“I Just Kept It to Myself”: The Shaping of Latina Suicidality Through Gendered Oppression, Silence, and Violence

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12384
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Lauren Gulbas,Hannah S. Szlyk,Luis Zayas

“I Just Kept It to Myself”: The Shaping of Latina

Suicidality Through Gendered Oppression, Silence,

and Violence

HANNAH S. SZLYK*

LAUREN GULBAS

†

LUIS ZAYAS

†

Suicide is a critical issue among Latina youth. In this study, we use family case analysis

to explore how gendered oppression, silencing, and violence shape suicidal behaviors

among a sample of Latina daughters (n=10), and their parents. For comparison, we

include family narratives from Latina adolescents with no histories of suicide attempts

(n=10). Results suggest how secrets and silence, as indicative of gendered oppression,

may catalyze a suicide attempt. The risks are particularly salient when daughter and

mother both have experienced violence that conflicts with gendered cultural scripts. Find-

ings highlight the importance of parental engagement and exploration of histories of vio-

lence in the treatment of Latina suicide attempters. Future research should incorpora te the

risk factors of gendered oppression and violence to better understand the development of

suicidality among Latina women.

Keywords: Latina Adolescents; Suicida lity; Sexual Violence; Silence

Fam Proc 58:778–790, 2019

INTRODUCTION

Latina youth have higher rates of suicide attempts than their White and African Ameri-

can female peers (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016; Romero,

Edwards, Bauman, & Ritter, 2013). They are also more likely to attempt suicide than

Latino youth (Kann et al., 2016) . Literature documents the elevated attempt rates among

Latinas living in the United States back to the mid-twentieth century (Trautm an, 1961a,

1961b) and the higher prevalence of suicide attempts is reported across Latino subgroups

(Baca-Garcia et al., 2011). As Latinas are projected to form ne arly one third of the U.S.’s

female population by 2060 (Colby & Ortman, 2015), there is a need to understand the roots

of this significant mental health disparity.

The higher rates of suicide attempts among Latina youth warrant the use of intersec-

tional frameworks in understanding the constructs that put these young women at risk. A

feminist intersectional lens suggests that societal forces of oppression are interconnected

and multilevel (Pitre & Kushner, 2015). Intersectional approaches can yield new under-

standings of how violence impacts Latina adolescents. For example, numerous studies

*The Brown School, Washington University at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.

†

Steve Hicks School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hannah S. Szlyk, The Brown School,

Washington University at St. Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, E-mail: hannah.

szlyk@wustl.edu.

Support for this article was provided by grant R01 MH070689 from the National Institute of Mental

Health to Luis H. Zayas.

778

Family Process, Vol. 58, No. 3, 2019 ©2018 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12384