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Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Low-Income, Latinx Children in Immigrant Families: Comparison of Children in Rural Farmworker and Urban Non-Farmworker Communities

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Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressors that can have lifelong detrimental health effects. ACEs are a concern for children of immigrant parents. The low-income mothers of 75 rural farmworker and 63 urban non-farmworker 8-year old Latinx children in immigrant families completed a standardized ACEs inventory. 47.1% of mothers reported no ACEs, 33.3% reported 1, 8.7% reported 2, and 10.9% reported 3 or more. A logistic regression model indicated that urban versus rural children had a higher odds (OR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.01, 5.48) of at least one ACE. Children living in families with 2 versus 1 adults (OR = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.49) and 3 versus 1 adults (OR = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.78) had a lower odds of at least one ACE. ACEs prevalence was similar to other children in immigrant families, with children living in urban communities having twice the likelihood of experiencing an ACE. Detailed research is needed on locality-based ACEs prevalence.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support of their community partners, the North Carolina Farmworkers Project and of Student Action with Farmworkers, and appreciate the valuable contributions of our community field interviewers in carrying out participant recruitment and data collection. They especially thank the children and parents who participated in this study.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [Grant number R01 ES08739]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Dorothy L. Dobbins & Paul J. Laurienti

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Lesley M. Berenson

  3. Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Haiying Chen

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Sara A. Quandt

  5. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Thomas A. Arcury

Authors
  1. Dorothy L. Dobbins
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  2. Lesley M. Berenson
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  3. Haiying Chen
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  4. Sara A. Quandt
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  5. Paul J. Laurienti
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  6. Thomas A. Arcury
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Contributions

HC, SAQ, PJL, and TAA contributed to the study conception and design. All of the authors participated in material preparation and data analysis. DLD and LB wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors commented on the manuscript drafts. All authors reviewed the submitted manuscript and approved the manuscript for submission.

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Correspondence to Thomas A. Arcury.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

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Dobbins, D.L., Berenson, L.M., Chen, H. et al. Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Low-Income, Latinx Children in Immigrant Families: Comparison of Children in Rural Farmworker and Urban Non-Farmworker Communities. J Immigrant Minority Health 24, 977–986 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01274-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01274-9

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