The Impact Familial Roles and Immigration Status Has on Latinx College Students' Mental Health

Bearing in mind the extensive Latinx literature, one question remains unanswered: how do family roles and immigration status impact Latinx students' mental health and life as college students? This study investigates how familial roles and immigration status directly affect Latinx college students' mental well-being to add to an understudied area of research. Specifically, we examine how to best support first-generation (FG) Latinx students as they pursue higher education by exploring (1) what family roles these students engage in and (2) how family roles and immigration status impact their mental health. These questions brought forth three hypotheses: (1) FG Latinx college students will provide more emotional support to their families than they receive, (2) family roles will lower FG Latinx college students’ mental health, and (3) FG Latinx students will have a more challenging time maintaining their family roles during their college years. We took a qualitative approach to explore these questions, in which we plan to conduct ten semi-structured interviews with college students. Interviews will then be transcribed, and thematic codes will be assigned. The results of this study will later be presented at the student Honors Conference.