This research explores how residential segregation and discrimination as social forces affect the health of Puerto Rican and Mexican Americans in Chicago. Data from Puerto Rican and Mexican American residents of Chicago are analyzed by multi-level model and multivariate regression techniques. The findings reveal that (1) residential segregation is beneficial for the physical health of second- or later-generation Mexican Americans and benign for the physical health of first-generation Mexican Americans whereas it is deleterious for the physical health of Puerto Ricans regardless of generational status; (2) perceived discrimination is adversely associated with physical health for both Puerto Rican and Mexican Americans. Marriage, however, moderates the effects of perceived discrimination for Mexican Americans only; (3) residential segregation has deleterious effects on mental health for both Puerto Rican and Mexican Americans regardless of generational status.

In contrast to Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans have more resourceful neighborhoods and a supportive marriage culture and context for health. For Mexican Americans, ethnic community provides informal health care and ethnic supports for ethnic members. That might be why residential segregation is beneficial and marriage buffers the effect of perceived discrimination on physical health for Mexican Americans. Residential segregation, however, has an opposite effect on mental health for Mexican Americans, which shows that ethnic community has differential effects across health dimensions. It is discussed that for Mexican Americans, residential segregation is beneficial to physical health by providing social capital, but it is deleterious to mental health by increasing social control on ethnic members. This study suggests that social forces operate differently for Puerto Rican and Mexican Americans in producing health inequalities. The results suggest the utility of an ethnic-environment perspective for understanding the sociogenesis of ethnic disparities in health.