Abstract
Immigrant adolescents are the fastest-growing sector among U.S. youth, but they receive little attention in health literacy research. Immigrant adolescents are a diverse population tasked with mastering new literacies while also navigating new social systems. Many immigrant adolescents serve as important linguistic and cultural resources in their families and local communities, and yet their contributions (and struggles) as new navigators of our health care system remain invisible. In this commentary article, we argue that health literacy researchers need to devote more attention to immigrant adolescents and the pathways by which they learn new language and literacy skills while also developing their own health habits and behaviors. We contend that the study of immigrant adolescents provides a critical window into health literacy as a socially and historically situated practice, specifically how immigrant adolescents’ transnational experiences shape their learning of new health literacy practices. With a coordinated interdisciplinary research agenda on immigrant adolescents, the health literacy field will expand its empirical base for what becoming “health literate” looks like in today’s globalizing world.
Highlights
Becoming ”Health Literate” in a Globalizing WorldOver the past decade, the number of U.S children with at least one immigrant parent has been on the rise, increasing from 19% to 26% of all children in the U.S [1]
This exploration enabled us to imagine the range of literacy experiences, resources, and interactions that could be investigated with an immigrant adolescent health literacy agenda
As we argue in this paper, we believe that a focus on immigrant adolescent health literacy provides an excellent platform for puzzling through these distinctions
Summary
Received: 13 July 2018; Accepted: 18 September 2018; Published: 25 September 2018
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