VALES+Tú Targeting psychosocial stressors to reduce Latino Day Laborers injury disparities

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Abstract Latino day laborers (LDL) are among the Latino immigrants most affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. To date, CDC data indicates that even when Latinos comprise only 18% of the US population, they account for 26.9% of reported US COVID-19 deaths. The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Latinos is being felt more acutely among those who are immigrants and have less access to resources, such as day laborers. LDL experience multiple stressors in their social, personal and work lives: as immigrants, they experience economic insecurity, face periodic homelessness, food insecurity, and confront exploitive conditions at work. In light of the stress experienced on and off the job, it is not surprising that they also report suffering anxiety, depression, loneliness and isolation. We hypothesize that the COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate their stressors and this experience will lead to detrimental mental health effects that will ultimately influence their ability to adopt COVID-19 mitigation practices. We will also explore social and psychological protective factors that may mitigate the impact of stressors. Informed by the social determinants of health, this proposed mixed methods study will address this question: How do stressors and protective factors within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic influence the mental health of Latino day laborers and impact their ability to adhere to COVID-19 mitigation practices?. The aims of our study are to (1) describe barriers and facilitators that influence Latino day laborers' adherence to COVID-19 mitigation practices, and (2) determine the extent to which social, economic, and psychological stressors and protective factors influence LDL mental health and their ability to adhere to COVID-19 mitigation practices. To achieve these aims we will conduct focus groups (2 groups x 8 LDL ) and a corner based survey (n=300 LDL recruited at 35 randomly selected corners) to generate primary data to test the study's primary question using a structural equation modeling approach. Exploring the vulnerabilities confronted by Latino day laborers will help us understand the influence of the pandemic on stressors and protective factors that impact their ability to prevent COVID 19. We expect that this work will lead to the identification of culturally and context-appropriate intervention strategies that can be quickly adapted to support LDL efforts to protect themselves against the unfolding pandemic.