BOCYF Projects

Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families

Publications: From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families (1998); Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance (1999)

More than a million foreign-born children came to the United States from 1987 to 1990. Immigrant children and their families tend to receive a patchwork of health-care services, with eligibility dependent upon the conditions under which they entered the United States. Amid growing efforts in some states to pare back available public health benefits for immigrants (including prenatal care and immunizations), the health status of immigrant children and their families has become an issue of considerable interest to policy makers and practitioners.

In this context, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families. This committee conducted a study that synthesized data on and developed a framework for clarifying what is known about the differential health outcomes of various immigrant groups, the varying trajectories that now characterize the development of immigrant children, and the effective delivery of health and mental health services to these groups. Over the course of 24 months, the project synthesized the relevant research literature and supported the secondary analysis of existing datasets (e.g., the 1990 Census) to supplement the available research on immigrant children and families.

A report of the committee's work, From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families, was released in September 1998. A volume of secondary analysis papers, Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance, will be published in summer 1999.

Two public forums were held in December 1998 in California. These forums, entitled "Children in Immigrant Families: Issues for California's Future," convened a diverse group of policy makers, advocates, and researchers to discuss the findings of the committee's report. The first forum took place on December 10 in Sacramento, and the second took place on December 11 in Los Angeles.

The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the W.T. Grant Foundation. The California Wellness Foundation provided support for the public forums held in California.