Shtivelband, Annette, authorAloise-Young, Patricia A., advisorDik, Bryan, committee memberEggerth, Donald E., committee memberRosecrance, John, committee member2007-01-032007-01-032014http://hdl.handle.net/10217/82638Introduction: Latino immigrant workers suffer from greater injury and fatality rates compared to American-born workers. The cause of this occupational health disparity is not well-understood. Recently, the theory of work adjustment (TWA) was successfully applied toward understanding the work experiences of Latino immigrant workers. Understanding how Latino workers think about and respond to occupational safety and health (OSH) issues may be critical in developing effective trainings for this vulnerable population. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are significant and meaningful differences in how Latino immigrant workers (recent and non-recent) and American-born workers tend to think about and respond to issues at work using the theory of work adjustment framework. Method: A total of 612 workers (i.e., 189 RLIW, 229 NRLIW, 194 ABW) were recruited from Santa Fe, New Mexico (an old settlement area) and Cincinnati, Ohio (a new settlement area) - 318 participants were male and 294 were female. Recent Latino immigrant workers (RLIW) represented Hispanic individuals who had lived in the United States for 2 years or less; while non-recent Latino immigrant workers represented individuals who had lived in the United States for 5 years or more. Work adjustment (i.e., behavior to change the self or the environment), flexibility (i.e., the range of dissatisfaction that a person will tolerate before adjustment behavior is initiated), and perseverance (i.e., the length of time that a person or environment will persist in their adjustment behavior before an employment interaction is terminated) were measured with English and Spanish scales that were developed for this study. Results: The main finding from this study was that compared to ABW, RLIW and NRLIW were significantly more like to utilize a reactive (F(4, 602) = 42.72, p = .000) work adjustment approach adjusting for gender and years of school completed. NRLIW were found to be significantly more flexible (F(4, 602) = 11.65, p = .000) and likely to persevere (F(4, 602) = 13.17, p = .000) compared to RLIW and ABW after adjusting for gender and years of school completed. Among Latino immigrant workers, fraction of lifetime in the United States was contrary to what was predicted significantly and positively associated with flexibility (r = .14, p = .005) and perseverance (r = .19, p = .000), but not work adjustment (r = .03, p = 480). Lastly, type of settlement area did not moderate the relationship between immigrant status group and work adjustment style. Discussion and Implications: This is the first study to empirically examine whether there are meaningful and significant differences in how RLIW, NRLIW, and ABW tend to think about and respond to OSH issues using the TWA framework. The evidence from this study suggests that compared to ABW, NRLIW may tolerate greater dissatisfaction at work before initiating work adjustment behavior and may be more likely to persevere when dissatisfied at work. Both RLIW and NRLIW were significantly more likely to utilize a reactive work adjustment approach compared to ABW who were more likely to utilize an active work adjustment approach. Such findings offer a new perspective in which to develop effective OSH trainings and interventions and contribute to the growing literature that seeks to address the occupational health disparity of Latino immigrant workers.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.Latino immigrant workerstheory of work adjustmentoccupational health disparityText