Psychological Science Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-5-2026
Abstract
The last 10 years of scientific research analyzing asylum-seekers’ mental health has established high rates of trauma exposure throughout the migratory trajectory. However, limited studies have identified gender-based violence among Central American asylum-seeking women. The purpose of this study was to identify the frequencies of gendered-base violence among asylum-seeking women from Central and South America at a humanitarian respite center (USA) and a tent encampment (Mexico) on both sides of the United States–Mexico Border using data from three independent studies in 2016, 2019, and 2023, respectively. Visual trend analysis identified a peak in domestic violence in 2019, a stable frequency of sexual assault across the three studies, and a downward trend in Study 3 compared to Study 1 for all types of gender-based violence except for domestic violence. Age stratification revealed diverse patterns in trauma rates. Trends in domestic violence differed between the 18–25 (56%) and 26+ years age groups (70%), in one study, substantially higher than the prevalence of the 29% rate among US female community samples. The data highlights the need for immigration reform addressing women’s human rights and provides insights for mental health service providers to promote trauma-informed care for this vulnerable immigrant group.
Recommended Citation
Mercado, A., Torres, A., Banda, F., Venta, A., Garcini, L., Vázquez, A. L., … Moreno, O. (2026). Trends in trauma: Increasing rates of sexual and domestic violence among female Latin American asylum seekers. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 13, e103. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2026.10212
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health
DOI
10.1017/gmh.2026.10212
Comments
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.