Mental Health of the Latinx Community in the United States
Abstract
Recent spark in political activism for minority communities in combination with social
de-stigmatization of mental health has shined light on negative mental health outcomes
for minority communities in the United States. Literature has found that the Latinx
community faces diminished mental health due to social, political, and economic pressures,
and furthermore the need for additional investigation into mitigation tactics of this
discrepancy. This analysis first describes five factors which impact mental health
of the Latinx community: mental health literacy, stigma surrounding mental health,
acculturative stress, discrimination, and financial stress. As young adulthood is
pivotal in an individual’s mental health trajectory, the paper describes the study
which aims to understand the psychological stress Latinx college students experience
as compared to their white counterparts at a prestigious university in the United
States. Participants included 67 students from Duke University who voluntarily participated
in an online survey including the full Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Results in this
study found no statistically significant difference amongst BSI and Global Severity
Index (GSI) scores of Latinx and White participants. Additionally, no statistical
significance was found in the difference between Latinx and White participant anxiety
and depression dimension scores. It is critical to understand the role that cultural
and racial identity plays in Latinx mental health and minority mental health as a
whole. The null findings of this study serve to inspire further investigation to understand
the mental health state of Latinx individuals in their young adulthood, and what role
their educational environment plays in their psychological stress levels.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Program IIPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/27285Citation
Junek, Amanda (2023). Mental Health of the Latinx Community in the United States. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/27285.Collections
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