AMES, Iowa – Research from a multi-state project examining food security, housing and depression in rural Mexican immigrant mothers will be shared in a one-hour webinar Wednesday, May 13, at 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time.

The Web seminar will take place online in an interactive meeting environment using Connect technology provided by Iowa State University Extension. Participants must have a computer and an Internet connection. For information on minimum computer requirements and to register for the webinar, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/families/webinar/latino/.

Participants will have an opportunity to e-mail their questions to presenters during the webinar.

The immigrants participated in the Rural Family Speaks project, a multi-state research project examining the well-being of rural families, said Kimberly Greder, an associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies and family life extension state specialist at Iowa State University.

Greder, one of the webinar’s presenters, said the Iowa portion of the study examined in depth the lives of 31 Latino immigrant families in Buena Vista and Tama counties. Study participants were predominantly Mexican mothers who had immigrated to the United States within the last 15 years, had children 12 years of age or younger and had incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

Mothers were asked to share information and experiences related to their ability to feed and provide shelter for their families, care for and parent their children, and access community resources and other social supports, Greder said. Information was collected related to family health, employment status and household income.

Other webinar presenters are Yoshie Sano, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Washington State University Vancouver, and Dawn Browder, a doctoral candidate in Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University.

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