Acculturation, Segmented Assimilation, Gender and Health among Hispanic Immigrants in the United States

• In Event: 242 - Section on International Migration Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Health of U.S. Immigrants

Abstract

Earlier studies on immigrant health show that Latino immigrants exhibit favorable health outcomes compared to native-born population in the United States. Also previous research reported that acculturation of Hispanic immigrant is associated with increased health risks. However, the theory of segmented assimilation and gender differences in acculturation effect suggest possible variations in the relationship between acculturation and health of Hispanic immigrants. Using 1998-2012 National Health Interview Surveys and applying the theory of segmented assimilation, this study examines the association between acculturation and Hispanic immigrant’s two health outcomes, cigarette smoking and disability bed days in the past 12 month. About 319,000 respondents are included in the analysis and logistic regression is used. Immigrant’s gender, poverty and language use at the interview, which are used to measure immigrant’s segmented assimilation and the rate of acculturation. Results show that Hispanic immigrants in general show favorable health outcomes compared to their native-born counterparts. Also acculturation is associated with increased risks of smoking and having disability days. However, there is no difference in having disability bed days between poor Hispanic immigrants who spent longer than 10 years in the U.S., and U.S.-born counterparts. Furthermore, we find that acculturation effect on health outcomes varies by immigrant’s poverty status and use of language. This study suggests that health advantages of immigrants could be limited depending on immigrant’s assimilation process. Also the findings of this study show that the effect of acculturation may not constant across immigrant groups in terms of gender and assimilation mode.

Authors

• Daesung Choi, University of Texas-San Antonio

• Gabriela Sanchez Soto, University of Texas-San Antonio

• Jeehye Kang, University of Maryland-College Park