There are approximately 4.5 million children of undocumented Latino parents who are documented in the United States (Capps, Fix & Zong, 2016). Latino adolescents are part of a disenfranchised underclass that struggles with social, educational, and economic challenges that can negatively affect their mental well-being (Gonzales, Suárez-Orozco & Dedios-Sanguineti, 2013; Stacciarini et al., 2015). Latino adolescents in rural communities, often live in ethnically segregated, isolated geographic and spatial areas striving to remain socially invisible to protect undocumented family members. The aims of this study were to: 1) describe rural Latino adolescents’ social experiences and the relation to their mental well-being; 2) describe rural Latino adolescents’ social networks, social mobility and the potential impact of rurality on their mental well-being.
Methods:
This study was part of a larger mixed-method study developed in rural counties of North Florida, United States. Data was collected with adolescents (N=62) from 11-17 years-old, living in three rural counties of North Florida. They were interviewed by using in-depth ethnographic semi-structured interviews and subsequent quantitative assessments, including a social-demographics (SD), a personal social-network (SN) survey, the SF-12v2™ Health Survey and the short version (8 items) of PROMIS Health Organization Social Isolation. The interview asked open-ended questions about adolescents’ perceptions of family, community and social relationships. In the SD questionnaire, spatial rural questions asked about participants’ zip code, where they have traveled to and places they visited in the last month, the approximate time it took to get into the visited places and the frequency they have visited each place in the last month. The SN survey focuses on participants’ personal (or egocentric) network – the SN of all the personal contacts (alters) that a participant (Ego) knows. Using one of the analytical processes for mixed-method research, qualitative and quantitative data sets were independently analyzed, and results of both analyses combined at the interpretative level.
Results:
Using the ecological model, transcribed interviews of rural adolescents’ descriptions were thematically organized into three areas: (1) rural community environment, (2) family environment, and (3) school environment. Four types of personal networks were identified: closed-community, core-periphery, bi-factional and multi-factional. Family and school networks operated independently and offered experiences that influenced adolescents’ perceptions of safety, integration, and community belonging. Rurality was related to social isolation and mental well-being.
Conclusion:
This mixed-method study highlighted how rural, and social environments can protect or impair mental wellbeing in rural Latino adolescent immigrants. Findings indicated that rural Latino adolescents move in limited and disconnected social circles (family and school), and they are often geographically, culturally, and socially isolated. Adolescents’ social networks mostly takes place in a closed, tightly-knit and almost entirely Latino families that is homogenous in terms of cultural, social and economic characteristics or school-related networks. Latino adolescents were well-integrated into the local community and expressed satisfaction with their lives. They also described significant concern, fear and anxiety about their parents’ undocumented status and possible deportation, which is a risk for poor mental well-being (Brabeck Lykes & Hunter, 2014; Delva et al., 2013; Gonzales et. al, 2013, Zayas, & Gulbas, 2016).