title: Living Conditions and Psychological Distress in Latino Migrant Day Laborers: The Role of Cultural and Community Protective Factors.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between typically difficult living conditions and psychological distress in Latino migrant day laborers (LMDLs), with attention to the potentially protective roles of contact with family in country of origin (i.e., communication, sending money, etc.), availability of local culture (i.e., food, music, people from one's country of origin), and utilization of community resources perceived to be culturally competent (i.e., services that are respectful, able to serve Latinos, able to solve problems, in Spanish, etc.). Participants were 344 LMDLs surveyed in the San Francisco Bay Area. As hypothesized: (a) difficult living conditions were related to depression, anxiety, and desesperación [desperation], the latter a popular Latino idiom of psychological distress recently validated on LMDLs; (b) contact with family moderated the relation between difficult living conditions and depression and desesperación but not anxiety and (c) access to local culture, and utilization of community resources, mediated the relation between difficult living conditions and depression and desesperación but not anxiety. Implications for intervening at local and larger levels in order to provide some protection against distress built into the LMDL experience in the United States are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kurt C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Organista
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare/School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Torsten B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Neilands
authors.affiliation: Behavioral and Urban Health Program, RTI International, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Alex H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Kral
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002140:California; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012495:San Francisco; D012924:Social Conditions; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cultural and community resources; Family; Latino migrant day laborers; Living conditions; Protective factors; Psychological distress