Dataset Information

Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina: Educational Status and Experience Through a Social Justice Lens.

ABSTRACT: We examine the educational experience of Latinx hired child farmworkers in North Carolina, using a social justice framework. Qualitative (n = 30) and quantitative (n = 202) data collected among children ten to seventeen years of age revealed elevated rates of grade retention and dropout status. Children reported disruption to their schooling caused by international and interstate migration and intrastate movement. Few worked during school time; nevertheless, children reported missed participation in educational enrichment opportunities and little integration into school life. Schools often failed to accommodate language difficulties and problems caused by migration, and an atmosphere of racism prevailed. Educational programs for children in farmworker families were established during the 1960s. However, they do not meet the needs of hired child farmworkers. Policies to reduce child employment in agriculture and to meet their educational needs are necessary to ensure the education needed for future health and well-being. We discuss the applied implications of findings.

SUBMITTER: Quandt SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7856296 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina: Educational Status and Experience Through a Social Justice Lens.

Quandt Sara A SA Arnold Taylor J TJ Mora Dana C DC Arcury Thomas A TA Talton Jennifer W JW Daniel Stephanie S SS

New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS 20201101 4

We examine the educational experience of Latinx hired child farmworkers in North Carolina, using a social justice framework. Qualitative (<i>n</i> = 30) and quantitative (<i>n </i>= 202) data collected among children ten to seventeen years of age revealed elevated rates of grade retention and dropout status. Children reported disruption to their schooling caused by international and interstate migration and intrastate movement. Few worked during school time; nevertheless, children reported misse ...[more]

PMID: 33131378

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Project description:PurposeThe occupational risk to farmworkers, particularly chronic exposure to pesticides, is an acknowledged environmental and work-related health problem. Epigenetics has recently been shown to contribute to a number of complex diseases and traits, including measures of cognitive function and preclinical neurodegenerative disease. We sought to determine whether changes in DNA methylation existed between farmworker and non-farmworker populations and to identify the genes most likely involved in those changes.MethodsEighty-three farmworkers and 60 non-farmworkers were selected from PACE4, a community-based, participatory research project comparing occupational exposures between immigrant Latino farmworker and non-farmworker manual workers. Measurements of DNA methylation were performed with the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip, at the beginning and end of the 2012 growing season. Bonferroni adjustment was used to identify significant findings (p = 1.03 × 10(-7), based on 485,000 tested methylation sites), although less stringent criteria (i.e., p ≤ 1 × 10(-6)) were used to identify sites of interest. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) databases were used to help identify the most likely functional genes for each associated methylation site.ResultsMethylation at 36 CpG sites, located in or near 72 genes, differed between the two groups (p ≤ 1 × 10(-6)). The difference between the two groups was generally due to an increase in methylation in the farmworkers and a slight decrease in methylation in the non-farmworkers. Enrichment was observed in several biological pathways, including those involved in the immune response, as well as growth hormone signaling, role of BRCA1 in DNA damage response, p70S6K signaling, and PI3K signaling in B lymphocytes.ConclusionsWe identified considerable changes in DNA methylation at 36 CpG sites over the growing season that differed between farmworkers and non-farmworkers. Dominant pathways included immune-related (HLA) processes, as well as a number of diverse biological systems. Further studies are necessary to determine which exposures or behaviors are responsible for the observed changes, and whether these changes eventually lead to disease-related phenotypes in this population.

Project description:BackgroundSeveral studies have reported environmental disparities regarding exposure to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Public health implications of environmental justice from the intensive livestock industry are of great concern in North Carolina (NC), USA, a state with a large number and extensive history of CAFOs.ObjectivesWe examined disparities by exposure to CAFOs using several environmental justice metrics and considering potentially vulnerable subpopulations.MethodsWe obtained data on permitted animal facilities from NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Using ZIP code level variables from the 2010 Census, we evaluated environmental disparities by eight environmental justice metrics (i.e., percentage of Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic; percentage living below the poverty level; median household income; percentage with education less than high school diploma; racial residential isolation (RI) for Non-Hispanic Black; and educational residential isolation (ERI) for population without college degree). We applied two approaches to assign CAFOs exposure for each ZIP code: (1) a count method based on the number of CAFOs within ZIP code; and (2) a buffer method based on the area-weighted number of CAFOs using a 15 km buffer.ResultsSpatial distributions of CAFOs exposure generally showed similar patterns between the two exposure methods. However, some ZIP codes had different estimated CAFOs exposure for the different approaches, with higher exposure when using the buffer method. Our findings indicate that CAFOs are located disproportionately in communities with higher percentage of minorities and in low-income communities. Distributions of environmental justice metrics generally showed similar patterns for both exposure methods, however starker disparities were observed using a buffer method.ConclusionsOur findings of the disproportionate location of CAFOs provide evidence of environmental disparities with respect to race and socioeconomic status in NC and have implications for future studies of environmental and health impacts of CAFOs.

Dataset Information

Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina: Educational Status and Experience Through a Social Justice Lens.

Publications

Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina: Educational Status and Experience Through a Social Justice Lens.

Similar Datasets

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