Galvan Thania, La Barrie Dominique L
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, 125 Baldwin St., Athens, GA 30602 USA.
J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2024 Apr 3;17(3):969-979. doi: 10.1007/s40653-024-00635-4. eCollection 2024 Sep.
Although trauma exposure is common among youth in the United States, it is not evenly distributed. In fact, Latinx youth have higher rates of trauma exposure than their non-Latinx White counterparts with approximately 78% of Latinx youth experiencing one traumatic event by the time they are 18 years old. Despite this, the impact of trauma exposure on Latinx youth's mental health needs is not well-established. This is largely because Latinx youth are vastly underrepresented in many of the large-scale, epidemiological studies on childhood trauma exposure. To address this gap in the literature, this study applied PRISMA protocol guidelines to systematically review the methodologies, participant characteristics, and findings from 22 studies examining the relation between Latinx youths' trauma exposure and their mental health needs. Results revealed that while trauma exposure is common among Latinx youth, its association to Latinx youth's mental health needs is not well understood. Indeed, while some studies found a positive association between Latinx youth's trauma exposure and their mental health risk, other studies found no such relation. An examination of the included studies' methodologies and participant characteristics revealed several limitations in the existing research that are likely contributing to these inconsistencies. Concrete recommendations for how future research can address these limitations are put forth. Taken together, the results of this study underscore the urgent need to understand the role that trauma exposure plays in contributing to and/or maintaining mental health disparities among Latinx youth.
尽管创伤暴露在美国青少年中很常见，但分布并不均匀。事实上，拉丁裔青少年遭受创伤暴露的比例高于非拉丁裔白人青少年，约78%的拉丁裔青少年在18岁时经历过一次创伤事件。尽管如此，创伤暴露对拉丁裔青少年心理健康需求的影响尚未明确。这主要是因为在许多关于儿童创伤暴露的大规模流行病学研究中，拉丁裔青少年的代表性严重不足。为了填补文献中的这一空白，本研究应用PRISMA协议指南，系统回顾了22项研究的方法、参与者特征和研究结果，这些研究考察了拉丁裔青少年的创伤暴露与其心理健康需求之间的关系。结果显示，虽然创伤暴露在拉丁裔青少年中很常见，但其与拉丁裔青少年心理健康需求之间的关联尚未得到充分理解。确实，一些研究发现拉丁裔青少年的创伤暴露与其心理健康风险之间存在正相关，而其他研究则未发现这种关系。对纳入研究的方法和参与者特征进行考察后发现，现有研究存在若干局限性，这些局限性可能导致了这些不一致的结果。文中还针对未来研究如何解决这些局限性提出了具体建议。总体而言，本研究结果强调了迫切需要了解创伤暴露在导致和/或维持拉丁裔青少年心理健康差异方面所起的作用。
