No abstract

Food insecurity, Latino immigrants, Low-income, Rural,

Latina immigrant mothers face complex challenges as they try to ensure their children get adequate nourishment to grow up healthy in their new U.S. communities. Eighty‐three Latina immigrant mothers living in a rural area of a Midwestern state who had young children and low household incomes were interviewed to explore their satisfaction with the food their children were eating, as well as ecological factors that affected children's eating patterns. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: (i) Mothers as gatekeepers of healthy child eating; (ii) Barriers to healthy child eating; and (iii) Changing child eating patterns. Mothers retained their cultural identity as primary caregivers and wanted their children to consume nourishing food. Mothers varied in their ability to negotiate their new food environments to maintain cultural food practices and promote healthy child eating patterns. Family and consumer science professionals could facilitate opportunities to (i) link immigrant families to Extension Master Gardeners to learn techniques to successfully grow food in a new climate; (ii) bring immigrant families, school food service staff, growers and grocers together to strategize how to increase children's access to locally grown food at school; (iii) assist immigrant families in identifying strategies to maintain healthy cultural food traditions while consuming less fat, salt, and sugar; and (iv) increase representation of immigrant families on school and community program advisory committees to ensure policies and programs are informed by families. Such opportunities can strengthen social capital among immigrant families and their community and support healthy child eating patterns.

Interviews with 78 rural low‐income Latino immigrant mothers in three states (CA, OR, and IA) explored relationships between transnationalism and health and housing risks. Transnational activity based on language spoken at home, nature, and frequency of contact with family and friends in, and the extent and frequency of travel to the country of origin, was conceptualized as a continuum from high to low. Low transnational families lived in the United States twice as long and were more knowledgeable about community resources than high transnational families. Modest relationships between transnationalism and housing and health risks were identified. Thus, health and housing risk indicators may be present in low‐income, rural Latino immigrant families regardless of their degree of transnationalism. Future studies are needed to further explore these relationships.

In this paper we make the case for Shared Language Erosion as a potential explanation for the negative outcomes described in the immigrant paradox for second- and third- generation immigrants (e.g., declines in physical, mental, and behavioral health). While not negating the important role of cultural adaptation, we posit that parent-child communication difficulties due to a process we are calling Shared Language Erosion is driving the observed affects previously attributed to changes in cultural values and beliefs. Shared Language Erosion is the process during which adolescents improve their English skills while simultaneously losing or failing to develop their heritage language; at the same time their parents acquire English at a much slower rate. This lack of a common shared language makes it difficult for parents and their adolescent children to effectively communicate with each other, and leads to increased parent-child conflict, reduced parental competence, aggravated preexisting flaws in parent-child attachment, and increased adolescent vulnerability to deviant peer influences.