Race Related Stress of Latino Elders

There is a paucity of information to help guide mental health practitioners explore the ways that racism influences a client's well being (Harrell 2000). The stress caused by racism has been documented to affect the psychological well being of minorities (Harrell 2000; Clark Anderson Clark & Williams 1999). The majority of the research involving race related stress has focused almost exclusively on African Americans. Despite the growing Latino population in the United States there is substantially less research examining their perceived discriminatory experiences (Araujo & Borrell 2006). Although the elderly subgroup is a population that has been largely ignored in the research with Latinos it has been established that they are at a high risk for multiple psychological and physical ailments (Tran Fitzpatrick Berg & Wright 1996; Black Markides & Miller 1998; Canabal & Quiles 1995; Gonzalez Haan & Hinton 2001; Harris Eastman Cowie Flegal & Eberhardt 1999). This work investigated factors that impact the relationship between race related stress and quality of life of first generation immigrant Latino elders.