Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Department of Sociology and the Institute for Health Disparities Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2018 Aug;5(4):747-757. doi: 10.1007/s40615-017-0419-0. Epub 2017 Sep 15.
The purpose of this project was to quantitatively test differences in subjective social status scores between non-pregnant and pregnant women to determine the role of subjective social status in birth weight variation between Mexico-born and US-born Mexican-American women. Six hundred low-income pregnant and non-pregnant Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American women in south Texas were surveyed for subjective social status, depression, perceived social stress, parity, and pregnancy intendedness. Psychosocial health variables, parity, and pregnancy intendedness were included due to their significant associations with low birth weight. Pregnant women had higher subjective social status scores than non-pregnant women. The difference in scores between non-pregnant and pregnant women was smaller in Mexican immigrant women than Mexican-American women. Pregnancy intendedness did not influence subjective social status in pregnant women of either sample, but having children (parity) in both samples was associated with higher subjective social status scores. Among Mexican-American women, community subjective social status was correlated with levels of depressive symptoms and perceived social stress. Subjective social status, depression, and perceived social stress were not correlated among Mexican immigrant women. Our results suggest that incorporation into the USA influences maternal mental health vis-à-vis changes in how women of reproductive age think about themselves and their gender roles in relation to others. Theoretically, our work supports mixed-method approaches to document how culture change as a result of immigration may impact maternal and infant health. Future research should test whether the effect of subjective social status on birth weight occurs when subjective social status does not correlate with depression or stress.
本项目的目的是定量测试非孕妇和孕妇之间主观社会地位评分的差异,以确定主观社会地位在墨西哥出生和美国出生的墨西哥裔美国女性之间出生体重差异中的作用。在德克萨斯州南部,对 600 名低收入的怀孕和非怀孕的墨西哥移民和墨西哥裔美国妇女进行了主观社会地位、抑郁、感知社会压力、生育力和妊娠意图的调查。选择这些心理社会健康变量、生育力和妊娠意图,是因为它们与低出生体重有显著关联。与非孕妇相比,孕妇的主观社会地位评分更高。与墨西哥裔美国妇女相比,墨西哥移民妇女的非孕妇和孕妇之间的评分差异较小。无论是在墨西哥裔美国妇女还是在墨西哥裔移民妇女中,妊娠意图都不会影响孕妇的主观社会地位,但两个样本中都有孩子(生育力)与更高的主观社会地位评分相关。在墨西哥裔美国妇女中,社区主观社会地位与抑郁症状和感知社会压力水平相关。在墨西哥裔移民妇女中,主观社会地位、抑郁和感知社会压力之间没有相关性。我们的结果表明,融入美国会影响生育年龄妇女的心理健康,因为她们对自己的看法以及她们在与他人的关系中的性别角色发生了变化。从理论上讲,我们的工作支持采用混合方法来记录移民导致的文化变化如何可能影响母婴健康。未来的研究应该测试主观社会地位对出生体重的影响是否会发生,当主观社会地位与抑郁或压力不相关时。