Date of Award

6-12-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Grayson Holmbeck

Second Advisor

Catherine DeCarlo Santiago; Stephanie Torres

Abstract

National statistics demonstrate that vast majority of Latine youth living in low-income neighborhoods in the United States experience on-going trauma exposure throughout their life. However, most trauma-focused therapies were designed without considering the impact that experiencing new trauma exposure during treatment may have on treatment effectiveness, limiting our understanding of the potential attenuation caused by new traumatic experiences. In addition, most youth research has focused on the impact of child trauma exposure, with little attention given to the impact of parental trauma exposure on child treatment outcomes despite the salient role that parents play in child development. In particular, little is known about the impact of parental trauma exposure on parental warmth. Using a sample of predominantly Latine immigrant-origin students from a low-income background, this study investigated the respective effects of parent and child trauma exposure, before and during treatment, on child depression, PTSD, and anxiety symptoms pre- and post-intervention. The study also investigated the link between parental trauma exposure and parental warmth. Study findings demonstrated that high parent lifetime trauma exposure attenuated child-report depression treatment effects, such that only children with parents with low lifetime trauma exposure experienced significant improvements in depression severity. There was also a main effect of parent-report child lifetime trauma exposure on parent-report child PTSD, such that children in the “high trauma” group were reported to have higher PTSD severity compared to children in the “low trauma” group. There was no impact of new trauma exposure during treatment found in this study. In addition, parent trauma exposure was not found to be significantly associated with parental warmth. These findings highlight the value of integrating an assessment of parental trauma history in child trauma treatment research as it may diminish the effectiveness of such treatments and the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying the impact of trauma exposure on child mental health outcomes among Latine youth living in a low-income, high-trauma context.

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