Experts discuss unique mental health issues immigrant youth face in training webinar

On Thursday, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) provided a webinar titled, "Immigration Stress, Culture and Acculturation," hosted by Claudia Castillo-Lavergne, a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness, and Jaylene Sosa, a Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program. 

The webinar was part of the GSAPP's week-long training series, "Bienestar Training Institute on the Mental Health of Hispanics, Latines and Immigrants." Castillo-Lavergne and Sosa discussed topics related to the sociocultural and political contexts of immigration, stressors on immigrant youth, as well as understanding the complexities of immigrant experiences.

Castillo-Lavergne talked about the nuances in cultural categories, as some perspectives may be more privileged than others.

"There's a critique of the term Latinidad and its usage in the U.S. policy and discourse, (which) is that it often erases distinctions between race, class, gender, language and country of origin," she said.

Castillo-Lavergne then outlined definitions that center around cultural capital. Community cultural wealth refers to the cultural knowledge young people inherit from their surroundings and families. Resistance capital is the knowledge gained from what Castillo-Lavergne called "oppositional behavior" that counters societal inequalities. Aspirational capital refers to hopefulness in spite of societal barriers.

She talked about the impact of community cultural wealth and the importance of resistance capital and aspirational capital to support immigrant youth in the context of education.

"Oftentimes, we're conditioned to think punitively about oppositional behaviors, and that's why I wanted to highlight resistance capital, because … I think we need to think of them as forms of capital," she said.

After Castillo-Lavergne's discussion of cultural wealth and intersectionality, she pivoted to Sosa, who is also the president of the Hispanic Organization of Professional Psychology Students at the GSAPP.

Sosa specifically approached the topics of stressors and health disparities among immigrant communities, along with the impact they have on acculturation and mental health.

She also introduced adverse childhood experiences as a result of traumatic events as a determiner of mental health, and how these experiences uniquely impact children from Latino families with immigrant experiences.

"There are about 5.2 million children right now, most of whom are U.S. citizens, that live with at least one parent who is unauthorized," Sosa said. "So this creates an ongoing threat to family stability, which can lead to a lot of the things that we've talked about, like the damaging effects that can ultimately lead to anxiety and depression."

Castillo-Lavergne then mentioned how organizations and providers need to develop advocacy strategies, depending on different needs. Sosa agreed that mental health workers should apply these frameworks in real life to advocate for immigrant youth and their families.

Castillo-Lavergne and Sosa opened the floor to discussion and questions, where they spoke about their personal experiences with immigration and the complexities surrounding their outlooks.

"Because oftentimes those ties, like those ties that I had back home, little by little, oftentimes go away. Some of us can hold on to it … And for some of us, that's not the case," Castillo-Lavergne said.