Date of Award

January 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

First Advisor

Rachel L. Navarro

Abstract

Introduction: Much of the body of research on Latinx immigrant health has focused on border states or coastal shoreline regions and less is known about the health experiences of Latinx immigrants in the Midwest. Objective: Using a social determinants of health framework, the first aim of the study was to examine a model of Latinx immigrant health and to determine whether the relations from acculturation and enculturation to subjective health and well-being are partially or fully mediated by perceived discrimination and acculturative stress. The second aim was to investigate if and how legal status moderates the relations within the retained model of Latinx immigrant subjective health and well-being. Method: A community sample of 417 self-reported documented and undocumented Latinx immigrants from the Midwest was asked to complete questionnaires measuring acculturation, enculturation, acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, subjective health, and well-being. Results: Although the initial hypothesized model was not confirmed, a partially mediated model demonstrated that legal status moderates the relations in the model. Furthermore, undocumented immigrants endorsed a significant negative relation from enculturation to perceived discrimination, whereas this relationship was not significant for the full sample nor the documented group. Undocumented immigrants also endorsed a significantly stronger positive relation from perceived discrimination to acculturative stress than documented immigrants. Conversely, documented immigrants endorsed a significantly negative relation from acculturative stress to well-being. Conclusion: Implications for future research and practice are discussed in relation to Healthy People 2030 initiatives and culturally and linguistically responsive interventions for Latinx immigrants in the Midwest with different legal status experiences.

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