Racialization, discrimination, and depression: A mixed-method study of the impact of an anti-immigrant climate on Latina immigrant mothers and their children

Abstract

Grounded in an ecological transactional model, this mixed-method study describes the impact of the 2016 presidential election and ensuing anti-immigrant climate on Latina immigrant mothers (n ​= ​30) with authorized and unauthorized legal status and their children in New York City. Mothers’ narratives, collected between March and June 2019, indicate that the anti-immigrant climate precipitated family discussions about immigration, racism, ethnicity and legal status at home. Media coverage of anti-immigrant policies and immigration enforcement activities, threats of immigration raids via the news and social media, and bullying at school caused child distress and prevented mothers from delaying discussions about immigration with their children. Mothers were distressed not only due to worries about their own legal vulnerability, but also by the inability to assuage children’s distress. Mothers indicated that their children felt unsafe due to the immigration climate and had difficulties focusing in school. Mothers also indicated that, regardless of child age, their children experienced a range of separation anxiety symptoms including worry about being separated from loved ones and fear of being away from home. A significant proportion of mothers reported elevated symptoms of depression on the PHQ-2 (31%) and psychological distress on the Kessler-6 (26%). Quantitative analysis indicates that immigration-related discrimination contributes significantly to maternal depressive symptoms and psychological distress. Mothers’ narratives triangulate these quantitative findings; mothers conveyed feelings of disillusionment, sadness, anxiety, anger, distress and frustration due to experiences of discrimination at their children’s schools and due to an inability to access mental health supports for their children. Mixed methods inform our understanding of how a charged anti-immigrant political climate can affect parent-child-school interactions and the mental health of Latina immigrant mothers and their children. Implications are discussed.