Children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers constitute important populations for psychological study due to the fact that they chronically experience the multiple stressors of extreme poverty and parental unemployment and, in the case of the migrant children, the additional stressors of residential and school mobility. There are three specific goals in this study including the assessment of: (1) the frequency of mental disorders among migrant farmworker children compared to seasonal (i.e., non-migrant) farmworker children, (2) the mental health service utilization of migrant farmworker children compared to seasonal farmworker children, and (3) the impact of intrapersonal (e.g., self-concept, social cognitive skills, and coping skills) and interpersonal (e.g., quality of parental relationships) resources in mitigating the potentially negative effects of a migratory lifestyle on children's mental health and use of mental health services. Related to the third goal, we will also investigate whether accumulated negative life events act to exacerbate the potentially negative impact of a migratory lifestyle on both the migrant child's mental health and their use of mental health services. In order to address these goals, 160 mother-child pairs will be individually interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedules for Parents and Children, Version 2.1, and other structured psychological instruments. The population will be evenly divided by sex, ethnic group (Hispanic or Black), and farmworker group (migrant or seasonal) with the children being between the ages of 8 and 11. Taken together, the procedures and methods developed in this study, and the study findings will provide the foundation for an epidemiological study of the mental and physical health of migrant and seasonal farmworker children and adolescents.
| Kupersmidt, J B; Martin, S L (1997) Mental health problems of children of migrant and seasonal farm workers: a pilot study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36:224-32 |
| Martin, S L; Kupersmidt, J B; Harter, K S (1996) Children of farm laborers: utilization of services for mental health problems. Community Ment Health J 32:327-40 |
| Martin, S L; Gordon, T E; Kupersmidt, J B (1995) Survey of exposure to violence among the children of migrant and seasonal farm workers. Public Health Rep 110:268-76 |
