Title 2 - Understanding and applying to MCH supports

Many young males suffer indirect verbal and emotional abuse from the women or men in their family nucleus. Some roles that males are expected to develop and accept, in order to fit into society are "not being a woman, not being homosexual, and not being perceived as weak." (Public Plaza, 2020). Often within the Latino culture, from a young age, young men are taught there are certain predetermined roles or expectations designated specifically for males and when you fail to conform to these roles, it makes you “less of a man.” There is limited research on the traditional Hispanic male and female gender roles of machismo and marianismo, respectively, in relation to negative cognitions and emotions. (J Lat Psychol, 2016). Latino youth may suffer disproportionately from mental health issues compared to their other peers because of these cultural expectations, but there is a lack of research on strategies to diagnose and treat mental health problems in this population ( Health America, 2017). I suffered from depression due to the emotional and verbal abuse I endured in my youth, which eventually led me to use marijuana as a coping mechanism/ form of treatment to improve my mental health, but I later found other more healthy ways to cope. This workshop will serve as a place for dialogue, on the topic of Latino youth and share the processes that enable young people to work through this societal challenges, including sharing my own experience.  We no longer let outdated and sexist cultural beliefs dictate our life, we can finally be free to be our true selves as young adult men.