Psychology and Economics in the Hispanic Population Essay

Introduction

In the U.S, almost half of the population of Latino children have one of their parents as immigrants. Most of these children live in poverty. Concisely, poverty has adverse effects on the health and development of a child during the early stages. It also affects the physical and psychological health of individuals. As such, most of them would record low academic attainment and achievement. In low-income families where people are exposed to multiple psychological and physical risks, the risk of behavior problems will increase substantially. This paper will provide a literature review of how psychology and economics affect different behaviors within the Hispanic community.

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Literature Review

Due to the expanding Hispanic immigrant population in the United States, economic competition has increased substantially. The increase has led to significant effects on the behaviors of the Hispanic population. Forster et al. (2015) conducted a study to establish the role of negative reception and bicultural stress in aggression behaviors of the Hispanic youth. In their study, the authors asserted that adolescent aggression tends to impede the aspect of healthy adjustment during early adulthood. As such, it may bring forth adverse long-term consequences for the youth (Forster et al., 2015). Models of linear regression were used for assessing the association between outcomes of behavior and the predictors. It was evident that interpersonal and cultural processes affect the deviant behaviors of the immigrant Hispanic populations. The authors recommend the need for future research to help in examining the role of bicultural stress and negative reception on adolescent behaviors.

Angel and Angel (2014) conducted a study to understand the psychological and economic perspectives of the Hispanic population in the aging world. They affirm that over centuries, immigrants from different nations move to the U.S. However, in the contemporary world, most of the immigrants are from Latin America. Due to their low-economic status, these people are stereotyped and rejected by the natives. The immigrants only move to the middle class after generations. The study found that the circumstances and time of arrival of the Hispanics, as well as the experiences of assimilation, affect the economic and psychological well-being of the population (Angel & Angel, 2014). In essence, the challenges experienced when incorporating social and economic policies influence the lifestyle behaviors of many immigrants. Some of them may not have adequate income to afford essential commodities like proper food and housing. Due to the higher birth rate of Hispanics as compared to the non-Hispanic whites, the number of working-age population, which comprises the Hispanics is expected to increase dramatically. However, low levels of education and restricted opportunities will impair the productivity of these workers. In this manner, the government will not be able to support its people and educate the children (Angel & Angel, 2014). Economic and psychological constraints affect the sense of solidarity of the Hispanics. Solidarity always creates a common purpose and promotes membership within different groups. The economic differences would threaten to undermine the group solidarity hence the individuals will not support each other.

Ideally, Hispanics experience a range of barriers in access to behavioral health care. Most of these barriers are related to socioeconomic status. Benuto and O'Donohue (2016), in their study, assert that the barriers to accessing behavioral health care consist of inflexible hours, lack of health insurance, long waits before service provision, stigma, language barriers, lack of transportation, as well as the long distance between homes and treatment locations. Benuto and O'Donohue (2016) discussed how the focus on empirically supported treatments is consistent with the Affordable Care Act. The Act emphasizes effective and efficient interventions in health care to help improve costs and safety of patients while ensuring the best outcomes. In most therapies, the minority groups like the Hispanic population are underrepresented in the move to provide sensitive health care services. Cultural values and stigmatization towards the minority population from the natives also deter them from acquiring efficient health care (Benuto & O'Donohue, 2016). The authors found that most of the studies they reviewed had methodological limitations and did not employ the gold standard designs, which are associated with clinical trials. They concluded that conventional cognitive behavioral therapy could be used for the treatment of the Latinos. Even though the majority of their work focused on the delivery of culturally sensitivity interventions, limited empirical support is available to support the necessity of such interventions.

Nevertheless, the barriers to accessing behavioral health services experienced by the Latinos are well documented. Therefore, a means to address the barriers should be incorporated. In such cases, a possible solution would be integrated care.

Noguera, Hurtado, and Fergs (2013) conducted a study to understand the aspect disenfranchisement of Hispanic men and boys. In their study, they argued that education, employment, as well as the incarceration of the Hispanic males in the U.S mirror those of other individuals in other minority populations. The lack of focus on these populations comes about due to various reasons. One of these is due to the diversity of the Hispanic population, which makes their challenges go unrecognized hence they are not able to receive proper attention as the majority groups. Due to disaggregation by social class and economic status of their families, the Hispanic males are vulnerable to hardships. For instance, the Puerto Rican males would be more likely to drop schools as their parents may not be able to support their education because of socio-economic constraints (Noguera et al., 2013). The study found that scholarship is not available for the Latino males. This has led to a few descriptive studies regarding the state of these people. Lack of concentrated examination has also made the Hispanic males invisible.

Another perspective evident in the study of how psychology and economics influence behaviors of the Hispanic population is seen in the aspect of racial discrimination. Brewster, Brauer, and Lynn (2015) conducted a study to determine the economic motivations, as well as moral controls that regulate discrimination against the Hispanic diners. In their work, they argue that discrimination against the Hispanics is mostly inhibited by the moral concerns of servers in restaurants. Additionally, moral restraints may buffer the effect of economic motives, which regulate discrimination (Brewster et al., 2015). The study used models of ordinal logistic regression in which survey sample data was collected from the servers in the U.S restaurants. They found that the tipping behaviors of Hispanic customers depict significant associations with cases of self-reported discrimination. It was also established that restaurant servers having strong moral restraints, refrain from discriminating the Hispanic diners.

Conclusion

Despite the Hispanic population being a large minority group in the U.S, it remains a silent and an invisible group. Different authors and researchers have conducted studies to discuss the influence of economics and psychology on behaviors of the Hispanics. These studies establish that most of the people within this minority group have low socioeconomic status hence are not able to acquire essential services like education and health care. These conditions also affect the lifestyle behaviors of the Hispanic community.

References

Benuto, L. T., & O'Donohue, W. (Eds.). (2016). Enhancing Behavioral Health in Latino Populations: Reducing Disparities Through Integrated Behavioral and Primary Care. Springer.

Noguera, P., Hurtado, A., & Fergus, E. (Eds.). (2013). Invisible no more: Understanding the disenfranchisement of Latino men and boys. London: Routledge.

Angel, R. J., & Angel, J. L. (2014). Latinos in an aging world: Social, psychological, and economic perspectives. Routledge.

Brewster, Z. W., Brauer, J. R., & Lynn, M. (2015). Economic motivations and moral controls regulating discrimination against Black and Hispanic diners. The Sociological Quarterly, 56(3), 506-538.

Forster, M., Grigsby, T., Soto, D. W., Schwartz, S. J., & Unger, J. B. (2015). The role of bicultural stress and perceived context of reception in the expression of aggression and rule breaking behaviors among recent-immigrant Hispanic youth. Journal of interpersonal violence, 30(11), 1807-1827.