LATINA MOTHERS' PERSPECTIVES ON ADVERSE EXPERIENCES AND PROTECTION OF LATINX YOUTH IN AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

Purpose: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are a measure of childhood toxic stress with a dose-dependent relationship with many health outcomes in adulthood. While ACEs measure broad categories of neglect, abuse, and family dysfunction that have been validated across diverse populations, they do not capture the trauma that some adolescents experience as a result of race, ethnicity, immigration, and family history. Young Latinx are one of the fastest growing populations in the country. 54% of all Latinx youth in the United States are immigrants or children of immigrants, exposing them to distinctive personal and intergenerational trauma which are not captured by traditional ACEs. This study looks beyond ACEs to identify adverse and protective factors among Latinx youth in a rural agricultural community through the unique perspective of their mothers. Methods: Twenty mothers of early adolescent participants in A Crecer: the Salinas Teen Health Study (a prospective cohort study of 599 adolescents) completed semi-structured interviews conducted in their preferred language. Interviews focused on mothers' perspective on community resources and strengths, parenting strategies, their children's positive attributes, future aspirations for their children, and parenting support systems. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and four research team members completed iterative rounds of thematic coding drawing from Garcia-Coll's integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Results: Mothers in this study reported distinct layers of trauma experienced by themselves and their children including their own histories of trauma in childhood and adulthood, trauma experienced by their children, and trauma both mothers and children experience from structural factors unique to their social, political and cultural contexts. When identifying these layers of trauma, many did not fit within traditionally defined ACEs. These events included examples of systemic oppression related to migration and immigration resulting in family separation, loss of supports, and poverty. Mothers shared the impact of their own traumatic experiences on their acquisition of internal resources to trust and receive support in their community. Having experienced inter-generational trauma and systemic oppression, mothers discussed their strategies for interrupting cycles of violence, improving socioeconomic opportunities for their family, and accessing education. Langua