Adriana Espinosa

Ethnic identity, racial discrimination and attenuated psychotic symptoms in an urban population of emerging adults

Studies suggest strong ethnic identity generally protects against negative mental health outcomes associated with racial discrimination. In light of evidence suggesting racial discrimination may enhance psychosis risk in racial and ethnic minority (REM) populations, the present study explored the relationship between ethnic identity and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS) and whether ethnic identity moderates the association between racial discrimination and these symptoms.

Ethnic Identity and Perceived Stress Among Ethnically Diverse Immigrants

Recent empirical research suggests that having a strong ethnic identity may be associated with reduced perceived stress. However, the relationship between perceived stress and ethnic identity has not been tested in a large and ethnically diverse sample of immigrants. This study utilized a multi-group latent class analysis of ethnic identity on a sample of first and second generation immigrants (N = 1603), to determine ethnic identity classifications, and their relation to perceived stress. A 4-class ethnic identity structure best fit the data for this immigrant sample, and the proportion within each class varied by ethnicity, but not immigrant generation. High ethnic identity was found to be protective against perceived stress, and this finding was invariant across ethnicity. This study extends the findings of previous research on the protective effect of ethnic identity against perceived stress to immigrant populations of diverse ethnic origins.

Correlates of child abuse potential among African American and latina mothers: A developmental-ecological perspective

The child victimization rate in the US has rapidly grown over the past five years. Today, nine out of every 1000 children are victims of some type of child maltreatment, and lifetime costs of child victimization exceed

Direct and Indirect Effects of Cumulative Trauma, PTSD, and Substance Use Disorder on Probability of Arrest Among Lower Income African American and Latina Women:

100 billion per year. Effective policies promoting fairness and child safety must target the most salient indicators of child maltreatment. In this study, we examined three groups of risk factors for child abuse potential with the goal of identifying the most prominent indicators in a sample of 170 African-American and Latina mothers. Specifically, we analyzed the effect of socio-demographic variables (e.g., SES), child-specific behaviors, maternal trauma and corresponding psychological sequelae on child abuse potential. Variables from all three groups were significantly associated with child abuse potential with maternal SES, alexithymia, depression, and child self-control as well as internalizing behaviors having the largest effects. All factors combined captured over 50% of the variation in child abuse potential. The results highlight the need for programs that not only address the financial needs of low SES mothers, but also the mental health outcomes correlated with low SES. Particular emphasis should also be placed on interventions that address childrens social needs, specifically their socio-emotional functioning.

Latent comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms across sex and race/ethnic subgroupings in a national epidemiologic study

We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data to examine the association of cumulative trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorder (SUD) with the probability of arrest in a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged African American and Latino mothers (N = 158). Results revealed that 34% of the sample had a history of arrest. Logistic regression revealed that cumulative trauma was significantly and positively associated with the likelihood of arrest. Exposure to increasing numbers of traumas contributed to greater odds of arrest, as much as 62% for each additional trauma exposure. Moreover, binary mediation analyses revealed that PTSD and SUD exerted an intervening influence on the pathway between cumulative trauma and the probability of arrest. Women with a lifetime history of PTSD or SUD were 5–6 times more likely to be arrested than women without either disorder. Lifetime PTSD and lifetime SUD were partial mediators of the association between cumulative trauma exposure and arrest, accounting for 63% of the variance. These findings have important implications for intervention efforts geared toward helping young racial/ethnic minority mothers, especially those with PTSD and SUD, manage the distress and impairment that may contribute to criminal justice involvement.

It’s not What You Think: Perceptions Regarding the Usefulness of Mathematics May Hinder Performance

The heterogeneity of mood and anxiety disorders has been widely documented and epidemiologic studies have found different prevalence rates for psychiatric disorders across subgroups (i.e. sex and race/ethnic). The current study compares the latent class structure across sex and race/ethnic groups to determine group differences in these latent class configurations. This study utilized data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a nationally representative sample from the United States (N = 43,093). First, latent class analyses (LCAs) were used to assess subtypes of symptoms of depression and anxiety that characterize a latent class structure for the population represented by NESARC. Second, group LCAs were conducted across sex and race/ethnicity to compare the latent class structure across these groups. The results suggest a 7-class model is the best fit for the population as well as for the male, non-Hispanic White, and Black subgroups. Females fit best an 11-class model, Hispanics a 5-class model and Asian and American Indian subgroups a 4-class model. These results indicate that subgroups of sex and race/ethnicity do not share the same latent construct for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Understanding the variability in the presentation of comorbid mood and anxiety across subgroups has the potential to inform person-centered approaches to care as well as targeted and multicultural interventions to improve population health.

Increasing Retention in Mathematics Courses: The role of self-confidence in Mathematics on Academic Performance

The present study investigated the moderating effect of self-confidence in one’s ability to learn mathematics on the relation between beliefs about its usefulness and performance. The study was conducted using a sample of college students from an urban college in the Eastern US (N = 306). Moderation was tested using hierarchical regressions as well as the Johnson-Neyman Technique. The results indicate that performance and beliefs about the usefulness of mathematics were not statistically related amongst individuals with high self-confidence, and negatively related for participants with low self-confidence. The findings suggest that teaching approaches aiming to improve student performance in mathematics by enhancing student beliefs about its usefulness, would likely be more effective if they primarily focused on increasing student self-confidence in their mathematics ability.

Examining the role of trait emotional intelligence on psychiatric symptom clusters in the context of lifetime trauma

Underachievement rates in mathematics for the United States have been alarming for a long time. While the reasons have been studied at length, a large area pays close attention to self-confidence as predictor of academic performance. Most research on this area however, is based on high school students. This study extends this line of work by assessing self-confidence and its effect on academic performance among college students. Using quantile regression we show that self-confidence positively impacts class performance for the middle and bottom quantiles, but not the top 75th percent. These results imply that simple and costless confidence boosting exercises conducted in the classroom may have a positive impact on at risk students, and consequently retention. The results appear to be generalizable, rather than localized to summer school students.