The Health Literacy of U.S. Immigrant Adolescents: A Neglected Research Priority in a Changing World

Maricel G. Santos, Anu L. Gorukanti, Lina M. Jurkunas and Margaret A. Handley
Additional contact information
Maricel G. Santos: Department of English, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
Anu L. Gorukanti: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Lina M. Jurkunas: American Language Institute, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
Margaret A. Handley: Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Immigrant adolescents are the fastest-growing sector among U.S. youth, but they receive little attention in health literacy research. Immigrant adolescents are a diverse population tasked with mastering new literacies while also navigating new social systems. Many immigrant adolescents serve as important linguistic and cultural resources in their families and local communities, and yet their contributions (and struggles) as new navigators of our health care system remain invisible. In this commentary article, we argue that health literacy researchers need to devote more attention to immigrant adolescents and the pathways by which they learn new language and literacy skills while also developing their own health habits and behaviors. We contend that the study of immigrant adolescents provides a critical window into health literacy as a socially and historically situated practice, specifically how immigrant adolescents’ transnational experiences shape their learning of new health literacy practices. With a coordinated interdisciplinary research agenda on immigrant adolescents, the health literacy field will expand its empirical base for what becoming “health literate” looks like in today’s globalizing world.

Keywords: immigrant adolescents; health literacy; immigrant identity; adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2108/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2108/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2108-:d:171899

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().