TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY, MIGRATION, ANDU.S. LATINOS’ PHYSICAL HEALTH

Georgiana Bostean, University of California, Irvinegbostean@uci.edu

Latino Familism

“The sense of family is what saves Latinos. Solid family ties are essential for preserving health,” (Andalo 2004)- President of the Interamerican College of

Physicians and Surgeons:

Latino Health Outcomes

Epidemiological (or, Hispanic) Paradox Immigrants, particularly Latino, have better

health than U.S.-born Whites (Markides and Coreil 1986; Hummer et al. 2007;

Vega and Amaro 1994) Differs by health measure and ethnic sub-group

Explanations: Selective migration Acculturation

Family relations

Latino Familism

Core value of Latino cultures (Zinn 1992)

Loyalty, reciprocity, and solidarity (Cortes 1995)

Traditional family-orientation (Sabogal et al. 1987)

Strong family networks (Alvirez et al. 1981)

Availability of social support (Vega 1990) Variations by sub-group (Dilworth-

Anderson & Marshall 1996)

Latino Familism

Immigrants and familism Family may be a haven in a heartless world,

or its headquarters (Rumbaut 1997)

Migration experience Cohesion

Shared experience Conflict

Stress, dissonant acculturation, gender norms/roles

Ethnic sub-group differences in family relations and in migration context

Family and Health

Large literature on marital status and health Social support Social control over behaviors (Umberson

1987) Negative effects of poor family

relations/dissolution

Positive relation psychological health (Ryan 2007; Russell 2009)

Both subjective measures and quality of relationships matter marital status, household size, living

arrangements

Latino Familism & Health

Lower substance use Moderates deviant peer influence on

behavior probs (German et al. 2009) Relationship to mental health (Rivera et

al. 2008; Mulvaney-Day et al. 2007)

Present Study

Contributions:

Examine family relationships, the predictors of both conflict & cohesion

Analyze how family factors are related to multiple physical health outcomes

Research Aims

1. Analyze nativity and ethnic differences in family context What factors predict cohesion and conflict?

(e.g., are immigrants more familistic, are there ethnic differences in the nativity effect?)

Are migration-contextual factors related to family cohesion and conflict among immigrants?

2. Examine the relationship between family context (cohesion and conflict) and physical health Are cohesion & conflict related to health net of subjective

family measures (marital stat, hh size, language)? Are family factors related to health differently for

immigrants and U.S.-born?

Methods

Data 2002-2003 National Latino and Asian American

Survey

Measures Family Context (scale) Health (dichotomous)

Analyses Negative zero-truncated Poisson (for scales) Logistic regression (for health outcomes) Stata 10.1, weighted to be nationally-

representative

Dependent Variables

Physical Health Chronic conditions

“Has a doctor or health professional ever you that you have”

Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer

Self-rated physical health “How would you rate your overall physical health -

excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?” Activity limitation

“Was there ever a time in the past 30 days when health-related problems caused you difficulties with mobility, such as standing for long periods, moving around inside your home, or getting out of your home?”

Independent Variables

Family Context Marital status, household size & structure, language

spoken with family

Family cohesion (scale 10-40, alpha=.93 Spanish int., .92 English) loyalty, respect, enjoying spending time together, perceived

support from family, as well as family interfering with personal goals

Family conflict (scale 5-15, alpha=.89 Spanish interview, .76 English) “too close to family interfered with goals,” “Argue with family

over different customs,” “Lonely and isolated due to lack of family unity,” “Family relations less important to people close to you,” “Personal goals conflict with family.”

Independent Variables

Migration context Had to move from origin (Wanted to) Very/somewhat difficult visit origin (Not at

all/not very) Returned to origin in last 12 mos. (Did not

return in last 12 mos.) Limited contact with family & friends in origin Felt guilty for leaving family or friends in origin

Controls Age, sex, hh income, education

Sample Characteristics: Health

Poor

/Fai

r sel

f-rat

ed p

hysic

al h

ealth

Lim

itatio

n

Chron

ic co

nditi

ons

05

101520253035

U.S.-bornImmigrants

%

**

* Significant difference at least at .05 alpha level

Sample Characteristics: Family Context

Married/Cohab-iting

Household size (mean)

Mostly Spanish spoken with

family

English and Spanish spoken

with family

Mostly English spoken with

family

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

U.S.-bornImmigrants

* * * * *

* Significant difference at least at .05 alpha level

%

Sample Characteristics: Family Context

Family cohesion (mean)

Family conflict (mean)

Family support, outside household

(mean)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

U.S.-bornImmigrants

*

%

*

** Significant difference at least at .05 alpha level

Findings: Cohesion & Conflict Cohesion & Conflict

Nativity difference explained by language spoken w/ family

Among immigrants, migration context is related to Conflict Cohesio

n

Had to move from origin (Wanted to)

Very/somewhat difficult visit origin (Not at all/not very)

Returned to origin in last 12 mos. (Did not return)

Limited contact with family & friends in origin

Felt guilty for leaving family or friends in origin

Findings: Health

Poor/Fair Self-rated Health Activity Limitation Chronic Conditions

U.S.-born ImmigrantsNativity

Diff. U.S.-born ImmigrantsNativity

Diff. U.S.-born ImmigrantNativity

Diff.

Sociodemographic factorsEthnicity (Mexican)Cuban 0.792 0.368*** 0.849 1.429 0.414 1.808*** ††Puerto Rican 0.804 1.026 1.538* 1.851* 0.906 2.775*** †††Other 0.696 0.536*** 0.692 1.098 1.147 1.129

Family-related factorsHousehold size 0.947 0.935 1.034 0.813*** †† 1.121* 1.046Married/Cohabiting (Unmarried) 0.784 1.070 0.986 1.068 0.934 1.312Language spoken w/ family (Spanish all /most )English & Spanish equally 1.212 0.998 1.193 1.441 1.806** 0.693 †English all/most of the time 1.019 0.321*** ††† 1.694* 2.082* 1.570 0.541 †

Family conflict scale 1.017 1.050 1.215***1.126* 0.973 1.213*** †††Family cohesion scale 0.979 0.975 1.014 1.028 0.963 1.018 †n 741 1602 741 1603 741 1603

Limitations

Causality unclear Family relations Health Health Family relations Health Family relations

Don’t know with who respondent migrated Family cohesion/conflict measures– which family

members are included?

Conclusions

Cohesion & Conflict: Language spoken with family is strongly

related to cohesion and conflict Migration factors do affect family

relations among immigrants

Conclusions

Health: Conflict related to health more strongly Health measure matters Nativity differences in the relation btwn

family factors and chronic conditions

Thank you for your attention!

Georgiana BosteanDepartment of Sociology

University of California, IrvineGbostean@uci.edu

I would like to acknowledge NSF and the UCI Center for the Study of Latinos in

Society for their support