Immigration Enforcement Fear and Anxiety in Latinx High School Students: The Indirect Effect of Perceived Discrimination

Abstract

Purpose: Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psychological well-being of Latinx youth in immigrant families, particularly those who are most vulnerable because of their own or their loved ones' legal status. According to the Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies among Minority Children, discrimination may be one pathway to explain how vulnerability to restrictive immigration policies affects Latinx youth mental health.

Methods: We collected data from 306 Latinx high school students from immigrant families in Harris County, Texas, and Rhode Island to (1) determine the direct effect of immigration enforcement fear (a proxy for the social position of vulnerable legal status) on adolescents' anxiety; (2) explore the effect of immigration enforcement fear on anxiety through the pathway of perceived discrimination; and (3) test whether the different enforcement climates in the two study sites moderate these pathways. Total anxiety and subscales measuring separation, social, school, generalized, and somatic anxiety subtypes were analyzed.

Results: Immigration enforcement fear was related to increased somatic and separation anxiety in both first- and second-generation Latinx adolescents. Perceived discrimination partially mediated the association between immigration enforcement fear and separation and somatic anxiety; data collection site did not moderate these effects.

Conclusions: Immigration policies and rhetoric have psychological consequences. Although the adolescents in our study face multiple stressors, immigration enforcement fear may heighten their perception of discrimination, in turn, likely elevating their physiological and family separation anxiety.

Keywords: Anxiety; Discrimination; Immigrant youth; Immigration enforcement; Integrative model of minority children's development.