"Waking Up Every Day With the Worry": A Mixed-Methods Study of Anxiety in Undocumented Latinx College Students.

Carola Suárez-Orozco,Guadalupe López Hernández

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.568167

Carola Suárez-Orozco, Guadalupe López Hernández

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.568167

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Abstract

To date, little research has taken a mixed-methods strategy to consider the ways in which living “in the shadows” without recognized legal status may affect mental health. In this study, we took this approach, to examine how legal status, as well as stressors (deportation worries, financial concerns) and potentially protective factors (faculty support, peer support), affect anxiety levels of undocumented Latinx undergraduates from colleges across California. We surveyed 486 participants including both standardized measures as well as open-ended responses. We found that rates of self-reported anxiety between undocumented females were 4 times that of the norm population and that of male undocumented students were 7 times higher as measured by the GAD-7 in the moderate and severe ranges. Our predictive models suggested that participants' rates of anxiety were in large part related to worries about financing their education and their daily living expenses as well as detainment and deportation; having an institutional agent such as a professor whom they can turn to for support served to buffer the effects of anxiety. Qualitative findings triangulated the quantitative findings and provided further insights into the experience of living with the stresses of social exclusion and liminal status.

Highlights

Despite substantial challenges including poverty, xenophobia, and difficult work and living conditions faced by immigrants, research emerging at the end of the last century pointed to an “immigrant paradox” [1], suggesting that the first-generation typically experienced better overall physical and mental health than later immigrant generations [2,3,4]
Reported Generalized Anxiety Descriptive analyses revealed that 32% of the sample met the cutoff criteria (10 points or greater) and, as such, were selfreporting symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder at the moderate to severe level as indicated by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7
We found that 28% of Latinos and 35% of Latinas self-reported anxiety in the moderate to severe range above the cut-off score of 10; this rate is somewhat higher than findings conducted with a first-generation non-college Latinx population [7]

Summary

Introduction

Despite substantial challenges including poverty, xenophobia, and difficult work and living conditions faced by immigrants, research emerging at the end of the last century pointed to an “immigrant paradox” [1], suggesting that the first-generation typically experienced better overall physical and mental health than later immigrant generations [2,3,4]. Subsequent research began to unpack nuances in the immigrant paradox pattern depending upon different developmental outcomes [5] and origins including ethnic and national origin differences [2], refugee [6], as well as documentation status [7]. Documentation status appears to be a factor that may be contributing to varying patterns in mental health outcomes [8, 9]. Due to the vulnerabilities of undocumented individuals, few large-scale studies consider the impacts of legal status on mental health outcomes.

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