Mental Health Literacy of Latina Women in the United States for Their School-Aged Children

<p>Despite known mental health (MH) disparities faced by Latino children relative to children from other minority groups of similar socioeconomic status (SES), little is known about how Latina mothers make MH decisions for their children. The present study examined links between Latina mothers' mental health literacy (MHL), including the recognition of and response to child psychiatric symptoms, and maternal acculturation factors as well as interpersonal violence (IPV) related symptomatology. Participants were 80 Latina mothers from Denver, Colorado and Modesto, California with at least one child between the ages of 8-12 years. Mothers were presented vignettes depicting child internalizing and externalizing disorders as well as interviewed about their help seeking behaviors. Maternal acculturation was not related to identification of disorders, but was related to more symptoms recognized for child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Acculturation predicted use of formal source of care for child internalizing and externalizing disorder. Women demonstrated a preference for informal source of care, with the exception of IPV-related child symptoms, where women demonstrated a preference for formal source of care. IPV-related symptoms did not moderate the relationship between acculturation and MHL. The relationship between maternal acculturation, IPV related symptomatology and their combined effect on MHL for child psychiatric disorders are discussed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Pineda, Annarheen S.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anne P. DePrince, Ph.D.
• Daniel McIntosh
• Stephen Shirk
• Martha Wadsworth
• Jennifer Cornish

• Acculturation
• Interpersonal violence
• Latina
• Mental health disparities
• Mental health literacy
• Post-traumatic stress
• Mental and Social Health
• Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/996

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1995