Summary
- Major: Psychology
- Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mariann Weierich
- New Scholar: 2022 Cohort
- Graduating with a Baccalaureate Degree: 2024
Abstract
Many in the Latinx community face stressors that compound at the intersection of their identities, for example from immigrant to first-generation student. These stressors are exacerbated by sociocultural barriers to mental healthcare, including a deficit of socially conscious, bilingual therapists. I aim to fill in gaps of previous studies by taking a multi-method approach and having a large Latinx sample. My objective is to measure the following variables: intersectionality in Latinx communities, mental health barriers, PTSD symptom severity, and cortisol levels. The multi-method approach will include self-report questionnaires, saliva collection for stress analytes, and a clinical interview. I have four main hypotheses, these hypotheses are that intersectional Latinx community members will face more mental health barriers compared to those that do not have an intersectional identity, mental health barriers are positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity, Latinx community members facing more mental health barriers will have higher cortisol levels than their counterparts in the white community, and trauma-exposed people in the Latinx community that identify with an intersectional identity will have higher PTSD symptom severity. The results will show how intersectionality in the Latinx community is associated with the stress response system and imposes higher rates of trauma exposure.