Racism Related Stress in the Latina/o American Community

Latina/o-Americans encounter some of the most harmful and hurtful stereotypes in the United States, which cast Latina/os as both hard-working and efficient, yet undeserving of the jobs and space they occupy within American society. Some justify this treatment through prejudice notions, racist ideology and nativist sentiments, claiming that Latina/o-American populations drain both the American economy and the American identity. Stressors brought on by stereotypes, prejudice and bigotry affect how Latina/os interact with the world around them, the spaces they feel comfortable in and the opportunities they are afforded in society. Perceived racial discrimination has been associated with several negative mental health outcomes, including higher psychological distress, suicidal ideation, state anxiety, trait anxiety and depression. The aforementioned is disparaging considering many Latino-Americans have mixed-indigenous heritage and Native American ancestry, making them some of the oldest inhabitants on the continent.¹

Latina/o and Hispanic Americans can come from diverse backgrounds and origins including European, African and Asian ancestry, which can make it harder for them to form a concrete ethnic identity ^{2, 5}. These differences in race, gender and national origin have been shown to complicate and shape Latinos' experiences of intimate partner violence and furthermore, the discussion of domestic violence in Latino communities would not be complete without considering the economic, social and political factors that affect their lives.⁴ Immigrant women are more vulnerable to domestic violence and other forms of dating violence due to the dynamics of being in a relationship where one partner can have physical, financial or judicial power over another through the threat of deportation.⁴

One in five Hispanic teens surveyed in the Dating Violence Among Latino Adolescents survey were found to have been a victim of dating violence with 15 percent of those teenagers experiencing psychological abuse. Ten percent of youth had endured multiple forms of dating violence, had been the victim of dating violence or had experienced violence from someone who was not their romantic partner.³ As the number of romantic relationships teenagers had increased, as did the risk of dating violence victimhood.¹ In honor of National Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month, the Ethnicity and Health in America Series is raising awareness about the psychological and social impact of stress and racism in the United States. This month, we are featuring the work of Carlos Cuevas, PhD and Sabina Chiara, PhD, two psychologists examining the effects of stress due to intimate partner violence on the lives of Latina/o and Hispanic Americans.

References

¹ Dating Violence Among Latino Teenagers. (July 22, 2016). Retrieved Sept. 8, 2016, from https://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/intimate-partner-violence/teen-dating-violence/Pages/dating-violence-among-latino-teenagers.aspxopens in new window

² ‘Mestizo' and ‘mulatto': Mixed –race identities among U.S. Hispanics. (July 10, 2015). Retrieved September 8, 2016, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/10/mestizo-and-mulatto-mixed-race-identities-unique-to-hispanics/opens in new window

³ Research Roundup: What Do We Know About Hispanic Youth and Teen Dating Violence? (February 24, 2015). Retrieved Sept. 8, 2016, from https://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/news/2015/02/research-roundup-what-do-we-know-about-hispanic-youth-and-teen-dating-violenceopens in new window

⁴ Rivera, Jenny. “Domestic Violence Against Latinas by Latino Males: An Analysis of Race, National Origin, and Gender Differentials.” (June 1, 1994). Boston College Third World Law Journal, 14( 2 ).

⁵ When Labels Don't Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity. (April 2, 2012). Retrieved Sept. 8, 2016, from https://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/opens in new window and https://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/ii-identity-pan-ethnicity-and-race/opens in new window

Carlos Cuevas, PhD

Cuevas received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Tufts University and his PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University. Cuevas was a post-graduate research fellow in the Family Research Laboratory/Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in facilities such as the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons. His research interests surround victimization and trauma, sexual violence and sexual offending, family violence, and psychological assessment. He is specifically interested in examining victimization among Latino women and youth and the ways in which is relates to psychological distress and service utilization. Cuevas also examines how culture factors into victimization. Most recently, his research, funded by the National Institute of Justice, has examined patterns of dating violence among Latino adolescents addressing cultural factors, comorbid victimization, delinquency and help-seeking behaviors. In addition, Cuevas studies the impact of psychological factors on the revictimization of children and the connections between victimization and delinquency in adolescents.

Cuevas has served as an ad-hoc reviewer on multiple APA journals such as Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and Developmental Psychology^®. He has served as an associate editor in the APA journal Psychology and Violence and served on the 2012 Conference Planning committee for Div. 56's (Trauma Psychology) annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

Source: https://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/faculty/carlos-cuevasopens in new window

https://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Cuevas-Carlos.pdfopens in new window

Chiara Sabina, PhD

Sabina is an associate professor of social sciences at Penn State University where she contributes to the applied behavioral science and sociology majors. She is also a part of the graduate faculty for the community psychology and social change master's program. Sabina earned her doctorate in applied social psychology from Loyola University Chicago with a certificate in women's studies. She later worked on the International Dating Violence Study at the Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, during her post-doctoral fellowship. Her research centers on interpersonal victimization, especially intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence. She seeks to examine interpersonal violence among understudied populations, help-seeking responses and cultural influences on victimization and related help-seeking. 

Sabina has received three National Institute of Justice grants to study the lifetime victimization history of adult Latino women and male and female Latino adolescents, their help-seeking responses, psychological and behavioral outcomes, and relevant cultural factors.

She has also received a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant to conduct a state-wide needs assessment of victim services. She teaches courses on research methods, quantitative methods, race, gender, class and sexual identity diversity. Sabina serves as a Member at Large for Early Careers in APA's Div. 27, Society for Community Research and Action, is on the editorial board of Partner Abuse: New Directions in Research, Intervention and Policy, and co-chairs the research action team of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence.

Source: https://harrisburg.psu.edu/faculty-and-staff/chiara-sabina-phdopens in new window

Posttraumatic stress among victimized Latino women: evaluating the role of cultural factors

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2015
Carlos Cuevas, PhD
Chiara Sabina, PhD
Emilie H. Picard, LMHC

Preface by Carlos Cuevas, PhD: As the demography of the U.S. shifts, the study of violence and mental health lags behind when looking at people of color. This is the case for Latinos, as they are the largest and one of the fastest growing groups. This article, and much of our work in general, aims to help fill this gap, with particular focus on issues that have largely been overlooked in the scholarly research, and to a certain degree, in clinical practice. One of the key issues is to expand research beyond simply comparing Latinos to other groups of individuals on victimization or mental health variables, and examine how cultural aspects salient to the Latino community can impact both victimization risk as well mental health outcomes. In this article, we examine factors such as acculturation, immigrant status and gender role, among others, to help us understand how they can play a role in traumatic experiences and posttraumatic sequelae for Latino women.

Article Abstract: Research examining victimization and post-traumatic symptomatology among Latinos is lacking in the extant literature. This analysis used the victimized subsample (N = 752) of the Sexual Assault Among Latinas Study. The aim was to evaluate victimization prevalence and test the following hypotheses: (a) that victimization would be associated with higher levels of post-traumatic symptoms, (b) that cultural factors that move away from traditional Latino culture would be associated with higher levels of post-traumatic symptomatology, and (c) that cultural factors associated with traditional Latino culture would be related to lower post-traumatic symptomatology. Average age of the sample was 44.57 years, with three fourths having a high school education or higher, and two thirds having a household income below $30,000. Of exposure types, adulthood threats were most likely to result in Criterion A traumatic events (23.4 percent). Using the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (4th ed., text rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) based post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Checklist, between 8.8 percent and 45.5 percent of individuals met presumed PTSD diagnosis based on various PCL cut scores or algorithm criteria. Regression analyses indicated that the combined different types of adult and childhood victimizations, masculine gender role and negative religious coping were associated with increased symptoms (βs ranging from .16 to .27). The results suggested a role of culture in post-traumatic symptoms for Latinas.

Citation: Cuevas, C. A.opens in new window, Sabina,C.opens in new window, & Picard, E. H.opens in new window (2015). Posttraumatic stress among victimized Latino women: evaluating the role of cultural factors. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 28 (6). 531-538.