The effect of immigration and acculturation on victimization among a national sample of Latino women.

Abstract

The current study examined the effect of immigrant status, acculturation, and the interaction of acculturation and immigrant status on self-reported victimization in the United States among Latino women, including physical assault, sexual assault, stalking, and threatened violence. In addition, immigrant status, acculturation, gender role ideology, and religious intensity were examined as predictors of the count of victimization among the victimized subsample. The Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) Study surveyed 2,000 adult Latino women who lived in high-density Latino neighborhoods in 2008. The present study reports findings for a subsample of women who were victimized in the United States (n = 568). Immigrant women reported significantly less victimization than U.S.-born Latino women in bivariate analyses. Multivariate models showed that Anglo orientation was associated with greater odds of all forms of victimization, whereas both Latino orientation and being an immigrant were associated with lower odds of all forms of victimization. Latino orientation was more protective for immigrant women than for U.S.-born Latino women with regard to sexual victimization. Among the victimized subsample, being an immigrant, Anglo acculturation, and masculine gender role were associated with a higher victimization count, whereas Latino orientation and religious intensity were associated with a lower victimization count. The findings point to the risk associated with being a U.S. minority, the protective value of Latino cultural maintenance, and the need for services to reach out to Anglo acculturated Latino women.

The Interrelationships between Victimization, Fear, and Acculturation among Asian Immigrants

“…Overall, the intersection of previous literature and the current research suggests that the current findings are somewhat dissimilar from those found by Le and Wallen (2009) on intraethnic Asian victimization. In addition, compared to research sampling similar ethnic groups (e.g., Le & Wallen, 2009) as well as different ethnic groups (e.g., Sabina et al, 2012) the current sample of immigrants experienced a higher prevalence of victimization. In sum, while findings in the current research are not supportive of intraethnic differences in victimization, future studies should not disregard disaggregating ethnic groups since valuable contextual information may actually exist between groups (e.g., Zhou & Xiong, 2005).…”

“…One side of research using comparative analyses of immigrants and native-born persons has highlighted that the former may experience significantly less victimization than the latter (e.g., Perreault, 2004;Sabina, Cuevas, & Schally, 2012). Results from Sabina and colleagues (2012) showcased significantly lower levels for any type of victimization-such as stalking, physical, sexual, and threats-reported by Hispanic immigrants when compared with natural-born U.S. citizens.…”

Association of Immigrant and Refugee Status With Risk Factors for Exposure to Violent Assault Among Youths and Young Adults in Canada

“…This finding suggests that, although prior experiences, including violence, conflict, and forced migration, may contribute to some extent, other factors, such as family cohesion, hope, opportunity, settlement supports, and living in urban centers with high-density immigrant communities (associated with reduced crime and better health outcomes), may contribute to our findings. 8,[27][28][29] We found that with increasing time since migration, there was no change in risk of experiencing violence. Other studies have found that time since migration is associated with increasing perpetration of violence, increasing substance use, and increasing intimate partner violence.…”

Mental Health of Undocumented Immigrant Adults in the United States: A Systematic Review of Methodology and Findings

“…Only 3 of 14 quantitative studies included an all undocumented sample. Among studies in which only a portion of the sample was undocumented (14 of 24), the percentage of UIs in the total sample ranged from 5% to 93%, with the lowest percentage including UIs recruited via a nationwide randomdigit-dial survey (Sabina, Cuevas, & Schally, 2013), and the highest from an all female sample recruited from a home visiting program (Paris, 2008).…”