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Maya S. Iturra, Ph.D., is a 2022 graduate of the PhD Program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee:

  • Markie Twist, PhD, Committee Chair
  • Michelle Finley, PhD, Committee Member
  • Bryson Greaves, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

Hispanic populations, couple and family therapy, marriage and family therapy, content analysis, mixed-method

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

There is ambiguity on what kind of coverage of Hispanic populations in counseling journals is often used by couple/marriage and family therapists (C/MFTs) and researchers. The aims of this study are to identify how these journals consider Hispanic populations and what advice is provided when working with Hispanic populations. An explanatory sequential mixed method content analysis study was conducted. The first quantitative stage used descriptive statistics to analyze 17 journals’ articles between 2011-2020 regarding the type of research designs used, the frequency of articles that fit the inclusion criteria for the study, and the use of psychosocial terms (i.e., acculturation, discrimination, immigration, mental health, substance use, and family cohesion) in the articles’ components (i.e., title, abstract, and keywords). Statistics were used to determine the relationship strength between the psychosocial terms and journals and articles’ components. A random sample from the quantitative data was used to select articles for the quota sampling for qualitative thematic analysis, followed by mixed-method integration and interpretation. This study's analysis of the included articles demonstrated that the most frequently used research design is quantitative. Almost five percent of all the articles published in 17 journals over ten years mentioned Hispanic or relative terms in the articles' components. The articles' components, on average, did not mention the psychosocial terms though the terms either had a moderate or strong relationship. The qualitative thematic analysis supported the majority of the psychosocial terms. Two psychosocial terms, substance use and family cohesion, had divergent findings. The qualitative thematic analysis and mixed-method results indicated the need for C/MFTs and researchers to increase knowledge of Hispanic cultural values and oppression and create more research on Hispanic populations. The results indicate a small number of articles on Hispanic populations published in journals that C/MFTs often use as a resource. The existing ones report on the importance of understanding Hispanic populations' cultural values and the multiple stressors they experience, increasing knowledge on oppression, and producing more research on Hispanic populations.

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Maya S. Iturra

ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0003-2537-3180

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