2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

Structured Discussion - Community-Based Research to Empower a Community The Latino population is among the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. This group is projected to make up one fifth of the population by 2020 (Pew Hispanic Center, 2006). Alongside their growing numbers, they have face problems such as discrimination, microaggression, and stigmatization. Furthermore, there is a significant disparity in mental health services used between Latinos and Caucasians (Keyes, Martins, Hatzenbuehler, Blanco, Bates, & Hasin, 2012). This is a concern given that more than half of Latina women experience interpersonal violence within their lifespan (Cuevas, Sabina, & Bell, 2012). In addition, it is common for Latina women to wait for mental health symptoms to worsen before seeking help, leading to negative outcomes (Keyes, Martins, Hatzenbuehler, Blanco, Bates, & Hasin, 2012). In our community research project, we engaged Latina women in focus groups and interviewed them in order to understand community needs and empowerment process. This structured discussion will focus on using community based research to empower Latina women in our community. We will talk about the impact of research as well as our responsibility as researchers to help strengthen our communities. This is important because it has been shown that research can either be beneficial or damaging to a community (Ojeda, Flores, Rosales, and Morales, 2012, p. 185). We will discuss struggles one may encounter in conducting community-based research and how to overcome these issues. We will further discuss the importance of community based research and how we can promote it in our community. We believe knowledge obtained from this study can be an important tool to help establish effective methods for reducing negative outcomes that Latina women often experience.