Depressive symptoms in Latina mothers in an emerging immigrant community.

Abstract

Objectives: Latina mothers in emerging immigrant communities experience heightened risk for depressive symptoms because of the convergence of multiple risk factors rooted in economic, cultural, and familial experiences. Previous research with Latina/o adolescents has found that discrimination, and not acculturative stress, predicts depressive symptoms; however, no research to our knowledge has examined the relative impact of both discrimination and acculturative stress in Latina mothers. Method: The present study expands this literature by examining how both universal (i.e., economic hardship and parent-child conflict) and cultural stressors (i.e., discrimination and acculturative-based family conflict) predict maternal depressive symptoms in a sample of 169 Latina mothers in an emerging immigrant context. Results: Results found that the presence of universal stressors for Latina mothers does indeed significantly predict depressive symptoms, and that uniquely, 1 type of cultural stressor (i.e., acculturative-based family conflict) predicts depressive symptoms above and beyond the universal stressors. Conclusions: These findings indicate that it is important to examine how cultural stressors may have differential impact for youth and their parents; thus, more work should examine the impact of acculturative-based family conflict for Latina mothers.

Predictors of latent class trajectories of depressive symptoms in Latina mothers.

“…Latina mothers who perceive a disconnect between their own values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations and those of their child's school may limit participation and involvement in their child's school. This reduced engagement may also be due to fear of racial discrimination or retaliation from school officials (Hill et al, 2019) or due to difficulties in communication as a result of language barriers. Regardless, mothers who perceive higher home-school dissonance may miss opportunities for social support and connection with other parents, as well as chances to build relationships with their child's teachers.…”

“…Latina mothers represent a growing proportion of the U.S. population who experience a number of stressors across various contexts. Second, the study's examination of risk and promotive factors among Latina mothers in emerging immigrant areas is critical, as these families may experience unique or greater challenges related to navigating U.S. culture compared to families in well-established immigrant communities (Hill et al, 2019). Third, the measurement of mothers' depressive symptoms at four time points spaced roughly 6 months apart allowed us to examine This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

“…The present study examined how trajectories of Latina mothers’ depressive symptoms varied by (a) culture-specific risks, including mothers’ stress responses to anti-immigration actions and news and perceived home–school dissonance in values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations and (b) general risk and promotive factors, including mothers’ financial strain and social support. The study’s latent class growth curve modeling approach to identifying classes of longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms expands upon prior work that has examined Latinx adults’ (e.g., Bulut & Gayman, 2020) and Latina mothers’ symptoms at a single time point (e.g., Crane et al, 2020; Espeleta et al, 2019; Hill et al, 2019) or reported sample averages for changes in Latina mothers’ depressive symptom over time (e.g., Carter et al, 2019; Harris & Santos, 2020; Zapata Roblyer et al, 2017). Although these studies find that symptom patterns cluster into three or four classes (Bulut & Gayman, 2020; Crane et al, 2020) and sample-level symptoms change over time (Carter et al, 2019), few studies have examined multiple longitudinal trajectories within a Latinx sample (cf.…”

“…This sort of home–school cultural gap is likely to be stressful for Latina mothers. For example, difficulty communicating with school teachers and administrators, whether due to language barriers or parent availability, may contribute to poor parent mental health (Hill et al, 2019). Further, Latina mothers who feel their cultural values are not accepted or understood by other parents may avoid social interactions with them, limiting opportunities for making social connections and supportive relationships.…”

“…Latina mothers represent a rapidly growing segment of the population in the United States (U.S.) and are at heightened risk for depressive symptoms compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts (Hill et al, 2019). Given the pernicious impacts of maternal depression on family and child well-being (Goodman et al, 2011), it is important to identify sources of risk and support that predict Latina maternal depressive symptoms.…”