Data in Action: Health Care Access Among Children in Latinx Families Across U.S. Destinations
 |
 |
Data in Action: Health Care Access Among Children in Latinx Families Across U.S. Destinations
October 23, 2025
Presenters:
Stephanie Potochnik, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
and
Elizabeth Ackert, University of California, Santa Barbara
Latinx children now live in a wider array of U.S. geographic areas than in the past, including both established and new areas of Latinx settlement. This geographic heterogeneity could be consequential for Latinx children’s health care access, with prior research suggesting increased health access barriers for Latinx children in new versus established areas of settlement. Merging public-use county-level data with restricted individual-level health data from the National Health Interview Survey (2010–2014), we quantitatively examine how three health access indicators—health insurance coverage, delayed care, and usual place of care—differ among children (ages 4–17) in Latinx immigrant, Latinx U.S.-born, White U.S.-born, and Black U.S.-born families (n=89,994) across established, fast-growing hub, new, and minor Latinx destination counties. We also examine the potential roles of local immigrant hostilities and health care resources in contributing to health access differences across destinations. In fully adjusted models, children in new destinations are less likely to have health insurance than peers in established destinations, and this disparity is even wider for Latinx children of immigrants. Adjusted model results also show that children in new destinations are more likely to have delayed care than those in established destinations, and children in these four groups in new destinations, fast-growing hubs, and minor destinations are more likely to have no usual place of care than peers in established destinations. Our results are consistent with prior work suggesting that more health care access barriers exist for children, particularly Latinx children of immigrants, in new versus established Latinx destinations.
Join us EITHER in person on the Texas A&M University Campus, College Station, TX in Teague 326 or on Zoom (link provided after registration).
Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
REGISTER HERE
 |
Bio:
Dr. Potochnick’s research examines the social demography of immigration and how programs and policies can promote the education and health of immigrant youth. She uses an interdisciplinary perceptive to identify the health and educational needs and resources of immigrant children and families, and to examine the impact national, state, and local-level policies have on their well-being. Current projects examine how federal immigration raids and local-level immigration enforcement policies affect the mental health and school investment decisions of immigrant children at different times in their educational pathway, how pre-migration schooling and parental resources affect children’s post-migration mobility, and how settlement in new immigrant growth areas affects the health of immigrant children. |
 |
Bio:
Liz Ackert is an Assistant Professor of Geography. She is a Research Associate at the Broom Center for Demography. She received her BA in Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, MN), and holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California, San Diego, and an MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Washington (Seattle). Dr. Ackert was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and an NSF SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. She has been at UCSB since 2019. |