Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Dec:147:20-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.10.028. Epub 2015 Oct 20.

Is socioeconomic incorporation associated with a healthier diet? Dietary patterns among Mexican-origin children in the United States

Molly A Martin  1 , Jennifer L Van Hook  2 , Susana Quiros  2
Affiliations

Is socioeconomic incorporation associated with a healthier diet? Dietary patterns among Mexican-origin children in the United States

Molly A Martin et al. Soc Sci Med. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

With each successive generation in the United States, Mexican-origin families lose their initial dietary advantages. Focusing on children's diets, we ask whether greater socioeconomic status (SES) can help buffer Mexican-origin children in immigrant families from negative dietary acculturation or whether it exacerbates these dietary risks. Pooling data from the 1999 to 2009 waves of the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we test whether the association between generational status and Mexican-origin children's nutrition varies by the family's SES. When predicting children's overall dietary quality using the Healthy Eating Index (2010) and predicting unhealthy dietary patterns, we find stronger evidence of segmented assimilation, whereby greater family average SES is associated with better diets across generations of Mexican-origin children. High-status Mexican-origin parents appear able to buffer their children against generational dietary declines documented in the acculturation literature.

Keywords: Acculturation; Children; Immigration; Mexican-American; Nutrition; Socioeconomic status; United States.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypotheses
Figure 2
Figure 2
Predicted Values for Overall Dietary Quality (2010 HEI) by Generation and Average SES
Figure 3
Figure 3
Predicted Values for the Revised 2010 HEI Empty Calories Subscale by Generation and Average SES
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Abraído-Lanza AF, Armbrister AN, Flórez KR, Aguirre AN. Toward a theory-driven model of acculturation in public health research. American Journal of Public Health. 2006;96:1342–1346. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Acevedo-Garcia D, Bates LM. Latino health paradoxes: empirical evidence, explanations, future research, and implications. In: Rodríguez H, Sáenz R, Menjívar C, editors. Latinas/os in the United States: Changing the face of America. New York: Springer; 2008. pp. 101–113.
    1. Acevedo-Garcia D, Bates LM, Osypuk TL, McArdle N. The effect of immigrant generation and duration on self-rated health among US adults 2003–2007. Social Science & Medicine. 2010;71(6):1161–1172. - PubMed
    1. Akresh IR. Dietary assimilation and health among Hispanic immigrants to the United States. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 2007;48(4):404–417. - PubMed
    1. Alba R, Nee V. Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 2003.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources