Like many Latino immigrant parents, Jessica García’s mother relies on her to translate from English to Spanish. Health experts, though, say that responsibility can cause anxiety and other long-term problems in minors.

García is about to enter a new stage in her life. The 19-year-old will graduate from Dallas ISD’s Samuell High School in May, then continue her education at Dallas College’s North Lake campus in the fall.

College entrance and student aid applications and high school homework, prom, finals and graduation are in the minds of many high school seniors. But García worries about something extra: her mother.

Since she was 8 years old, she has helped her mother, María Pérez, with her English. Although her mom has learned the basics of the language, she’s still not comfortable speaking it.

Social media platforms have many videos focused on the experience of young Latinos growing up in the U.S. Many tell their stories with a dose of humor. One video by the TikTok creator “ocnatives” pokes fun at the fact that at 7 years old, he was translating legal documents for his parents.

“I mean, I could’ve messed up badly …” the caption reads.

García’s situation was similar. The paperwork to apply for a green card was the first set of legal documents she ever translated for her mother, and she was only 8.

“It was a lot of really complex vocabulary that I had to kind of adapt to really early, so yeah kind of stressful,” she said said.

According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, the experience of being an interpreter can disturb a parent-child relationship and represents a risk for some immigrant children and their families. Children see the need to mature quickly, and having to shoulder such responsibility for their parents can lead to social issues, aggressiveness and risky behavior.

“Children who are 7 or 8 are still learning how to read,” said Nicholas Westers, a clinical psychologist at Children’s Health.

Stomach pain and headaches

From a mental health perspective, having to read things like bank statements, bills and legal documents for parents parents can cause anxiety. For example, at an early age the child may become knowledgeable about their family’s finances, including how much or how little the family is earning.

“That’s not something we want little, little kids to be exposed to and know about or worry about,” said Westers, who is also an associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Children won’t tell parents that they’re in emotional distress, Westers said. Instead, their stress will manifest through physical symptoms, such as stomach pain and headaches, and in frequent trips to the nurse’s office at school.

Westers said some research shows that young adults who grew up translating for their parents are more likely to have an anxiety or depressive disorder compared to bilingual young adults who didn’t have such responsibilities as children.

“[From the research] 9- to 13-year-olds experienced significant amounts of anxiety at that age and later in adulthood, specifically if they served as language brokers for their families,” he said said.

Children who speak Spanish to their parents also can face racism and other discrimination.

For García, having to translate for her mother forced her to expand her vocabulary at an early age, which, in her case, has helped in her academics. She has taken advanced-level classes since middle school and is taking college-level classes in high school.

Pressure can continue as adult

García said that her mom has high expectations and that she feels more stressed now than when she provided translation help as a child.

“When I was a kid, I was like, ‘Just understand these words.’ Tell her what’s happening and just translate,” she said.

“Now I have to make sure I get into a college, keep my vocabulary up, pass my classes, participate in extracurricular activities, and learn how to cook and clean,” she said.

The youngest of her two older brothers still translates for their mother. It can involved something as complex as reading legal documents to simply asking if a store clerk if a coupon is still valid.

García said she enjoys helping her mother but also wishes they were more independent from one another.

She said she worries about her mom avoiding places that have no Hispanic staff.

“I fear that’s going to limit her,” she said.

García won’t be too far away when she begins college in the fall, but she said she won’t be readily available to provide help with translation.

When García was looking at colleges, she told her mother there was a chance she would move to a college town, and reminded her mother of the importance of getting used to speaking English. But her mother replied, “Come home when you don’t have class.”

“I feel like it’s just that sense of not wanting to let go,” she said.

Easing parents into independence

Cynthia Ochoa, 28, of Euless recalled having a problem similar to García’s when she tried to move out of her parents home and into her own apartment. The University of Texas at Arlington nursing student said her parents were used to having her close by for any translation help they needed.

Originally from Durango, Ochoa is the oldest of three sisters. Every year, she helps her mother fill out a custody form necessary for families with children with disabilities. It took her parents time to get used to her being out of their home, but Ochoa still visits on weekends to help with translations.

As with García, the pressure on Ochoa to be able to translate documents began when she was a child. She started translating when she was in middle school, a few years later than García. Ochoa said that because she was a little older, her mother assumed she would be able to understand bank statements, bills and medical terms.

“It wasn’t frustrating to translate for my parents, but it did make me a little nervous,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa said she hoped her translations were accurate.

Today, young people can double-check their work with online aids like Google Translate that weren’t available years ago.

“My mother understands more English than she used to, but there are some words she still finds difficult,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa said moving out of her parents helped them because they were forced to start doing things on their own.

“I think it really helped them to not have me home,” she said.