Abstract

This article summarizes frameworks for understanding Hispanic children's health, sources of national data available to evaluate their health, and variations in health among Hispanic children. Following ecological and life-course perspectives, we organize our review of the literature on Hispanic children's health and development according to three key stages of child development (zero to three, early to middle childhood, and adolescence to emerging adulthood) with attention to how each stage influences the next. Within each stage, we consider how social position (i.e. skin color, social class, gender, and nativity), social contexts (i.e. family, school, and neighborhood), and political and legal contexts influence Hispanic children's health and development. To improve the health and development of Hispanic children, federal, state, and local policies must address social and economic injustices that lead to declines in health across immigrant generations and persistent racial/ethnic health disparities.

Highlights

  • This article summarizes frameworks for understanding Hispanic children’s health, sources of national data available to evaluate their health, and variations in health among Hispanic children

  • Children’s physical and mental health provides the foundation for their education, employment, and long-term well-being as adults (Perreira and Ornelas 2011)

  • In a 2014 report, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) recommended that all studies including Hispanic populations collect data on race and Hispanic ethnicity and data on Hispanic background, parents’ country of birth, children’s country of birth, U.S citizenship, and language spoken at home (Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation [OPRE] 2014)

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Summary

Children from Birth to Emerging

This article summarizes frameworks for understanding Hispanic children’s health, sources of national data available to evaluate their health, and variations in health among Hispanic children. Her scholarship combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study Hispanic/Latino health, immigration, and the consequences of structural inequalities and public policies affecting Hispanic/ Latino and immigrant populations. Allen is an assistant professor of health sciences at the University of Missouri and a research affiliate at the University of Wisconsin Center for Demography of Health and Aging. Her current work studies the effects of state and local immigrant policies on Hispanic children’s health. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created additional fiscal challenges for governments and at the same time spurred federal investments in families with children.

THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
National datasets
Monitoring the Future Studye
Key health indicators
Overweight or obese
From Zero to Three
Social position
Social contexts
Political and legal contexts
From Early to Middle Childhood
From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood
Findings
Conclusion

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