crow and anti-immigrant laws. Harvard Journal on Racial & Ethnic Justice, 26, 163–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz, D. G. (1986). Identifying areas of stress for Chicano undergraduates. In M. A. Olivas (Ed.), Latino college students (pp. 131–156). New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadal, K. L., Mazzula, S. L., Rivera, D. P., & Fujii-Doe, W. (2014). Microaggressions and Latina/o Americans: An analysis of nativity, gender, and ethnicity. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 2(2), 67–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noh, S., & Avison, W. R. (1996). Asian immigrants and the stress process: A study of Koreans in Canada. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 37(2), 192–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ochoa, G. L. (2004). Becoming neighbors in a Mexican American community: Power, conflict, and solidarity. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okazaki, S. (2009). Impact of racism on ethnic minority mental health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(1), 103–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradies, Y. (2006). A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 35, 888–901.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascoe, E. A., & Smart, R. L. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 531–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearlin, L. I., Menaghan, E. G., Lieberman, M. A., & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22(4), 337–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peek, M. K., Cutchin, M. P., Salinas, J. J., Sheffield, K. M., Eschbach, K., Stowe, R. P., et al. (2010). Allostatic load among non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, and people of Mexican origin: Effects of ethnicity, nativity, and acculturation. American Journal of Public Health, 100(5), 940–946.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, C. (1970). Offensive mechanisms. In F. Barbour (Ed.), The black seventies (pp. 265–282). Boston: Porter Sargent.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, C. M. (1995). Stress analogs of racism and sexism: Terrorism, torture, and disaster. In C. V. Willie, P. P. Rieker, B. M. Kramer, & B. S. Brown (Eds.), Mental health, racism, and sexism (pp. 277–293). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieterse, A. L., & Carter, R. T. (2007). An examination of the relationship between general life stress, racism-related stress, and psychological health among black men. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 101–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rivera, D. P., Forquer, E. E., & Rangel, R. (2010). Microaggressions and the life experience of Latina/o Americans. In D. W. Sue (Ed.), Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestations, dynamics, and impact (pp. 59–84). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, W. D. (2009). ‘Latino before the world’: The transnational extension of panethnicity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(6), 927–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, W. D. (2012). Race migrations: Latinos and the cultural transformation of race. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, J. I., & Fernández, D. M. (1993). Acculturative stress among hispanics: A bidimensional model of ethnic identification. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23(8), 654–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., et al. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., & Turner, R. J. (2002). Perceived discrimination, social stress, and depression in the transition to adulthood: Racial contrasts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65(3), 213–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vazquez, Y. (2011). Perpetuating the marginalization of Latinos: A collateral consequence of the incorporation of immigration law into the criminal justice system. Howard Law Journal, 54(3), 639–674.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vega, W. A., & Gil, A. G. (1998). Drug use and ethnicity in early adolescence. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vines, A. I., Baird, D. D., Stevens, J., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Light, K. C., & McNeilly, M. (2007). Associations of abdominal fat with perceived racism and passive emotional responses to racism in African American women. American Journal of Public Health, 97(3), 526–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viruell-Fuentes, E. A., Miranda, P. Y., & Abdulrahim, S. (2012). More than culture: Structural racism, intersectionality theory, and immigrant health. Social Science and Medicine, 75(12), 2099–2106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viruell-Fuentes, E. A., Morenoff, J. D., Williams, D. R., & House, J. S. (2011). Language of interview, self-rated health, and the other Latino health puzzle. American Journal of Public Health, 101(7), 1306–1313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. (2009). Using heterogeneous choice models to compare logit and probit coefficients across groups. Sociological Methods and Research, 37, 531–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. (2010). Fitting heterogeneous choice models with OGLM. The Stata Journal, 10, 540–567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2009). Discrimination and racial disparities in health: Evidence and needed research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 20–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., Mohammed, S. A., Leavell, J., & Collins, C. (2010). Race, socioeconomic status, and health: Complexities, ongoing challenges, and research opportunities. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186(1), 69–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yosso, T. J., Smith, W. A., Ceja, M., & Solorzano, D. G. (2009). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate for Latina/o undergraduates. Harvard Educational Review, 79(4), 659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zsembik, B. A., & Fennell, D. (2005). Ethnic variation in health and the determinants of health among Latinos. Social Science and Medicine, 61(1), 53–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank prior anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The authors presented this paper at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association in 2014 in Portland, OR. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 2011100013.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Anderson and Finch have contributed equally and listed in alphabetical order.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Houston, 3551 Cullen Blvd, PGH Building, Room 450, Houston, TX, 77204-3012, USA

    Kathryn Freeman Anderson

  2. Social and Behavioral Sciences, Stockton University, 101 Vera King Farris Drive, Galloway, NJ, 08205, USA

    Jessie K. Finch

Authors
  1. Kathryn Freeman Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jessie K. Finch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathryn Freeman Anderson.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest in the subject matter discussed in the paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Anderson, K.F., Finch, J.K. The Role of Racial Microaggressions, Stress, and Acculturation in Understanding Latino Health Outcomes in the USA. Race Soc Probl 9, 218–233 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-017-9212-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-017-9212-2

Keywords

search

Navigation