Assimilation - Better for Latinos re their health?

The article "Acculturation and Latino Health in the U.S." addresses health care of U.S. Latinos in association with their level of acculturation or assimiliation into society. In our society, we know that WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) in general expect that other cultures and groups assimilate into their society. This is simply a historical fact of the United States. It appears that this article is clearly written by Conflict Theorists.

Essentially, the majority group believes that other cultures must adapt their tastes, expecations, belief systems, values, etc. to their own in order to thrive in society. Minority groups who choose not to assimilate fully are not expected to thrive according in the existing societal structure.

The research results found that Lainos who had acculturated the most in U.S. society had a mixed bag of health issues: some positive and MOST negative. The negative effects of health behaviors included substance abuse, diet, low birthweith and premature births. Of course, the birth problems could be correlated with substance abuse and poor diet.

The positive health outcomes for Latinos who were most acculturated into U.S. society were that they had access to insurance coverage, had access to health care, and used more preventive health services.

Of course, as with most studies, the results are not clear and the subject matter is complex. One could assume from reading the study & conclusions that because there are more negative health effects from acculturation by Latinos, that the group may want to reconsider assimilation. I thought that the overall message of this research article was that "Assimilation by Latinos into U.S. society is bad for their health". We have to remember to appreciate research, but also understand that one factor may not necessarily lead to the result of the measured factor. They may not really be correlated.

Anyhow, I still believe in conflict theory at play here simply by nature of the research measuring levels of assimilation and expecting varying levels of healt effects. I think the researchers expected to find more positive health effects with higher levels of assimilation.

Wallace Article

I found the Wallace article intriguing and interesting. It presented how caring for the elderly differs between Latinos and Non Latino Whites. I thought that conflict theory could be associated to this article. Conflict theory deals with competition and inequality. According to the article, non-Latino Whites benefit from the system of paid elderly care while Latinos are at a disadvantage. There are a lot factors that goes into play. The article mentioned the fact that since care for the elderly cost a lot of money; it focuses on the rich who can afford it. It was also pointed out that non-Latino whites are more educated and are more likely not to have any children or spouse around. They benefit because more money and opportunities always means more services available to them. Being able to pay for services or having Medicaid allows them to spend money on things important to them. For Latinos, because outside care for the elderly is so expensive the elderly tend to be cared for by immediate family members. This becomes a strain on these Latino families because being responsible for the elderly means less money going towards other things that are important to them like basic needs and education. Outside care for the elderly becomes a conflict because non-Latino Whites are able to afford it while Latino elderly have to rely on their families.

Functionalism can be linked to this article. It deals with social roles and social institutions. Above, I mentioned Latino elderly relying on their immediate family members to care for them because of the lack of opportunities they have to outside services. This is a functional aspect to this social problem. Hospitals and Medicare are also functional aspects. These institutions can help with financial aspects and provide certain services to the elderly.

Latino vs. Non Latino Whites

The article by Wallace was very interesting to read because something as simple as caring for the elderly brings into light how different it can be between two different ethnic groups. The factors that play into why non-Latino Whites get paid assistance compared to why Latinos get it are compared and the Latinos seem to be in the disadvantaged side. When looked at this issue from a conflict theory standpoint, the non-Latino Whites seem to benefit from the system of paid elderly care.
Full outside care for the elderly costs a lot of money and with more services being provided, the more expensive it gets. This seems to target the rich who can afford the prices of these services. Non-Latino Whites who are educated, thus having a decent income throughout their lives, are more likely to recieve paid care as they age. Especially when they don't have children or a spouce around. Because these prices can be so expensive, there comes a point when Latino elderly recieve care by surrounding family instead of paid care. Because Latino children usually pay for the care, if they cannot afford it, it is suddenly their responsibility to take care of the elderly. This could become a stressor on the family not only cost wise, but also the time needed to spend towards taking care of them. This means less money to go towards education and basic living needs. Parents now spend more time taking care of their parents and less time is dedicated towards their kids.
Non-Latino Whites seem to benefit from this because it frees the rising generation from being held down with costs to spend on their parents because these elderly seem to be able to pay for it themselves or is covered by medicaid. It also gives them more time for a career, family, and education. When care can be affored and provided towards a certain population becuase they simply have more means for this, then other populations will always be competing to recieve decent care at a lower price. More money and opportunities will always provide better services for the most part. Non-Latino Whites seem to have the upper hand in elderly paid care when compared to Latino populations.

Wallace Article

The article by Wallace was very fascinating and interesting because it talked about health care for Latinos and Non- Latino individuals. The article used 2 types of methods to prove their results and to back up their facts the first method or survey which they used was the "Longitudinal Study on Aging conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics" and the second survey was conducted by the "Commonwealth Fund Survey of Elderly Hispanics." However, this particular article had to do alot with structural functionalism because structural fuctionalism looks at institutions and what is functional and dysfunctional within a social problem. Forexample, long - term care services which are formal meaning that they are paid services, family members who can provide formal care, and elderly people whose families such as the spouse, children, or friends who can provide formail long -term care services for their elderly are all functional aspects within this particular social problem. Yet, informal meaning unpaid services an not having the family of the elderly such as the spouse, children, or friends of the elderly pay for long-term care services are also dysfunctional aspects within this social problem. However, hospitals, and Medicare are the institutions within this social problem who can help with financial aspects and can provide long-term healthcare services making them functional aspects. I also found it to be interesting when the article mentioned that "There were other major differences between Latinos and Non-Latino Whites who received functional assistance Latinos had lower educational levels, and more of them were on Medicaid and had low incomes, and fewer of them lived with a spouse." In other words, The Latinos were not able to receive the most fuctional assistance and functional healthcare because they had lower incomes and fewer of them lived with a spouse causing differences between Latinos and Non-Latino Whites. Furthermore, this article made me realize that there are always going to be differences among us in the system of our society for instance, there are going to be differences among African Americans in our system compared to Americans just like there are differences in our system between Latinos and Non-Latino Whites which my question is why is the system of our society like this? Why does the system in our society put differences between us? But I remember someone once told me that it all depends on the individual's situation and conditions that each case has to be treated seperately and accordingly to fit the needs of the individual's case and situation.

Latino Health Care

In both the articles by Wallace and Lara the authors explore various factors of health care for Latino's in the U.S. Each article examines how health care policies and procedures are dependent upon the relationships between different social institutions. Structural functionalism concentrates on the positive and negative associations between social structures. This theory is highly relevant to understanding health care for Latino's in the United States.

The article by Wallace examines health care assistance for elderly Latino's. Often paid assistance is merited based on need, demographics, economics and family availability. When examining who receives paid assistance the author concludes those who have higher need, higher education, higher income, and less availability from family were generally those who received public assistance. This pattern disadvantages elderly Latino's because Latino's often display signs of having low education, low income and they often live with their children or family of some sort. The fact that Latino's have a strong family base works against them in regards of paid assistance. Paid assistance for health care is a great example of structural functionalism because the methods used display the importance between social institutions.

The article by Lara examines Latino health in association with the process of acculturation. Acculturation requires immigrants to fit in with the core society. Latino's have unfortunately been slow to acculturate due to their lack in perceived human capital. Acculturation has been linked to having both positive and negative effects on Latino's health. It has had positive effects because Latino's often use health care facilities and use preventative methods more often. It has negative effects linked to increased drug abuse, alcohol abuse, smoking, poor diet patterns and low birth outcomes. This article examines how different socioeconomic factors such as education level, resource availability, language proficiency and knowledge of the culture all contribute to health care and treatment for Latino's. Each of these factors relates to one another and it is important to expand awareness and research explaining differences in health care assistance for Latino's. Although each of these articles carefully examines Latino's they neglect to depict differences among Latino subgroups such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, etc...

Clearification :)

I was just reading my last blog post on The Saints and The Roughnecks article and I made a mistake which I would like to clarify when I said that we need to acknowledge that working with girls is not the same as working with boys it is actually the opposite it is suppose to be that you have to acknowledge that working with boys is not the same as working with girls. That was something that I learned in my other Sociology class :) and on Monday we also learned that girls are tied to the home whereas boys are tied to their peers therefore, males are more likely to engage in delinquency because this is related to their friendships. I also believe this particular information also goes hand in hand and can be related and compared to the saints and roughnecks article. Because in the saints and roughnecks article both groups were tied to their peers and because of the friendships they had with their peers they were all being delinquent together hence, males are tied to their peers and are more likely to engage in delinquency because this is related to their friendships. Furthermore, we also learned that what girls fear the most is not to be loved whereas boys have the fear of failing and that is what they fear the most this was also something else that I learned in my Juvenile Delinquency class and I thought it was very interesting so I thought I would share this great and fascinating information with you :)

The Saints and Roughnecks Article

I read this article last semester in my Deviant Behavior class and it mainly focuses on male delinquency. Like already mentioned by my classmates, both of these two groups committed deviant acts but were viewed differently because the other group had access to more things like transportation. They were also viewed differently by their community because one group always gets caught and the other seemed to find their way out or get away with it.

I saw symbolic interaction in this article. Symbolic interaction deals with meanings, symbols, perceptions, and relationships. In this article, since the Roughnecks mainly committed illegal acts within their community, they were viewed as not making it far in life or not having a bright future. The Saints were seen in a different light because they were able to drive elsewhere and commit deviant acts there where no one they know and recognized could see. Functionalism can be related as well. The Saints did well in school and they got away with going out during school hours. The Roughnecks didn't do so well and the teachers didn't look at them as high achievers. I think Conflict theory can be related as well because the fact that the Saints had access to transportation and the Roughnecks didn't had a lot to do with why they were viewed differently by society.