Sociocultural factors as explanatory of depressive symptom development in Latino adolescents
View File(s)
Visitor Statistics
Visits vs Downloads
Visitors - World Map
Top Visiting Countries
Country | Visits |
---|
Top Visiting Cities
City | Visits |
---|
Visits (last 6 months)
Downloads (last 6 months)
Popular Works for Young, Cara C. by View
Title | Page Views |
---|
Popular Works for Young, Cara C. by Download
Title | Downloads |
---|
View Citations
Citations
Purpose: Latino adolescents consistently report the highest levels of depressive symptoms and disorders when compared to non-Hispanic White, African American and Asian American adolescents (Stein et al., 2010). Suicide, the most devastating outcome of depression, is the third leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24, and Latina adolescents attempt suicide significantly more that their non-Hispanic peers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Despite these well documented disparities, relatively little research has evaluated why Hispanic adolescents appear to be at greatest risk for depressive symptoms. Currently in the United States, 1 in 5 youth under the age of 18 is Latino, and population projections indicate by 2050, 40% of the youth population will be Latino (Ortman & Guarneri, 2009). The elevated levels of depressive symptoms in this expanding population represent a growing need for depression prevention and treatment programs that are sensitive to Latino adolescents' specific cultural and psychosocial needs. The purpose of this study is to examine individual- and contextual- level sociocultural factors associated with the development of depressive symptoms in Latino adolescents in order to identify salient risk factors to target in the construction of culturally relevant prevention and treatment interventions.
Methods: Latino adolescents (12-18 years) were recruited (N= 118) from a pediatric health care clinic in a rural community in central Texas for a cross-sectional, descriptive study. After informed consent and adolescent assent were obtained, participants completed a survey in Spanish or English containing a demographic questionnaire and standardized measures assessing theoretically guided variables from Zayas and colleagues' (2005) conceptual model of Latina adolescent suicide (i.e., acculturation, discrimination, ethnic identity, familism, family conflict and cohesion, and depressive symptoms). Pearson correlations were calculated to assess the bivariate associations between the variables. Hierarchical linear regression methods determined the unique contribution of each of the independent variables to depressive symptoms.
Results: Latino ethnic heritage was reported by 83% (n=96) of participants. Almost half (46%) of the sample reported high levels of depressive symptoms. Elevated depressive symptoms were associated with higher levels of discrimination (r=.347, p<.001) and family conflict (r=.423, p<.001), and lower levels of familism (r=.306, p=.001), ethnic identity (r=-.244, p=.009), and family cohesion (r=-.306, p=.001). Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated these sociocultural variables explained 40% of the variance in depressive symptoms (R2=.404, p<.001). After controlling for all study variables, discrimination (?? =.383, p<.001), familism (?? = .261, p=.005), and family conflict (?? = .389, p<.001) were unique contributors to depressive symptoms.
Conclusion: The high levels of depressive symptoms reported by this Latino adolescent sample is concerning and confirms prior research documenting high depressive symptom prevalence in this population. The large percentage of variance explained by individual- and contextual- level sociocultural factors underscore the need for culturally tailored depression prevention programs that target Latino adolescents. These results may not be generalizable to Latino adolescents living in other countries, particularly those residing in their county of racial and ethnic origin. Future research with Latino adolescents outside of the United States is needed to disentangle the relationships among sociocultural factors (e.g., acculturation, ethnic identity, and discrimination) and depressive symptoms.
Research Congress 2015 Theme: Question Locally, Engage Regionally, Apply Globally. Held at the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
Items submitted to a conference/event were evaluated/peer-reviewed at the time of abstract submission to the event. No other peer-review was provided prior to submission to the Henderson Repository.
Type | Presentation |
Acquisition | Proxy-submission |
Review Type | Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host |
Format | Text-based Document |
Evidence Level | N/A |
Research Approach | N/A |
Keywords | Depressive Symptoms; Latino Adolescents; Culture |
Name | 26th international Nursing Research Congress |
Host | Sigma Theta Tau International |
Location | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Date | 2015 |
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subjects.
-
Examining the impact of sociocultural influences, psychosocial stressors, and cognitive vulnerabilities on development of depressive symptoms in Hispanic adolescents
Young, Cara C. (2015-02-04)The purpose of this study was to examine individual- and contextual- level factors associated with the development of depressive symptoms in Hispanic adolescents in order to identify salient risk factors to target in the ... -
Differential impacts of family factors on psychological disorders between Latina and Latino Americans
Pappas, Cara L.; Ai, Amy L. (2016-03-17)Session presented on Sunday, July 26, 2015: Purpose: As one of the two fastest growing minority groups in the United States (US), Latino Americans are expected to count for an estimated 30% of the national population in ... -
Culturally based stressors and depressive symptoms for Latino/a adolescents
McCord, Allison L. (2017-06-20)Purpose: U.S. Latino/a adolescents suffer from significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than Caucasian and African-American adolescents. In 2016, 35% of US Latino/a adolescents reported feeling so sad or hopeless ... -
A nationally representative survey of depression symptoms among Jordanian adolescents: Associations with depression stigma, depression etiological beliefs, and likelihood to seek help for depression
Dardas, Latefa AliProblem and Purpose: Arab adolescents are considered a particularly vulnerable population to depression. The substantial lack of mental health services and the stigma associated with mental illness on the one hand; and ... -
Stroke survivors' and informal caregivers' perceptions of depressive symptoms after stroke: A mixed-methods sequential explanatory study
Breckenridge-Trotter, Tanya L.Background: Poststroke depression (PSD) is a frequently occurring complication of stroke that affects up to 30% of all stroke survivors in the first 24 months after stroke. PSD has been correlated with increases in hospital ...