Poster #110 - Formative Childhood Work Experiences and Cultural Expectations as Motivation among U.S. Latino Migrant Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Introduction. Previous research has found that families from rural backgrounds in Latin America often rely on their children’s labor for agricultural work and household financial survival (Heidbrink, 2020). In the U.S., Latino migrant adolescents (LMA) – especially those who live and work without the company of their parents – can be found in agriculture (Carlos Chavez et al., 2022). While previous work has documented work-life experiences and stressors of LMA in farm work (Carlos Chavez et al., 2021), little is known about how these adolescents learned to work and provide for their families from a young age. In the present study, our main goal is to understand how LMA learned the necessary skills to work in agriculture and seek work in the U.S. Specifically, we focused on two research questions:
(1) What were LMA’s childhood formative work experiences in the country of origin?
(2) What kind of cultural influences or expectations are instilled upon LMA in regards to family provision?

Method. Semi-structured voice-recorded interviews were conducted in Spanish with N=30 Latino migrant adolescents (100% male, aged 15-20) in Florida. Interviews lasted approximately 45 minutes and each interview was assigned a pseudonym to protect participants’ information. Moreover, we obtained a Certificate of Confidentiality from the NIH to further protected participant anonymity. Adolescents who completed the interviews received a $30 incentive.
Data analysis. Using NVivo software, we conducted thematic analysis on a sub-sample (n = 7) of the interview transcripts.

Results. Initial analyses indicate that most youth began working for income as children between 7 and 10 years old. The most referenced job as children was working in milpa (cornfields) or coffee fields. Adolescents indicated that family members (mom, dad, or grandpa) taught them how to work in the fields. Poverty was commonly cited as the reason why these adolescents believed they had to work at a young age. They also discussed the expectation of working to provide for the family as the oldest child and/or as a male. Additionally, they alluded to an expectation of reciprocity toward their parents who were approaching old age and who provided for them when they were children. We are working to confirm these thematic patterns across the complete sample.

Discussion and Conclusion. Results indicate that Latino migrant adolescents learn skills to work in agriculture from a very young age largely due to financial need in the family. Covering immediate family needs is a collective effort that includes children’s participation through the experience of working in fields alongside family members. Additionally, learning the importance of providing for the family from a young age coupled with traditional expectations of men as providers in Latino culture further encourage LMA to prioritize the family’s needs over their own. Together, our findings provide an insight into the formative work experiences of LMA prior to their [im]migration to the U.S. and ‘normalizes’ their previous work experience which is now applied in U.S. agriculture.

Authors

• Bethany Ann Moore, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Fiorella L. Carlos Chavez, Arizona State University