The Health of Hispanic Children from Birth to Emerging Adulthood

• Date: 01 July 2021
• Published date: 01 July 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211048805
• Subject Matter: Health

200 ANNALS, AAPSS, 696, July 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211048805

The Health of

Hispanic

Children from

Birth to

Emerging

Adulthood

By

KRISTA M. PERREIRA

and

CHENOA D. ALLEN

1048805ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYTHE HEALTH OF HISPANIC CHILDREN

research-article2021

This article summarizes frameworks for understanding

Hispanic children’s health, sources of national data

available to evaluate their health, and variations in

health among Hispanic children. Following ecological

and life-course perspectives, we organize our review of

the literature on Hispanic children’s health and devel-

opment according to three key stages of child develop-

ment (zero to three, early to middle childhood, and

adolescence to emerging adulthood) with attention to

how each stage influences the next. Within each stage,

we consider how social position (i.e., skin color, social

class, gender, and nativity), social contexts (i.e., family,

school, and neighborhood), and political and legal con-

texts influence Hispanic children’s health and develop-

ment. We argue that to improve the health and

development of Hispanic children, federal, state, and

local policies must address social and economic injus-

tices that lead to declines in health across immigrant

generations and persistent racial/ethnic health dispari-

ties.

Keywords: Hispanic/Latino; child health; child devel-

opment; mental health; social determinants

Children’s physical and mental health pro-

vides the foundation for their education,

employment, and long-term well-being as

adults (Perreira and Ornelas 2011). Given the

importance of social determinants (e.g., dis-

crimination, education, and poverty) in health,

Krista M. Perreira is a professor of social medicine at

the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at

Chapel Hill. Her scholarship combines qualitative and

quantitative methodologies to study Hispanic/Latino

health, immigration, and the consequences of structural

inequalities and public policies affecting Hispanic/

Latino and immigrant populations.

Chenoa D. Allen is an assistant professor of health sci-

ences at the University of Missouri and a research

affiliate at the University of Wisconsin Center for

Demography of Health and Aging. Her current work

studies the effects of state and local immigrant policies

on Hispanic children’s health.

Correspondence: perreira@email.unc.edu

THE HEALTH OF HISPANIC CHILDREN 201

improvements in children’s health require investments not only in medical ser-

vices but also in the public health, education, and social service infrastructures

that promote health (Taylor etal. 2016).

Yet there are limits to federal, state, and local government investments in chil-

dren’s health. While access to public health insurance via Medicaid has expanded

greatly since the 1980s (Perreira, Allen, and Oberlander, this volume), govern-

ment commitments to other policies that impact children’s health have been

constrained. In 1996, Congress passed welfare reforms limiting access to cash

and food assistance for low-income families. The onset of the COVID-19 pan-

demic created additional fiscal challenges for governments and at the same time

spurred federal investments in families with children. However, it is unclear if

these investments will continue going forward.

To address health disparities and promote health equity, investments in poli-

cies and programs to promote children’s well-being are especially important for

historically marginalized and underserved populations, including Hispanic chil-

dren. This article summarizes frameworks for understanding Hispanic children’s

health, sources of national data available to evaluate their health, and differences

in health among Hispanic children. We conclude with a discussion of the poten-

tial effects of COVID-19 on the health of Hispanic children and the strategies

needed to protect their health.

Frameworks for Understanding Hispanic Children’s Health

Ecological systems and life-course perspectives frame most research on chil-

dren’s health and development. The ecological perspective emphasizes that,

apart from the family, children are influenced by multiple, nested systems (also

referred to as environmental contexts), the interactions between these systems,

and changes over time in these systems (Bronfrenbrenner 2005). Systems include

microsystems (e.g., extended family, schools, and neighborhoods) that are most

central to children’s lives and daily experiences; exosystems (e.g., social agencies

and employers), which influence the availability of resources for children; and

macrosystems (e.g., governments and cultures), which influence broader social

structures, values, and norms. Heavily influenced by the life-course perspective,

later renditions of the ecological systems perspective (inclusive of person-

process-context-time models and bioecological models) emphasized the agency

of children and their unique dispositions in affecting interactions (i.e., processes)

with people and contexts across different aspects of time (age, birth cohorts, and

historical periods).

NOTE: This research was supported by the Carolina Population Center and its National

Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

(NICHD) Grant Award Number P2C HD50924 and the Integrating Special Populations/

North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute through Grant Award Number

UL1TR002489 (Perreira).