Relating Profiles of Ethnocultural Gender Roles to Mental Health and Help-Seeking Attitudes among Latina Women

Abstract

Latina women report higher levels of psychological distress relative to Latino men (Fortuna et al. in J Clin Psychiatry 68(4):572–581, 2007; Wassertheil-Smoller et al. in Ann Epidemiol 24(11):822–830, 2014). Despite the prevalence and chronicity of mental health concerns among Latina women, rates of help-seeking are relatively low (Division of Diversity & Health Equity in Mental health disparities: Hispanics and Latinos [Fact sheet]. American Psychiatric Association, 2017). In the current study, we drew from the cultural influences on mental health model (Hwang et al. in Clin Psychol Rev 28(2):211–227, 2008) to explore the extent to which Latina women’s perceptions of their ethnocultural gender role relates to their mental health and help-seeking attitudes. To achieve this objective, we first conducted a latent profile analysis to examine the potential for an empirically supported taxonomy of Latina women’s ethnocultural gender role based upon their reported endorsement of traditional ethnic values and mainstream gender role attitudes. Then, we explored how profiles of Latina women’s ethnocultural gender role, as revealed by the taxonomy, may be associated with women’s mental health and help-seeking attitudes. Results revealed four profiles of Latina women’s ethnocultural gender role (i.e., Integrationist, Separationist, Assimilationist, and Marginalist) that were associated with women’s help-seeking attitudes, but not their mental health. Women in the Integrationist and Assimilationist profiles reported more positive help-seeking attitudes compared to women in the other two profiles. The implications of this study include advancing our understanding of Latina women’s cultural identity, mental health, and help-seeking attitudes.