title: Assimilation and Health: Evidence From Linked Birth Records of Second- and Third-Generation Hispanics.
abstract: This study explores the effects of assimilation on the health of Hispanics in the United States, using ethnic intermarriage as a metric of acculturation. I exploit a unique data set of linked confidential use birth records in California and Florida from 1970-2009. The confidential data allow me to link mothers giving birth in 1989-2009 to their own birth certificate records in 1970-1985 and to identify second-generation siblings. Thus, I can analyze the relationship between the parental exogamy of second-generation Hispanic women and the birth outcomes of their offspring controlling for grandmother fixed effects as well as indicators for second generation's birth weight. Despite their higher socioeconomic status, third-generation children of second-generation intermarried Hispanic women are more likely to have poor health at birth, even after I account for second-generation health at birth and employ only within-family variations in the extent of assimilation. I find that a second-generation Hispanic woman married to a non-Hispanic man is 9 % more likely to have a child with low birth weight relative to a second-generation woman married to another Hispanic. These results largely reflect the higher incidence of risky behaviors (e.g., smoking during pregnancy) among intermarried Hispanic women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, Posvar Hall, 230 S Bouquet St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA. osea.giuntella@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Osea
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Giuntella
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006304:Health Status; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000208:ethnology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Acculturation; Birth outcomes; Hispanic paradox; Intermarriage