Posttraumatic Growth in Latino Men: The Influence of Familismo, Personalismo, and Spirituality

This study examined whether the sociocultural variables of familismo, personalismo, and spirituality were positively and significantly associated with Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) in a sample of 42 Spanish-speaking and 38 English-speaking self-identified Latino men between the ages 25 and 50 ( M=35.3 years, SD=7.94). Participants were recruited in the San Francisco area and measured on demographics factors, trauma severity, posttraumatic growth (PTG), and variables of familismo (i.e., importance of immediate and extended family), personalismo (i.e., worth of close and personal relationships), and spirituality. Correlational analyses revealed that spiritualism and familismo, but not personalismo, were positively related to PTG. Contrary to expectations, taken together, spiritualism, familismo and personalismo did not significantly add to the prediction of PTG, over and above the effects of education. The contribution of spiritualism, familismo, and personalismo was, however, approaching statistical significance. Exploratory multiple regression analyses revealed that spiritualism and familismo significantly added to the prediction of PTG when personalismo was excluded from the regression model. Findings point to the potential usefulness of clinical interventions with Latino men exposed to trauma that include Latino cultural belief systems such as spirituality and family factors.