Poster #175 - Provider Sensitivity: Helping Latina mothers manage special needs children

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) are a growing subset of the population (Miller, Nugent, Gaboda, & Russell, 2013). These children are likely to have chronic medical, behavioral, physical, or developmental conditions or any combination of these conditions that are expected to last twelve months or longer (NS-CHSN Screener, 2009; Miller, Nugent, Gaboda, &Russell, 2013; Council on Children with Disabilities, & American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005). Worldwide, mothers often function as the primary caretakers of CSHCN. The work of mothers, through interactions with their children, involves fostering affectionate and meaningful connections based on their own upbringing, their beliefs about raising children, and the culture in which they live (Oberman & Josselyn, 1996; Ribbens, 1994). Caring for children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) is known to have negative effects on families, especially concerning functional limitations of the child with special needs, financial costs associated with care, and the amount of time caregivers put into learning and providing in-home medical care and other specialized treatments (Guerrero, Rodriguez, & Flores, 2011; Nagaswaran, Silver, & Stein, 2007; Schuster, Chung, & Vestal. 2011). Latina mothers in the United States raising CSHCN face a distinct set of challenges over and above those already experienced by Latina mothers who have typically developing children of the same age. Due to a complex web of factors associated with being an ethnic and gender minority, Latina mothers are more likely to live below poverty level, have higher unemployment rates, and experience lower wages than non-Hispanic whites (Therrien & Ramirez, 2001). These factors lead all Latinos to being at risk for more negative health factors (Flores et al., 2002; Moore & Redd, 2002). Low education can also serve as a negative factor as navigating the complexities of healthcare systems, communicating with providers, and understanding treatment plans may prove to be more of a challenge (Escarce & Kapur, 2006). Literature has indicated that immigrant parents of CSHCN were more likely to quit their jobs to take care of the children’s healthcare needs and this occurred whether the caregiver was married or single (De Rigne & Porterfield, 2010). The burdens faced by Latino families who care for CSHCN are tremendous and can lead to many negative effects for the child and the family in which they are being raised. Little empirical work has examined the benefits that provider sensitivity may have on alleviating some of the burdens faced by parents caring for these children. Our results indicate that when providers are more sensitive of the family’s values and customs, reported adequacy of health care coverage significantly increases. Furthermore, when families report more adequate health care coverage, this significantly decreases the amount of reported financial strain. These results suggest that when Latina mothers' feel their child's health care provider is more sensitive to their family's values and customs this positively influences the perceived satisfaction of treatment as defined by child's health insurance fitting the family’s needs, reasonable costs not covered by child's insurance, and child's insurance allowing the child to see all needed specialists.

Authors

• Peter Attridge, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Victoria King, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dian Yu, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author