Children of recent immigrants are more likely to make sick
visits to the doctor if their mothers see themselves as targets
of ethnic or language-based discrimination, researchers at New
York University report in a new study. Their research, which
appears in the journal Health Psychology, provides new evidence
that perceptions of discrimination by a mother could have a
negative effect on the health of her child within the first 14
months of her child’s life. Previous scholarship has shown
associations between discrimination and health. More recently,
researchers have found that a mother’s psychological response to
discrimination—notably, high levels of stress during
pregnancy—may have implications for the health of her child,
such as low birth weight. In the Health Psychology study, the
NYU researchers explored the possibility that perceptions of
discrimination may be associated with the health of young
children. To do so, they interviewed 98 immigrant mothers from
the Dominican Republic and Mexico who had nor