Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Among Low Income Women of Mexican Descent in the United States

Abstract

Survey methods were used to collect cross-sectional data on PTSD symptoms in the context of resources, risks, and strengths of a convenience sample of 315 low income women of Mexican descent. Women were compared by generation in the US, including Mexico-born women who immigrated as adults (> or =age 18), as teens (age 12-17), or as children (< or =age 12), and US-born women whose parents and/or grandparents were Mexico-born. Results showed that US-born women reported significantly more types of trauma than women who immigrated as adults or teens, and more PTSD symptoms than women who immigrated as adults. Also, one to three times as many women who were exposed to the United States before age 18 reported sexual trauma exposure compared with women who immigrated as adults. In a three-step multiple regression analysis, lack of intrinsic strength factors (13%) accounted for more variance in PTSD symptoms than resources (6%) or risks (10%; p < 0.001).

Interpersonal Abuse and Depression Among Mexican Immigrant Women with Type 2 Diabetes

“…For example, Lown and Vega (2001) found a 10.7 percent prevalence of physical abuse in a socioeconomically diverse population of Mexican-American women, compared to the 54 percent of physical abuse exposure in the present sample. A study focused on similarly impoverished women of Mexican descent seeking primary care at a safety-net clinic in California found comparable rates of physical violence to the present study (Heilemann, Kury et al 2005). It is crucial to identify such intra-ethnic differences because they demonstrate that high rates of interpersonal abuse may stem from contextual factors, such as poverty and immigration stress (see Benson, Wooldredge et al 2004), as opposed to Mexican or Mexican-American ethnicity.…”

“…Jennifer Hirsch (2003) found domestic violence similarly to be a problem for married women in Mexico, and argued that the balance of gender and power within Mexican couples was shifting with modernity and migration to the U.S. (Hirsch 2003). Interestingly, evidence in the U.S. suggests that Mexican immigrant populations report higher rates of abuse compared to the general population, and those in Mexico, and that incidence of abuse is higher still among those who are low-income second, third, and fourth generation Mexican-Americans (Holman, Silver et al 2000; Lown and Vega 2001; Heilemann, Kury et al 2005; Baker, Norris et al 2009). …”

“…This works prompted us to further explore this association in a larger sample, as the relationship of interpersonal abuse and depression is a core concern of psychology and psychiatry, and particularly salient among Mexican-Americans. Multiple studies have demonstrated that women of Mexican descent living in the U.S. experience higher rates of psychiatric distress when compared to other ethnic groups, and to women living in Mexico (Vega, Kolody et al 1986; Burnam, Hough et al 1987; Vega, Kolody et al 1998; Heilemann, Kury et al 2005; Smith, Poschman et al 2006; Fisher, Skaff et al 2008). In a clinical study of 315 low-income women of Mexican descent in California, Heilemann and colleagues (2005) found high rates of depression, which strongly correlated with reporting post-traumatic stress disorder, and these women were more likely to report more traumatic experiences throughout the life course.…”

Development, Use, and Psychometric Properties of the Trauma History Questionnaire

“…The THQ (Green, 1996), a self-report instrument, was developed to measure history of exposure to potentially traumatic events that may meet the A1 stressor criterion for PTSD. Researchers have employed the THQ in more than 60 non-overlapping published studies (see the reference list for a complete listing), with study populations including, but not limited to, residents of battered women's shelters (Humphreys, Lee, Neylan, & Marmar, 1999), people attending substance abuse clinics (Farley, Golding, Young, Mulligan, & Minkoff, 2004;Najavits, Gastfriend et al, 1998;Najavits, Weiss, & Shaw, 1999), police officers (Brunet et al, 2001;Neylan et al, 2002;Pole, Kulkarni, Bernstein, & Kaufmann, 2006), journalists in Iraq (Feinstein & Nicolson, 2005), Holocaust survivors (Yehuda, Halligan, & Grossman, 2001), adult survivors of childhood trauma and abuse (Hammersley et al, 2003;Heilemann, Kury, & Lee, 2005;Sacks et al, 2008;Spertus, Yehuda, Wong, Halligan, & Seremetis, 2003), and people with life-threatening illnesses (Farley, Golding, & Minkoff, 2002;Green, Krupnick et al, 2000;Spertus, Burns, Glenn, Loftland, & McCracken, 1999).…”

Posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol misuse among women: effects of ethnic minority stressors

“…Previous research has revealed that higher acculturation among Hispanics is associated with both PTSD [32–34] and alcohol misuse [35–41]. Much of this research, however, has involved proxy measures of acculturation (nativity or length of U.S. residence) rather than specific acculturation measures [7,32,42,43].…”