Latina/o/x undocumented college students’ perceived barriers and motivations for talking to a campus mental health professional: A focus on communication, culture, and structural barriers

ABSTRACT

Although undocumented students face numerous stressors that can lead to mental health strain, they often underutilize their campus mental health services. To identify the barriers and motivations for talking to a campus mental health professional (MHP) and to extend the Health Belief Model (HBM), we conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 Latina/o/x undocumented college students. Family communication revealed views that undermined talking to an MHP, but that were deeply rooted in culture and immigration; having to prioritize basic needs; and growing up in an environment where mental health services were unavailable. Our findings reveal important communication, cultural, and structural elements that should be emphasized in the HBM when explicating Latina/o/x undocumented students' beliefs and behaviors about talking to an MHP.

KEYWORDS:

• Health belief model
• undocumented immigration
• mental health
• culture
• family communication

Acknowledgements

We extend our deepest gratitude to our participants, and we thank everyone who assisted with the recruitment.

Notes

1 Undocumented immigrants refer to people who reside in a country without authorization (Internal Revenue Service, August 27, 2017). There are approximately 450,000 undocumented college students in the U.S. (New American Economy, 2021).

2 Undocumented immigrants, including undocumented college students, do not have a social security number or work permit unless they have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; however, many undocumented college students are not DACA eligible (New American Economy, 2021).

3 Hispanic, Latino, Latina/o, Latin@, Latinx, and other ethnic identifiers have all faced legitimate criticism, and there is no agreement on which ethnic identifier should be used (De Onís, 2017). Hispanic is a term that was assigned to Latinas/os/xs by the U.S. government, and some feel the term’s inclusion of people from Spain, “privileges the colonizer” (Hernández et al., 2019, p. 9). Latina/o and Latin@ have been used to be gender inclusive, while maintaining Spanish-language gender distinctions (“a” or “o”). Nevertheless, Latina/o and Latin@ are gender binary. Latinx was developed to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ and non-gender conforming communities. One concern, however, is that the term is an academic elitist identifier that marginalizes a large population in the United States and in Latin America.

4 The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was established in 2012 as an executive order signed by former U.S. President Barack Obama. The program allows undocumented youth temporary relief from deportation as long as they meet certain eligibility requirements and renew their DACA status every two years. DACA recipients can obtain a social security number and a work permit (Gonzales et al., 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of California, Santa Barbara Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research (ISBER) small research grant.