New Solutions
Volume 25, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 313-333

Understanding the role of social factors in farmworker housing and health (Article)

Marsh B.* , Milofsky C. , Kissam E. , Arcury T.A.
  • a Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, United States
  • b Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, United States
  • c Werner Kohnstamm Family Fund, Oakland, CA, United States
  • d Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, United States

Abstract

Differences in social advantage significantly influence health conditions and life expectancy within any population. Such factors reproduce historic class, race, and ethnic disparities in community success. Few populations in the United States face more social and economic disadvantage than farmworkers, and farmworker housing has significant potential to ameliorate or amplify the health impact of those disadvantages. Drawing on the limited direct research on farmworkers, and on additional research about poor, isolated, and immigrant societies, we propose four mechanisms through which housing can be expected to affect farmworker health: quality of social capital within farmworker communities, stress effects of poor housing situations, effects of housing on social support for healthy behaviors, and interactions among these factors, especially effects on children that can last for generations. Policy and planning definitions of “adequate” farmworker housing should take a more holistic view of housing needs to support specific social and community benefits in design decisions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Author Keywords

Farmworker housing Farmworker health social factors Social capital

Index Keywords

social capital agricultural worker human Health Behavior social isolation Stress, Psychological social determinants of health mental stress health status housing social support family health Farmers family size ethnology Family Characteristics United States Humans racism psychology Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics child health standards women's health migration Transients and Migrants crowding (area) Crowding
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84979822784&doi=10.1177%2f1048291115601020&partnerID=40&md5=b417eef745522f40c9ac1e0d54329343
DOI: 10.1177/1048291115601020
ISSN: 10482911
Cited by: 4
Original Language: English