The Role of Sociocultural Factors on Mental Health Service Utilization in Women of Mexican American Farmworker Families

It is estimated that more than 3 million farmworkers residing in the United States (National Center for Farmworker Health, 2012) from which nearly 70% of all hired farmworkers (e.g., crop workers and nursery workers) are Mexican immigrants (United States Department of Agriculture, 2014). Making the decision to immigrate to the United States, in addition to the stressors associated with being a farmworker (e.g., suboptimal working conditions), may place individuals at risk for the development of mental health disorders. In addition to these stressors, cultural processes such as acculturation have been identified as contributors not only to diminished mental health, but also to the underutilization of mental health care services observed among women of Mexican-American farmworker families as well. Although structural barriers to mental health services have been identified (e.g., language), limited research has focused on cultural barriers (e.g., acculturative stress, cultural bound syndromes) on Mexican-American farmworker families’ mental health care use. Thus, the current study aimed to test whether sociocultural factors are associated with mental health care services use among mothers from Mexican-American farmworker families. The findings suggest that neither acculturative stress nor cultural perceptions of mental health disorders are associated with mental health care services use. However, acculturative stress was found to be associated with a higher incidence of somatic symptoms of psychological distress and with an increased endorsement of cultural perceptions of mental health disorders among women from Mexican-American farmworker families; the findings provide insight into the role that specific cultural stressors play on the mental health of the Mexican-American farmworker population.