Published in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 2010, Vol. 16, No. 3, 335–343.
Joseph G. Grzywacz, Sara A. Quandt, Haiying Chen, Scott Isom, Lisa Kiang, Quirina Vallejos, and Thomas A. Arcury, Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
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Immigrant Latino farmworkers confront multiple challenges that threaten their mental health. Previous farmworker mental health research has relied primarily on cross-sectional study designs, leaving little opportunity to describe how farmworker mental health changes or to identify factors that may contribute to these changes. This study used prospective data obtained at monthly intervals across one 4-month agricultural season from a large sample of Latino farmworkers in North Carolina (N 288) to document variation in depressive symptoms across the agricultural season and delineate structural and situational factors associated with mental health trajectories across time. Depressive symptoms generally followed a U-shaped distribution across the season, but there was substantial variation in this pattern. Structural stressors like marital status and situational stressors like the pace of work, crowded living conditions, and concerns about documentation predicted depressive symptoms. The pattern of results suggests that strategies to address mental health problems in this vulnerable population will require coordinated action at the individual and social level.
A substantial proportion of Latino farmworkers, particularly those in the Midwest and in the eastern U.S., have poor mental health. Approximately 40% of farmworkers in the upper Midwest and North Carolina have been reported to have elevated levels of depressive symptoms (Hiott, Grzywacz, Arcury, & Quandt, 2006; Hovey & Magan˜a, 2000; Hovey & Magan˜a, 2002), whereas only 20% of farmworkers in California had comparable levels (Alderete, Vega, Kolody, & Aguilar-Gaxiola, 1999). Lack of mental health services exacerbates the mental health challenge for Latino farmworkers, especially in the eastern United States, which has only recently experienced substantial growth in the immigrant Latino population (Grzywacz, 2009). Finally, indicators of poor mental health, such as elevated depressive symptoms or heavy alcohol use are a risk factor for occupational injuries (Crandall, Fullerton, Olson, Sklar, & Zumwalt, 1997; Stallones & Xiang, 2003; Wells & Macdonald, 1999). Other negative outcomes suggest that poor mental health creates a foundation for additional health disparities in an already vulnerable population (Grzywacz, 2009; Hovey & Seligman, 2006).
Researchers have speculated for two decades that farmworkers confront multiple hardships that undermine mental health (Vega, Warheit, & Palacio, 1985); nevertheless, basic understanding of farmworker mental health remains elusive (Grzywacz, 2009). Most research is cross-sectional. Although useful for documenting the prevalence of mental health problems, cross-sectional studies are less useful for answering basic questions such as “how does farmworker mental health change across time?” or “what contributes to changes in depressive symptoms among farmworkers?” Answers to basic questions such as these are essential for accurately characterizing the mental health of farmworkers, and for identifying potential strategies for protecting the health of this vulnerable worker population.
The goal of this study is to develop a better understanding of Latino farmworker mental health. To accomplish this goal we use prospective data obtained over a 4-month period to: (a) Document overall levels of farmworker depressive symptoms across an agricultural season; (b) illustrate variation in individual farmworkers’ mental health across an agricultural season; and (c) determine the extent to which structural stressors (e.g., worker status), and situational stressors (e.g., documentation concerns) contribute to variation in farmworker depressive symptoms over time.