Lifetime segmented assimilation trajectories and health outcomes in Latino and other community residents

Abstract

Objectives: Under an ecodevelopmental framework, we examined lifetime segmented assimilation trajectories (diverging assimilation pathways influenced by prior life conditions) and related them to quality-of-life indicators in a diverse sample of 258 men in the Phoenix, AZ, metropolitan area.

Methods: We used a growth mixture model analysis of lifetime changes in socioeconomic status, and used acculturation to identify distinct lifetime segmented assimilation trajectory groups, which we compared on life satisfaction, exercise, and dietary behaviors. We hypothesized that lifetime assimilation change toward mainstream American culture (upward assimilation) would be associated with favorable health outcomes, and downward assimilation change with unfavorable health outcomes.

Results: A growth mixture model latent class analysis identified 4 distinct assimilation trajectory groups. In partial support of the study hypotheses, the extreme upward assimilation trajectory group (the most successful of the assimilation pathways) exhibited the highest life satisfaction and the lowest frequency of unhealthy food consumption.

Conclusions: Upward segmented assimilation is associated in adulthood with certain positive health outcomes. This may be the first study to model upward and downward lifetime segmented assimilation trajectories, and to associate these with life satisfaction, exercise, and dietary behaviors.

FIGURE 1

An ecodevelopmental field model of segmented assimilation trajectories.

FIGURE 2

Two-factor latent growth model to identify segmented assimilation latent classes. Note. T = trajectory. In this model the socioeconomic (S) intercept and slope latent factors were identified from the 4 neighborhood socioeconomic variables, as assessed at each of the 4 life milestones. Similarly, the acculturation (A) intercept and slope latent factors were identified from the 4 levels of acculturation, as assessed at each of the 4 life milestones. The intercept loadings were fixed at 1, and the slope loadings were fixed at 0, 1, and 2, respectively, as proscribed by Bollen and Curran. Each adult loading was freed (as noted within the MPlus program as an asterisk, to identify a pathway that will be estimated when running the program to obtain a solution that fits), because it was a parameter to be estimated as a result of variability across persons in the period of time from the high school to the adulthood milestones.

FIGURE 3

Lifetime change trajectories, by latent class for (a) socioeconomic status and (b) acculturation: Corazón Life Journeys Study, Phoenix, AZ, 2004–2008.