Intrapersonal, Cultural, and Community Assets among Puerto Rican Hurricane Maria Survivors: A Latent Profile Analysis

Abstract

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico and resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the mass migration of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. mainland. Because of these events, Puerto Rican Hurricane Maria survivors on the U.S. mainland are at risk for depressive symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to examine sources of protection against depressive symptoms in this population, with a focus on identifying protective assets and how such assets are differentially distributed across subsets of survivors. A sample of 319 Puerto Rican Hurricane Maria survivors (M _age = 38.5 years, 77% women) completed surveys of intrapersonal, cultural, and community assets, as well as a measure of depressive symptoms. Results showed that optimism and religiosity at the intrapersonal level, and collective efficacy and community safety at the community level, emerged as significant protective assets against depression. Results from a latent profile analysis revealed four classes of survivors based on their degree and type of protection: High Protection, Safe Community, Moderate Protection, and Low Protection. The High Protection class reported fewer depressive symptoms compared with the Moderate and Low Protection classes but reported similar levels of depressive symptoms as the Safe Community class. Findings suggest that intrapersonal cognitive factors, and community efficacy and safety factors may represent salient assets among hurricane survivors on the U.S. mainland. Findings also illustrate that subsets of Puerto Rican Hurricane Maria survivors vary in their degree and type of protective assets.

Keywords: Hurricane Maria; Puerto Ricans; assets; depression; protective factors.

Figure 1.

Standardized Means Intrapersonal, Cultural, and Community Assets Among Hurricane Maria Survivors, by Latent Profiles.