Posttraumatic Stress among Victimized Latino Women: Evaluating the Role of Cultural Factors

Research examining victimization and posttraumatic 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:

1. that victimization would be associated with higher levels of posttraumatic symptoms,
2. that cultural factors that move away from traditional Latino culture would be associated with higher levels of posttraumatic symptomatology, and
3. that cultural factors associated with traditional Latino culture would be related to lower posttraumatic 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%). Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) based PTSD Checklist, between 8.8% and 45.5% 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 posttraumatic symptoms for Latinas.

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By:  Cuevas CA1, Sabina C2, Picard EH3.

• 1School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
• 2School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, Penn State Harrisburg, Middletown, Pennsylvania, USA.
• 3Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA. 

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