“There is No Time” to be a Good Biocitizen: Lived Experiences of Stress and Physical Activity Among Mexican Immigrants in New York City

TL;DR

Mexican immigrants in NYC face stress and time constraints that hinder their physical activity and well-being, with gender differences in stress sources.

Contribution

This study applies a biocitizenship framework to explore how stress and time constraints affect physical activity among Mexican immigrants in NYC.

Findings

Participants reported that time constraints and long work hours significantly contribute to stress and limit physical activity.

Gender differences were observed, with women citing household responsibilities and men citing financial obligations as sources of stress.

Stress was linked to declines in both physical and mental well-being among participants.

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which Mexican immigrants experience, narrate, and describe stress and the extent to which it impacts their efforts at engaging in physical activity using a biocitizenship framework. Data were derived from a mixed-method study among Mexicans living in New York City recruited from a large Catholic church. The qualitative sample of 25 participated in quantitative and qualitative components of the study and as such we include some of these quantitative indicators as descriptors. Our main qualitative findings reveal that study participants experience stress and time constraint as factors that contribute to the waning of their physical and mental well-being. As such, time constraints for many of our participants were among the factors that contributed to high perceived levels of stress. They attributed this to their difficulty maintaining a physically active lifestyle due to factors like the fast-paced lifestyle in New York, working long hours, and not having enough time to exercise, though some important differences in narratives were noted across gender. Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving the health of immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in New York City specifically.

Stress is a common reaction we all experience in our daily lives, both physically and emotionally. However, when stress persists, it can have negative effects on our health. To better understand the experiences of Mexican immigrants living in NYC, we conducted individual interviews with 25 participants. We explored their thoughts on stress, physical activity, and life in NYC, as well as how the people around them influenced their efforts. The narratives shared by the participants revealed that Mexican immigrants perceive stress as having a significant impact on their physical and mental well-being. Specifically, discussions about stress affecting their health were linked to factors such as time constraints, long working hours, and not having enough time to exercise. These findings indicate that although participants desired a healthy lifestyle, they encountered barriers that hindered their ability to engage in physical activity. Additionally, our study highlighted that men and women experience stress differently. Women often felt stressed due to household responsibilities like cooking, whereas men experienced stress related to financial obligations. Despite these gender differences, both men and women described how stress negatively affected their overall health. These findings suggest that public health interventions and programs could focus on promoting physical activity to enhance the physical and mental well-being, but these would need to be tailored to fit the needs of Mexican immigrants in New York City and other similar communities.

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