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An intensifying anti-immigrant environment has caused vulnerabilities in the Mexican-descent population in the U.S. Using perspectives of microaggression (Sue 2010 a, b), we argue that the anti-immigrant environment has created a context where subtle discriminations are permitted and tolerated and that perceiving microaggression is negatively associated with well-being. We test the relationship between perceiving microaggression and well-being using generalizable data from the National Survey of Latinos (2008) for a sample of population of Mexican-descent (N=1,220) in the U.S. We focus on individuals with Mexican ancestry because not only do they form the largest ethnic minority in the U.S., they also have been subjected to strong anti-immigrant rhetoric and have been recently deported in record numbers. Our results indicate that perceiving microaggression is related to lower levels of well-being (p<0.001); further, perceiving some microaggression, as opposed perceiving none, increases the odds of intermediate level of well-being (p<0.01) and poor well-being (p<0.001) when compared with a high level of wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the voluntary childlessness in the United States. Approximately one in ten American women of childbearing age expect to remain childless. Many of these women are not infertile; instead they are choosing not to have children. Sufficient attention has not been paid to voluntary childlessness in the U.S., which is considered primarily a prenatal country. Voluntary childlessness is a recent trend in the American society emerging in part from the principles of gender equality and increasing female participation in the labor force. To date the reasons why individuals in marriage or cohabitation intend to remain childless and the attitudinal factors that facilitate or inhibit such intentions are unknown. Studying intentions is important because attitudinal factors that predict intentions also predict behavior indicating a consistent attitudinal and behavioral pattern. Furthermore, in order to understand fertility behavior, it is imperative to clearly understand intentions of childbearing because evidence suggests a causal relationship between fertility intentions and subsequent fertility behavior.