Latino Presence in the US: History, Socialization, and Representation - Essay Sample

Introduction

Latino is a term used to refer to people who have a Mexican, Cuban, or South American descent, regardless of race. The presence of people that speak the Spanish language and many of their descendants in The United States of America can be dated back to the early 16th century. Despite their long presence in the U.S., Latino families have been represented inadequately and inaccurately. Latino adolescents are different from those of other ethnic groups in ways that may affect socialization and their experiences in life. Such influences affect the way that the adolescents live with a likelihood of them living in poverty and getting stressed higher than that of the children born and reared in the American origin, speaking English as their native language.

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Acculturation

Acculturation is the way immigrants get used to and slowly adopt the new country's cultural norms. Most Latino adolescents in the US usually join their parents in the country after staying in their home countries with other care providers or guardians for years. The transition from a Spanish speaking environment and culture among the people to an English speaking environment becomes a major problem for most of them as they find it hard to create positive interaction with the new people they find in the United States (Wheeler et al. 1). Adolescents are also most likely to face problems ranging from discrimination to depression in the United States as they try to gain a sense of freedom and ethnic identity.

The Latino population is the biggest ethnic group in the United States, and it is anticipated to propagate to 25% of the U.S population by the year 2050. Mexican origin teenagers are usually at greater risks than general populations to experience behavioral consequences such as higher rates of substance use, school dropouts, and juvenile arrests (Wheeler et al. 3). Such disparities are caused by high rates of poverty in the families and staying in concentrated poverty areas. Adolescents with a Latino background face many challenges that differ from those of other people living in the United States. Language barriers, their statuses that are related to the citizenship of their parents, and the economic disadvantages that most migrants in the country face are a major reason why the adolescents face problems in the United States.

Effects of Communication in Latino Families

Grade and gender groups among Latino families have better communications with their mothers than with their fathers. However, as the Latino children grow older and enter the stage of adolescence, they find it hard to maintain the family connectedness they had in the past. This creates social spaces in them that increase emotional distress and suicidal thoughts among youths (Wheeler et al. 4).

Latino adolescents whose parents are not around are more likely to have suicidal feelings and attempt suicide. Additionally, higher emotional distress levels are reported in Latino adolescents that are unable to speak to their parents (Wheeler et al. 8). The stressors that may lead a Latino adolescent to stress and suicide thoughts include family stressors, peer stressors, immigration stressors, and environmental stressors.

Latino Adolescent Mental Health

Latino youths are more probable to face mental health concerns than their peers, which is becoming a major concern that needs to be taken seriously due to the growing numbers of young Latinos in the US. Latino Americans are underrepresented when evaluating people living in the United States (Wheeler et al. 11). The Latino population is mainly encompassed by the U.S. born as well as immigrants of various generations. A majority of the Latinos living in the US have a Mexican heritage and are diverse in educational levels, socioeconomic statuses, and health insurance coverage. However, they remain to be at a huge risk for the absence of health insurance and poverty.

One area of concern among Latino adolescents that creates differences in health results is the mental health problems that Latino adolescents may face as they grow to include depression and suicidal indentations. Internationally, 20% of adolescents have health problems or conditions such as depression with the World Health Organization, explaining that depression is a prominent reason for depression among adolescents (Wheeler et al. 16). Research shows that Latin adolescents have higher rates of Major Depressive Disorders, which may lead them to commit suicide. Suicide is the third prominent reason of death amongst adolescents, especially Latino adolescents. Despite Latino adolescents having evidence of being in more need of the health services, they may not be reaching them due to various factors that may be affecting the peer groups’ self-identity.

Peer Stressors

Other mental health stressors common among adolescents include the struggles that they face in the establishment of peer group affiliations and self-identity concerns. Latino adolescents are more likely to have conflicts with their parents as an increase in acculturated adolescents creates a desire to have excellent social outlets for their families (Gonzales et al. 154).

Family stressors are common among Latin adolescents because their families do not settle together as one unit. Most members of a family come to the United States when they are separated with some adolescents reporting situations where they rejoin with their families after several months or years of separation (Gonzales et al. 156). Such a reunification causes conflicts with parents because most of the adolescents at this age are usually at a step where they experience development and struggle to be independent. They also find it hard to adapt to life in the new environments they face in the United States, different from the environment in their home country. Family conflicts cause depression among Latino adolescents as they gain better language skills and understanding of languages faster than parents do.

Immigration is common among the Latinos living in the US, and it becomes a stressor to the youths, placing them at risk of developing mental health problems. The adolescents that immigrate to other countries from the countries they were used to face stressors that are related to the processes of acculturation, reunification, separation of families, and language barriers (Gonzales et al. 157). Most adolescents have stress after migrating to the United States because they leave protective family networks in their home countries only to join relatives in the US that they may not be used to. The limited contact with the people that raised them in their early ages of childhood makes most of them stressed. The situation becomes worse for such adolescents in cases where their immigration status is not documented; hence they do not have the free option to go back to their countries of origin and visit their families.

Environmental Stressors

Environmental stressors are also common causes of high levels of stress among Latino adolescents to the extent that it affects their mental health. Some major environmental stressors include neighborhood and geographic risks because many of the Latino families live in urban areas where they are exposed to criminal activities and poverty (Gonzales et al. 158). The adolescents may be forced to live in apartments that are inadequate and overcrowded, and they share bathroom facilities and kitchens with other families.

The overcrowding and the fact that they have to live in filthy environments compared to the areas they used to live in their home countries create huge levels of stress among Latino adolescents. Such an environment also introduces Latino adolescents to drug use and abuse as they search for a way to reduce their stress levels (Gonzales et al. 158). They eventually become addicted to drugs, and when they are unable to get money to buy the drugs, they often indulge in criminal activities to help deal with their addiction. This concept explains why there are huge numbers of Latino adolescents in criminal activities and drug trafficking in the United States.

Adolescent girls with a Latin origin are more likely to think differently about themselves than boys regarding gender roles and how their parents perceive them. Latino adolescents are faced with the challenge of understanding the attitudes towards men and women (Gonzales et al. 160). A cultural concept among the Latino populations is machismo, which portrays males as strong and unemotional in heading the families. Discrepancies between the adolescents and their children on the attitudes towards women lead to low cohesion in the family, conflicts, and symptoms of depression.

In a family with a single female parent, the mother and the adolescents take the chance to migrate to the United States positively and start a new life. The mothers usually have huge expectations for their adolescent children to emerge successful because they feel that they are given unique opportunities that are unaffordable to other parents (Ramirez et al. 2). Such expectations lead to conflicts because the adolescents feel limited in freedom as their mothers become strict and believe that they are not serious in the fulfillment of their responsibilities. In families where parents are married, the Latino adolescents report that they have limited communications with their fathers due to their long working hours.

The Latino emphasizes the advantages of collective family and individual goals as well as marianismo, a behavior that is exhibited by both daughters and mothers. Machismo plays a major role in creating suicidal thoughts among adolescents, mainly the girls that are more likely to attempt suicide (Ramirez et al. 8). Mexican American parents, especially mothers, use more authoritarian parenting models than other mothers making the adolescents in their growth to become more resistant to their parents as they try to search for freedom away from the authoritarian family management.

Apart from attempting to commit suicide, adolescent girls in the Latino communities record the highest birth rates among teens in the United States. Hispanic females have higher birth rates than all other ethnic groups (Ramirez et al. 9). The Latino girls’ rates of pregnancy and birth are twice that of white female adolescents with the Latino males in their adolescence who are fathers to a child, or various children are more than twice the number of white adolescents.

Past studies have confirmed that Latino adolescents have high rates of alcohol consumption and the use of tobacco, meaning that these peers at that age group have higher rates of engaging in risk behavior. They engage in bad eating habits that cause obesity among themselves. 22.8% of Latino adolescents are obese because of their bad eating habits (Ramirez et al. 11). They are also less likely to engage themselves in school activities where physical activity is common in helping to prevent obesity and staying healthy. Some of the issues that prevent Latino adolescents from participating in physical activities include participation costs and language barriers. Involvement in such activity also requires constant traveling from one place to another to participate in sports (Ramirez et al. 13). A large percentage of Latino children and adolescents are unable to afford such costs; hence they prefer to stay at home or in school while others participate in various physical activities that reduce the chances of obesity.

Interventions to reduce obesity among Latino American adolescents include targeting both parents and teens to develop intervention programs for teen obesity (Ramirez et al. 16). The parents should get educated about the advantages of physical activities, and in situations where adolescents live in poverty, they should be allowed to take part in physical activities for free to help...