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Observational Study
. 2025 Jul 15;25(1):2458.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-23105-4.

Resilience and traumatic stress among Latinx english language learners: a cross-sectional study of students from an urban school district

Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi  1   2   3 , Sara Rahmanian Koushkaki  4 , Alexandra Klomhaus  5   6 , Hilary Aralis  5   6 , Angela Venegas-Murillo  7 , Lauren Marlotte  5 , Sameera Siddiqi  4 , Kungeun Lee  4   5 , Shirley A De La Cruz  4   5 , Sheryl Kataoka  4   5
Affiliations
Observational Study

Resilience and traumatic stress among Latinx english language learners: a cross-sectional study of students from an urban school district

Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Latinx students in the United States can face stressors and structural inequities that can lead to poor academic and mental health outcomes. They comprise 76% of the English Language Learner (ELL) population, yet little is known about the relationship between ELL status and traumatic stress and resilience outcomes among these Latinx students. We sought to see if resilience differs between ELL vs. non-ELL Latinx students, and if traumatic stress risk modifies the association between ELL designation and resilience among Latinx students to inform culturally relevant school resilience interventions and school-wide approaches for this population.

Methods: We analyzed deidentified school district administrative and survey data from a convenience sample of mostly Latinx 6-12th graders from one large, urban U.S. school district. We restricted our sample to Latinx students, resulting in a sample of 4,950 students attending 91 middle and high schools. We constructed linear regression models to understand differences in internal and external resilience based on ELL status, traumatic stress risk, and their interaction.

Results: Among students with low traumatic stress risk, ELL students had worse self-efficacy but better problem solving than their non-ELL peers. When considering students with high traumatic stress risk, ELL students had better problem solving, self-awareness, perceived school support, and total internal assets, relative to non-ELL students.

Conclusions: Latinx students designated as ELL may demonstrate resilience despite adversity; these resilience assets may be further amplified among the subset of students at high risk for traumatic stress. Our findings may inform school resilience interventions and school supports for ELL Latinx students.

Keywords: English learners; Hispanic or Latino; Psychological resilience; Traumatic stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The University Institutional Review Board deemed this study exempt from IRB review. This study is an analysis of existing data. We did not have human subjects, thus did not have human subject consent. This study was approved by the district research review committee. The research conducted adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: Drs. Ijadi-Maghsoodi, Kataoka, and Aralis consult to a school district.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Resilience Among ELL and Non-ELL Latinx Students at High and Low Traumatic Stress Risk. *LS means that do not share the same letter differ significantly at the 0.05 level. Notes: Points indicate least square (LS) mean values, averaged over the levels of the controlling variables gender (male vs. female), grade (6–12), special education (eligible vs. not eligible), attendance (Proficient/Advanced vs. Basic or Below), GPA (passing vs. not passing), and birth country (US/other). Error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals of the respective LS mean. Means that do not share the same letter differ significantly at the 0.05 level. LS means that do not share the same letter differ significantly at the 0.05 level, with adjustment via the Tukey method for comparing four estimates
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