Culturally responsive evaluation with Latinx communities through culturally specific assessment: Building the Latinx immigration trauma assessment

Abstract

This article emphasizes that assessments misaligned with the populations of study have the potential for measurement disjuncture, invalidation of data meaning, and, ultimately, the invalidation of evaluation findings. The authors conducted a study to identify and describe the development of a culturally specific assessment (CSA) model and how it was used in the development of a Latinx Immigration Trauma assessment framework to reflect the unique experiences of Latinx immigrants. The authors outline the use of the Disjuncture‐response Dialectic as the theoretical grounding and utilize a Critical comparative case study design. The resultant multidimensional Latinx Immigration Trauma Assessment framework consists of the dimensions of nervios, desaliento, desesperanza, duelo, y pena. The development process may encourage evaluators to seek deeper understanding of their methodological choices when examining the efficacy of trauma interventions for Latinx immigrants.