Lifetime Trauma Exposure and Traumatic Symptoms in Latina Women: A Latent Profile Analysis Among a National Sample

Background and Purpose: Latina women, given their minoritized status in the United States, are at a heightened risk of experiencing different types of trauma exposure during their lifetime, such as interpersonal victimization and discrimination. A considerable body of literature has documented the negative impacts of these traumatic experiences on Latina women, such as mental health issues. However, it is important to highlight that these experiences are likely to occur concurrently rather than in isolation. Therefore, it is critical to assess various types of trauma simultaneously to understand Latina women’s lived experiences and how these experiences impact their mental health thoroughly. To fill this knowledge, this study aimed to explore the latent profiles of Latina women’s lifetime trauma exposure and the associations between these profiles and individuals’ traumatic symptoms.

Methods: Data came from the Understanding Latina Experiences with Victimization, Intersectionality, and Discrimination (LAT-VIDA) study, which collected cross-sectional survey data from a national sample of Latina women (n = 2,035) from Knowledge Panel Latino. Participants reported their exposure to nine types of trauma during their lifetime, including physical, sexual, threat victimization, stalking, coercive control, sexual harassment, witnessed victimization, everyday discrimination, and major experiences of discrimination. Participants also self-reported their traumatic symptoms, including six sub-domains: anxiety, depression, dissociation, sexual abuse trauma, sexual problems, and sleep disturbance. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was employed to identify Latina women’s profiles of lifetime trauma exposure. Pairwise mean comparisons were conducted to investigate the association between the identified profiles and individuals’ traumatic symptoms.

Results: LPA identified four profiles of Latina women’s trauma exposure: low trauma exposure profile (Profile 1), consisting of 62.9% of the sample, intensive sexual victimization profile (Profile 2; 18.0%), non-sexual trauma exposure profile (Profile 3, 12.8%), and multiple intensive trauma profile (Profile 4, 6.4%). Among these four profiles, women in Profile 4 constantly reported the worst traumatic symptoms. Women in Profiles 2 and 3 also reported worse traumatic symptoms than their counterparts in Profile 1.

Conclusions and Implications: This study used a national sample to identify four profiles regarding Latina women’s lifetime trauma exposure, including interpersonal victimization, witnessed victimization, and discrimination. Latina women’s lifetime trauma exposure can consist of distinct profiles across a wide range of experiences, which can lead to different mental health outcomes, such as traumatic symptoms. Therefore, an extended scope is warranted in future research to comprehensively understand Latina women’s lived experiences given their minoritized identity. Prevention and intervention need to screen various types of trauma beyond interpersonal violence, consider witnessed victimization and discrimination, and provide early and effective intervention.