The history of Latino farmworkers in the United States is long and complex. Economic forces and often-contradictory immigration policies have given rise to patterns of undocumented immigration from Mexico and Central America by individuals and families looking for work. This review uses a Critical Multiculturalism lens to explore the incidence of depression in Latino farmworkers; the link between depression symptoms and the experience of migration, acculturation, poverty, and agricultural work; and the role of culture, structural issues, primary care providers’ inadequate training in mental health issues, and work conditions in the under-detection of depression in this population. Recommendations for clinicians and researchers are offered to improve detection of depression in Latino farmworkers.
AldereteE.VegaW. A.KolodyB.Aguilar-GaxiolaS. (1999). Depressive symptomatology: Prevalence and psychosocial risk factors among Mexican migrant farmworkers in California. Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 457-471. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6629(199907)27:4<457::AID-JCOP7>3.0.CO;2-D
2.
ArcuryT. A.GeslerW. M.PreisserJ. S.ShermanJ.SpencerJ.PerinJ. (2005). The effects of geography and spatial behavior on health care utilization among the residents of a rural region. Health Services Research, 40, 135-156.
3.
ArcuryT. A.QuandtS. A. (2007). Delivery of health services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Annual Review of Public Health, 28, 345-363. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102106
4.
BeckC. T.GableR. K. (2000). Postpartum Depression Screening Scale: development and psychometric testing. Nursing research, 49, 272-282.
5.
BeckA. T.SteerR. A.BrownG. K. (1996). Beck depression inventory-II. San Antonio, 78, 490-498.
6.
BerlakA.MoyendaS. (2001). Taking it personally. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
7.
CaetanoR.Ramisetty-MiklerS.VaethP. A.HarrisT. R. (2007). Acculturation stress, drinking, and intimate partner violence among Hispanic couples in the US. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22(11), 1431-1447. doi:10.1177/0886260507305568
8.
CaplanS.EscobarJ.ParisM.AlvidrezJ.DixonJ. K.DesaiM. M.. . . WhittemoreR. (2013). Cultural influences on causal beliefs about depression among Latino immigrants. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 24, 68-77. doi:10.1177/1043659612453745
9.
CarrollD.SamardickR. M.BernardS.GabbardS.HernandezT. (2005). Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 2001–2002: A demographic and employment profile of United States farmworkers. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
10.
ChavezL. R.HubbellF. A.MishraS. I.ValdezR. B. (1997). The influence of fatalism on self-reported use of Papanicolaou smears. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 13, 418-424.
11.
CoxJ. L.HoldenJ. M.SagovskyR. (1987). Detection of postnatal depression: development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The British journal of psychiatry, 150, 782-786.
12.
DelgadoR. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.
13.
EscobarJ. I.Rubio-StipecM.CaninoG.KarnoM. (1989). Somatic Symptom Index (SSI): A new and abridged somatization construct: Prevalence and epidemiological correlates in two large community samples. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177, 140-146.
14.
FalicovC. J. (1999). Religion and spiritual folk traditions in immigrant families: Therapeutic resources with Latinos. In WalshF. (Ed.), Spiritual resources in family therapy (pp. 104-120). New York, NY: Guilford.
15.
GarcésI. C.ScarinciI. C.HarrisonL. (2006). An examination of sociocultural factors associated with health and health care seeking among Latina immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 8, 377-385. doi:10.1007/s10903-006-9008-8
16.
GeorgesA.AltermanT.GabbardS.GrzywaczJ. G.ShenR.NakamotoJ.. . . MuntanerC. (2013). Depression, social factors, and farmworker health care utilization. The Journal of Rural Health, 29(S1), S7-S16. doi:10.1111/jrh.12008
17.
GonzalesN. A.KnightG. P.Morgan-LopezA. A.SaenzD.SirolliA. (2002). Acculturation and the mental health of Latino youths: An integration and critique of the literature. In ContrerasJ. M.KernsK. A.Neil-BarnettA. M. (Eds.), Latino children and families in the United States: Current research and future directions (pp. 45-74). Westport, CT: Praeger.
18.
GrzywaczJ. G.QuandtS. A.EarlyJ.TapiaJ.GrahamC. N.ArcuryT. A. (2006). Leaving family for work: Ambivalence and mental health among Mexican migrant farmworker men. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 8, 85-97.
19.
GuarnacciaP. J.CaninoG.Rubio-StipecM.BravoM. (1993). The prevalence of ataques de nervios in the Puerto Rico Disaster Study: The role of culture in psychiatric epidemiology. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181, 157-165.
20.
Guerin-GonzalesC. (1994). Mexican workers and American dreams: Immigration, repatriation, and California farm labor, 1900-1939. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
21.
HallS. (1994). Cultural identity and diaspora. In WilliamsP.ChrismanL. (Eds.), Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: A reader (pp. 392-403). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
22.
HansonG. H. (2007). The economic logic of illegal immigration. New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations.
23.
HansonG. H. (2010). The economics and policy of illegal immigration in the United States. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
24.
HiottA. E.GrzywaczJ. G.DavisS. W.QuandtS. A.ArcuryT. A. (2008). Migrant farmworker stress: Mental health implications. The Journal of Rural Health, 24, 32-39. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0361.2008.00134.x
25.
HoveyJ. D.KingC. A. (1996). Acculturative stress, depression, and suicidal ideation among immigrant and second-generation Latino adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 1183-1192.
26.
HoveyJ. D.MagañaC. G. (2003). Suicide risk factors among Mexican migrant farmworker women in the Midwest United States. Archives of Suicide Research, 7, 107-121. doi:10.1080/13811110301579
27.
HurtR. D. (1981). The dust bowl: An agricultural and social history. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publications.
InterianA.AngA.GaraM. A.RodriguezM. A.VegaW. A. (2011). The long-term trajectory of depression among Latinos in primary care and its relationship to depression care disparities. General Hospital Psychiatry, 33, 94-101. doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2010.12.001
30.
KesslerR. C. (2012). The costs of depression. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 35, 1-14. doi:10.1016/j.psc.2011.11.005
31.
KroenkeK.SpitzerR. L.WilliamsJ. B. (2001). The phq-9. Journal of general internal medicine, 16, 606-613.
32.
LakeC. R. (2008). How academic psychiatry can better prepare students for their future patients: Part I: The failure to recognize depression and risk for suicide in primary care; problem identification, responsibility, and solutions. Behavioral Medicine, 34, 95-100. doi:10.3200/BMED.34.3.95-100.
33.
Lewis-FernandezR.DasA. K.AlfonsoC.WeissmanM. M.OlfsonM. (2005). Depression in US Hispanics: Diagnostic and management considerations in family practice. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 18, 282-296. doi:10.3122/jabfm.18.4.282
34.
LiangJ.XuX.QuiñonesA. R.BennettJ. M.YeW. (2011). Multiple trajectories of depressive symptoms in middle and late life: Racial/ethnic variations. Psychology and Aging, 26, 761-777. doi:10.1037/a0023945
35.
LunaG. T. (1998). An infinite distance: Agricultural exceptionalism and agricultural labor. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, 1, 487-510.
36.
MartinP. (2015). Guest or Temporary Foreign Worker Programs. In Handbook of the Economics of International Migration (Vol. 1, pp. 717-773). North-Holland.
37.
MasseyD. S.LiangZ. (1989). The long-term consequences of a temporary worker program: The US Bracero experience. Population Research and Policy Review, 8, 199-226.
38.
MayS.SleeterC. E. (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis. New York, NY: Routledge.
39.
MehtaK.GabbardS. M.BarratV.LewisM.CarrollD.MinesR. (2000). Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), 1997-1998: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers. Retrieved from: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED446887.
40.
McLarenP. (1998). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Longman.
MitchellA. J.CoyneJ. C. (2007). Do ultra-short screening instruments accurately detect depression in primary care? A pooled analysis and meta-analysis of 22 studies. British Journal of General Practice, 57(535), 144-151. Retrieved from http://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/57/535/144.full.pdf
NylundD. (2006). Critical multiculturalism, whiteness, and social work: Towards a more radical view of cultural competence. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 17(2), 27-42. doi:10.1300/J059v17n02_03
45.
OlfsonM.SheaS.FederA.FuentesM.NomuraY.GameroffM.WeissmanM. M. (2000). Prevalence of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders in an urban general medicine practice. Archives of Family Medicine, 9, 876-883. doi:10.1001archfami.9.9.876
46.
PincayI. E. M.GuarnacciaP. J. (2007). “It’s like going through an earthquake”: Anthropological perspectives on depression among Latino immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 9, 17-28. doi:10.1007/s10903-006-9011-0
47.
PossJ. E.RangelR. (1997). A tuberculosis screening and treatment program for migrant farmworker families. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 8, 133-140. doi:10.1353/hpu.2010.0496
48.
QuandtS. A.ArcuryT. A.EarlyJ.TapiaJ.DavisJ. D. (2004). Household food security among migrant and seasonal Latino farmworkers in North Carolina. Public Health Reports, 119(6), 568. doi: 10.1016/j.phr.2004.09.006.
49.
RadloffL. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied psychological measurement, 1(3), 385-401.
50.
RapaportM. H.ClaryC.FayyadR.EndicottJ. (2005). Quality-of-life impairment in depressive and anxiety disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 1171-1178. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.6.1171
51.
ReulandD. S.CherringtonA.WatkinsG. S.BradfordD. W.BlancoR. A.GaynesB. N. (2009). Diagnostic accuracy of Spanish language depression-screening instruments. The Annals of Family Medicine, 7, 455-462. doi:10.1370/afm.98
52.
RickettsT. C. (2000). The changing nature of rural health care. Annual Review of Public Health, 21, 639-657.
53.
RomeroA. J.RobertsR. E. (2003). The impact of multiple dimensions of ethnic identity on discrimination and adolescents’ self-esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 2288-2305. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01885.x
54.
SchmalingK. B.HernandezD. V. (2005). Detection of depression among low-income Mexican Americans in primary care. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 16, 780-790. doi:10.1353/hpu.2005.0105
55.
SimonG. E. (2003). Social and economic burden of mood disorders. Biological psychiatry, 54, 208-215.
56.
SmokowskiP. R.BacallaoM. L. (2007). Acculturation, internalizing mental health symptoms and self-esteem: Cultural experiences of Latino adolescents in North Carolina. Child Psychiatry Human Development, 37, 273-292. doi:10.1007/s10578-006-0035-4
57.
TorresL. (2010). Predicting levels of Latino depression: Acculturation, acculturative stress, and coping. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16, 256. doi:10.1037/a0017357
58.
VegaW. A.RodriguezM. A.AngA. (2010). Addressing stigma of depression in Latino primary care patients. General Hospital Psychiatry, 32, 182-191.
59.
VegaW. A.GilA. G.WarheitG. J.ZimmermanR. S.AposporiE. (1993). Acculturation and delinquent behavior among Cuban American adolescents: Toward an empirical model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 21, 113-125. doi:10.1007/BF00938210
60.
VivianS. L. (2005). Be our guest: A review of the legal and regulatory history of US immigration policy toward Mexico and recommendations for combating employer exploitation of nonimmigrant and undocumented workers. Seton Hall Legislative Journal, 30, 189. Retrieved from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sethlegj30&div=12&id=&page=
61.
WinkelmanS. B.ChaneyE. H.BethelJ. W. (2013). Stress, depression and coping among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10, 1815-1830. doi:10.3390/ijerph10051815
62.
YesavageJ. A.BrinkT. L.RoseT. L.LumO.HuangV.AdeyM.LeirerV. O. (1982). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report. Journal of psychiatric research, 17(1), 37-49.
