Diminished Health Returns of Educational Attainment Among Immigrant Adults in the United States

Abstract

Objectives: Marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) refer to weaker health effects of educational attainment for socially marginalized groups compared to the socially privileged groups. Most of the existing literature on MDRs, however, has focused on marginalization due to race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Thus, very limited information exists on MDRs of educational attainment among immigrant populations in the United States.Aims: Building on the MDRs framework and using a nationally representative sample of US adults, we compared immigrant and native-born adults for the effects of educational attainment on psychological distress, self-rated health (SRH), and chronic diseases (CDs).Methods: The 2015 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has enrolled 33,672 individuals who were either immigrant (n = 6,225; 18.5%) or native born (n = 27,429; 81.5%). The independent variable (IV) was educational attainment, which was treated as a categorical variable. The dependent variables included psychological distress, SRH, and CDs, all of which were dichotomous variables. Age, gender, race, ethnicity, and region were confounders. Immigration (nativity status) was the moderator.Results: Higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of psychological distress, poor SRH, and CDs. However, immigration showed a significant statistical interaction with college graduation on all outcomes, which were suggestive of smaller protective effects of college graduation on psychological distress, poor SRH, and CDs for immigrant than native-born adults.Conclusions: In the US, the associations between educational attainment and psychological distress, SRH, and CDs are all weaker for immigrant than native-born adults. To prevent health disparities, it is essential to decompose health inequalities that are due to low educational attainment from those that are due to diminished returns of educational attainment (i.e., MDRs). There is a need to help highly educated immigrant adults secure positive health outcomes, similar to their native-born counterparts. Such changes may require bold and innovative economic, public, and social policies that help immigrant adults to more effectively mobilize their educational attainment to secure tangible outcomes. Elimination of health disparities in the US requires efforts that go beyond equalizing access to education.

Disability and self-rated health: Exploring foreign- and U.S.-born differences across adulthood

“…As for the older foreign-born respondents in our sample, we found that being non-disabled did not translate to notably lower reports of fair/poor SRH, as compared to their U.S.-born peers. This finding is arguably the result of marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) which is when disadvantaged groups do not reap the same health benefits from upward mobility as advantaged groups ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ; Assari, 2020 ; S. Assari et al., 2020 ). Specifically, research finds that immigrants who achieve educational or income mobility are more likely to report worse SRH ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ), mental well-being ( Assari, 2020 ), and rates of smoking ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ) than their U.S.-born peers.…”

“…This finding is arguably the result of marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) which is when disadvantaged groups do not reap the same health benefits from upward mobility as advantaged groups ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ; Assari, 2020 ; S. Assari et al., 2020 ). Specifically, research finds that immigrants who achieve educational or income mobility are more likely to report worse SRH ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ), mental well-being ( Assari, 2020 ), and rates of smoking ( S. Assari et al., 2020 ) than their U.S.-born peers. In the case of our study, reaching old age without acquiring disability is a marker of social advantage but does not draw a SRH advantage for older Hispanic immigrants as well as NH Blacks from both age and nativity groups.…”

“…Moreover, older, particularly Hispanic, immigrants report exceptionally high rates of depressive symptoms and inflammation ( Boen and Hummer, 2019 ). Previous research have attributed similar findings to marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) because immigrants do not receive the same health benefits from upward mobility as their U.S.-born peers [( S. Assari et al., 2020 ; Assari, 2020 ) ( S. Assari et al., 2020 )]. Thus, it is important to investigate how disability status reflects the health of immigrants later in life.…”

Nationality as an Influential Variable with Regard to the Social Skills and Academic Success of Immigrant Students

“…The sixth and final dimension involves initiating positive interactions with the opposite sex. According to [125], this dimension leads immigrant students to interact with friends of the opposite sex in order to improve their capacity to relate to other members of society. This can be accomplished by interactions based on trust, reciprocity, mutual support, and friendly relationships between the sexes.…”

“It’s Like the Elephant in the Room” A Qualitative Analysis of Racism in a U.S. High School

“…One potential underlying mechanism that explains sustained disparities in economic, educational, and health disparities among Black Americans is the Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs). Marginalization-related Diminished Returns for Black students, a well-documented phenomenon in the literature, refers to the paradox experienced by socially marginalized groups as social attainments, otherwise proven to serve as protective factors for health, education, and economic development, produce significantly diminished effects/returns when compared to socially privileged groups (i.e., non-Latinx Whites) (Assari et al, 2020). The systemic racial oppression experienced by Black students in multiple facets of life results in diminished returns of education advancement, as reflected by widening educational, health and economic inequalities in Black communities (Assari, 2018).…”