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The Role of Documentation Status Concerns, Perceived Discrimination, and Social Support on Latinx Adults’ Physical and Mental Health

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Abstract

There is a growing number of immigrants arriving in the USA, with the majority being of Latinx descent. Coupled with this increase, there has also been growing anti-immigration legislation which impacts the experiences this group faces and creates additional concerns for those who are residing in this country without documentation. Experiences of overt and covert discrimination and marginalization have been shown to relate to poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Drawing from Menjivar and Abrego’s Legal Violence Framework, this paper explores the impact of perceived discrimination and social support on the mental and physical health of Latinx adults. We further observe whether these relationships differ based on participants’ concerns about their documentation status. This data comes from a community-based participatory study conducted in a Midwestern County. Our analytic sample was comprised of 487 Latinx adults. We found social support to be related to fewer self-reported days of mental health symptoms for all participants regardless of documentation status concern. Perceived discrimination was found to be related to worse physical health for participants with concerns about their status. These findings point to the pernicious role of discrimination for Latinx’s physical health and the importance of social support as an asset beneficial for their mental health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Michigan, 1080 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1106, USA

    Fernanda Lima Cross

  2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1310 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Aixa D. Marchand

  3. Rhodes College, 2000 North Pkwy, Memphis, TN, 38112, USA

    Melissa Diaz

  4. Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Adreanne Waller & Charo Ledón

  5. Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1248, USA

    Daniel J. Kruger

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Contributions

Conceptualization: Fernanda L. Cross and Aixa D. Marchand; methodology: Fernanda L. Cross and Aixa D. Marchand; formal analysis: Fernanda L. Cross and Aixa D. Marchand; writing—original draft preparation: Fernanda L. Cross, Aixa D. Marchand, and Melissa Diaz; PIs of the original project, writing—review, editing: Daniel J. Kruger, Adreanne Waller, and Charo Ledón. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fernanda Lima Cross.

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Cross, F.L., Marchand, A.D., Diaz, M. et al. The Role of Documentation Status Concerns, Perceived Discrimination, and Social Support on Latinx Adults’ Physical and Mental Health. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 11, 946–957 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01575-9

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