Mendez SEA, Mendez-Luck CA, Nylund-Gibson K, Ng B. Mental Health Attribution for Mexican-Origin Latinx and Non-Latinx Older Adults: A Latent Class Analysis.
Innov Aging 2020;
4:igaa028. [PMID:
34136663 PMCID:
PMC8202504 DOI:
10.1093/geroni/igaa028]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Objectives
Providing appropriate and culturally sensitive care to the rapidly growing number of
U.S. Latinx older adults with psychiatric conditions presents a major public health
challenge. We know little about older Latinx adults’ perceived causes of mental health
problems, offering clinicians limited insight to guide successful and culturally
congruent treatment. Moreover, there is a paucity of mental health research examining
heterogeneity in how Latinx individuals may attribute mental health symptoms. The
present study sought to identify how Latinx and non-Latinx older adults attributed the
sources of their mental health problems and how these types of attributions differ by
ethnicity.
Research Design and Methods
This study analyzed data collected from a retrospective chart review and survey of 673
adults aged 55–95 years (430 Mexican origin and 244 non-Latinx) from a rural psychiatric
outpatient clinic near the California–Mexico border. We conducted stratified latent
class analysis (LCA) by race/ethnicity to explore the mental health attribution beliefs
of Mexican-origin and non-Latinx clinic patients.
Results
Different LCA patterns for Mexican-origin Latinx versus non-Latinx groups were found.
For non-Latinx adults, there was a class of individuals who attributed their mental
health issues to social and financial problems. For Mexican-origin adults, there was a
class of individuals who attributed their mental health issues to spiritual and/or
supernatural factors, unaffected by acculturation level, depressive symptom severity,
and time spent in the United States, but differing by gender. We found within-group
heterogeneity: Not all Mexican-origin or non-Latinx older adults were alike in how they
conceptualized their mental health.
Discussion and Implications
Mexican-origin Latinx and non-Latinx older adults attributed their mental health issues
to different causes. More Mexican-origin older adults attributed their symptoms to
spiritual causes, even after controlling for contextual factors. Further research is
needed to determine whether attribution beliefs are affected by specific mental health
diagnoses and other cultural factors not measured in this study.
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