Psychological Distress at the Intersection of Race and Gender among U.S. Latinx Adults

Overview: Using secondary data from the National Health Interview Survey, we examined whether Latinx adults report psychological distress differently by race and gender. Consistent with intersectionality theory, our findings show that racially minoritized Latinx women, specifically Multiracial Latinx women, report higher odds of serious psychological distress than White Latinx men.Proposal text: Background/Rationale: The U.S. Latinx population continues to face health and mental health disparities, infringing on their right to well-being. To continue addressing these disparities, scholars suggest assessing the role of structural forces, such as racialization, and utilizing intersectionality frameworks (LeBrón & Viruell-Fuentes, 2020; Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). Recent studies find Latinx racial self-classification is associated with psychological distress (e.g., Mena et al., 2019). However, we know little about how the intersection of Latinx racial self-classification and gender is related to psychological distress. Interlocking systems of white supremacy and the patriarchy place white men in positions of power and privilege while positioning racially minoritized women for disadvantage and oppression (e.g., Collins, 1990; Crenshaw, 1991). Experiences of racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism can be compounded sources of psychological distress. In this study, we examined whether the intersection of race and gender is associated with differential psychological distress among U.S. Latinx adults. We hypothesized that racially minoritized Latinx women would report higher psychological distress than White Latinx men.

Methods/Methodology: We drew our analytical sample from the 2013-2018 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative dataset of U.S. adults that measured health outcomes. The sample consisted of 26,874 Latinx adults who reported their psychological distress, race, and gender, which included 16,189 White, 616 Black, 454 American Indian or Alaskan Native (AIAN), 178 Asian, 9,153 “Other race” and 284 Multiracial Latinx adults. We estimated a multinomial regression model to assess the main effects of race (White [reference], Black, AIAN, Asian, “Other race”, and Multiracial), binary gender (men [reference] and women), and their interactions on two levels of psychological distress (moderate and serious) compared to the base level (low/no psychological distress), after controlling for sociodemographic variables.

Results: Regarding moderate psychological distress, gender was a significant main effect, whereas there was no significant main effect of race and no interaction effect with gender. Regarding serious psychological distress, the main effects of race, gender, and the interaction effect were significant predictors. Specifically, we found that Multiracial female respondents had significantly higher odds of reporting serious psychological distress than low/no psychological distress compared to White male respondents (RRR=13.66; 95% CI [0.49-4.75]).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the intersectional experience of being a racially minoritized Latinx woman is associated with more serious psychological distress than being White, Latinx, and male. Scholars acknowledge that Multiracial individuals encounter racial identity invalidation and discrimination at interpersonal and institutional levels, leading to negative health outcomes (Franco et al., 2018; Rockquemore et al., 2009), which may be compounded by sexism and ethnocentrism for Multiracial Latinx women. Given the significant increase of Multiracial Latinxs during the past decade (3 million to 20 million; Lopez et al., 2021), this finding calls for further attention to understanding the mental health risks of Multiracial Latinx women. It is imperative that social work research, education and practice continue to identify and eliminate mental health disparities within intersectional Latinx groups, including but not limited to race and gender, that could help address their human right of health equity.