Kicks hurt less: Discrimination predicts distress beyond trauma among undocumented Mexican immigrants.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess for the prevalence of interpersonal discrimination among undocumented Mexican immigrants residing in high-risk neighborhoods near the CaliforniaMexico border, identify relevant vulnerabilities, and determine its association with clinically significant psychological distress after controlling for socio-demographics, immigration characteristics, and history of trauma. Method: Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) was used in this cross-sectional study to collect and analyze data from clinical interviews with 246 undocumented Mexican immigrants. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53) was used as the primary outcome measure to assess for clinically significant psychological distress. For all analyses, inferential statistics accounted for design effects and sample weights to produce weighted estimates. Logistic regression was used in the multivariate analyses. Results: 69% of participants reported interpersonal discrimination due to being undocumented with significant differences observed across sex, educational attainment, and income. Among participants with a history of interpersonal discrimination due to their undocumented status, 52% met criteria for clinically significant psychological distress with significant differences observed across age groups, years living in the U.S. and history of trauma. After controlling for relevant covariates, having experienced interpersonal discrimination due to being undocumented was the strongest significant predictor of clinically significant psychological distress, OR = 5.47, 95% CI [2.56, 11.7], p < .001, even beyond history of trauma. Conclusion: Overall, our findings emphasize the need for policies, advocacy, and the development and provision of contextually-sensitive interventions to address the high prevalence of interpersonal discrimination and its negative health effects among undocumented Mexican immigrants.

Exposure to Multiple Forms of Bias Victimization on Youth and Young Adults: Relationships with Trauma Symptomatology and Social Support

“…Bias victimization is likely to be harmful, at least in part, because it erodes positive identity, self-concept, and perceptions of being supported by others. Attacks to multiple aspects of identity are likely to further intensify these negative processes (English et al 2018;Garcini et al 2018). Prevention and intervention programs designed to reduce bias-motivated victimization among youth should attempt to identify socially marginalized students who may be at particular risk of experiencing multiple forms of bias victimization.…”

“…There is also comparatively little research on the victimization experiences of immigrant versus non-immigrant youth, and religious minority youth, although some is emerging (Garcini et al 2018;Maynard et al 2016). Approximately one in six hate crimes nationally are described by victims as being motivated by religion (Masucci and Langton 2017).…”

Critical agency and vocational outcome expectations as coping mechanisms among undocumented immigrant students.

“…tory of trauma (Garcini et al, 2018). Undocumented students of color also contend with perceived discrimination and stereotype threat on college campuses, which have been associated with disparities in educational achievement (Steele, 2011) and poor mental health indicators, including anxiety (Williams & Mohammed, 2009).…”

Hate and violence: Addressing discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

“…Their results also highlight that biasmotivated aggression can be directed at people who identify as cisgender or heterosexual but is most likely toward youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or related identity. Garcini et al (2018) used respondent-driven sampling to recruit a hard-to-reach group, undocumented Mexican immigrants living in the United States near the Mexican border. Among the sample of 257 adults, they found high rates of bias-motivated victimization specific to their documentation status, with two in three participants having such experiences.…”