Latino Mother/Daughter Dyadic Attachment as a Mediator for Substance Use Disorder and Emotional Abuse

Abstract

Background To date, no studies have investigated emotional abuse of adult Latina women by their mothers despite evidence that emotional maternal abuse may significantly contribute to the emotional abuse experienced by Latina women in their lifetime. Methods Cross-sectional data including 316 women was analyzed using mediation and logistic regression. Results Overall, 7.1% of mothers and 24.1% of daughters abused drugs; and, 19.5% of daughters were emotionally abused by their mothers. Mother's attachment to her daughter mediated the association between mother's drug abuse and emotionally abusing her adult daughter (Indirect effect: 0.863). Discussion Latina women can serve as perpetrators of emotional abuse of their adult children. Since drug-abusing daughters are more likely to be victims of emotional abuse by their mothers and drug-abusing mothers are more likely to abuse their daughters, drug-rehabilitation practitioners should incorporate a family abuse component into rehabilitation programs.

The Association Between Social Support and Psychological Distress in Latina Mothers Living in Miami-Dade County, Florida

“…The study consisted of a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of a database named the Women's Study (WS) gathered by the Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) [9]. The WS is a longitudinal study originally aimed at identifying intergenerational transmission of drug use and related health behaviors among Latina mother-daughter dyads residing in Miami-Dade County, Florida [9]. The WS consisted of 316 Latina women, aged 18-78, living in Miami-Dade County, whose mother or daughter wished to participate in a two-hour face-to-face interview.…”