Intergenerational Online Health Information Searching and Brokering: Framing Health Literacy as a Family Asset

ABSTRACT

Latino populations are disproportionately impacted by health disparities and face both connectivity and health literacy challenges. As evidenced by the current global pandemic, access to reliable online health-related information and the ability to apply that information is critical to achieving health equity. Through a qualitative study on how Latino families collaborate to access online health resources, this work frames health literacy as a family-level mechanism. Interviews with parent-child dyads combined with online search tasks reveal how families integrate their individual skillsets to obtain, process, and understand online information about illnesses, symptoms, and even medical diagnoses. As they engage in intergenerational online health information searching and brokering, families creatively navigate information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address a range of health needs. Bilingual children help immigrant parents obtain urgent and non-urgent health information needed to care for other family members. When children are tasked with addressing a health need critical to their parent’s wellbeing, they collaborate with their parents to obtain, interpret, and apply online health information. Intergenerational online health information searching and brokering thus reveals family-level strengths that can be leveraged to promote both health and digital literacy among marginalized populations.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge our community partner, the Latino Educational Training Institute (LETI), and all of the families who participated in this research. We would also like to thank Dr. Vikki Katz for her intellectual guidance and mentorship.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. One participant initially identified as an immigrant and then reported being first generation (U.S.-born with immigrant parents).

2. Prior research has identified the 10–17 age range as the most common age in which youth are likely to actively broker for their families (Katz et al., 2018; Orellana et al., 2003). While researchers have documented how children as young as six may engage in language brokering, our explicit focus on online searching and brokering required a slightly older age group who would be more likely to engage digital tools and navigate online resources.

3. We welcomed grandparents as they were identified, by themselves or the family as collaborators in the process of search and brokering.

4. This research was conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential election during which Latino-specific anti-immigrant rhetoric was particularly salient and families were understandably hesitant to divulge private information.

5. During the recruitment process, the parents in these four families reported engaging in collaborative online searches with their children. However, during V1 interviews they expressed having confidence to search online on their own and did not describe much brokering or co-searching. The only generalizable pattern among these four families was that at least one parent in each family described having higher digital literacy.

6. Quote translated from Spanish.

7. Quote translated from Spanish: “Para [mis hijas] es muy fácil. Yo para mí me tardaría.. todo el día para buscar una información. Pero [para] ellas: ‘Mira, mami, nomás se le pucha esto y lo buscas aquí y ya te van a decir qué son los síntomas’. O qué es lo que puede ser. Dependemos de ellas. Ahora sí que es codependencia.”

8. Quote translated from Spanish: “Me gustaría yo [buscarlo].. En veces hay cosas más fuertes que no tienen que saber ellos o no tendrían que informarse de eso.”

9. Quote translated from Spanish: “Te dan varias opciones [y] le pones y te da otra y luego te va a dar otra cosa. Pero a veces salen muchas cosas que no debes de ver.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by a Google Faculty Research Award and a University of Washington Royalty Research Fund Award.