Racism, sociopolitical context, and emotional well-being in immigrant Latina mothers and their preschool-aged children: A mixed methods study.

The cumulative consequences of maternally experienced racism stress may be transmitted intergenerationally from mother to child during sensitive developmental periods. Guided by segmented assimilation theory and the multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress, we examined how sociopolitical context (sanctuary vs. nonsanctuary county status) may play a critical role in maternal and child emotional well-being. We employed a concurrent nested mixed methods design, QUAN(+qual). Immigrant Latina mothers (N = 92) completed structured questionnaires assessing racism stress, depressive symptoms, and their preschool-aged children's emotional-behavioral difficulties. We conducted bivariate and moderation analyses to examine associations. In addition, a subsample of participants (n = 22) described experiences of racism and/or community support during survey administration; these elaborations were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Mothers residing in nonsanctuary counties reported higher levels of depressive symptoms (z = 2.88, p = .004) and racism stress (z = 2.04, p = .041). Sanctuary county designation moderated the relationship between mothers' experiences of racism stress and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with significantly stronger associations observed in nonsanctuary counties across both adjusted and unadjusted models. Qualitative findings revealed that racism permeated place-based life domains-reinforcing exclusion, posing a pervasive emotional threat, and limiting social mobility. Mothers primarily described intergroup community support in sanctuary counties. Community-based support programs should expand into areas where families face high levels of racism stress and scarce community support. During the vulnerable postmigration period, mutually opposing forces of community support and racism may have far-reaching impacts across immigrant generations and broader society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).