“Rural-Specific” Types of Childhood Trauma in Rural Communities

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors discuss eight types of trauma that Latino children are likely to encounter by residing in rural or geographically-isolated communities. The authors contend that there exist more “rural-specific” types of childhood trauma that Latino children are at-risk for when compared to “urban-specific” types of trauma. For example, Latino children who reside in rural communities are more likely to traumatized by parental deportation, migrating from one town to another because parents follow the harvest, language brokering or translating for their parents, experiencing or witnessing farming accidents, relocating from the city to the country, isolation from extended family, pesticide poisoning of the child or a family member, and living in labor camps or substandard housing. It is important to note that Latino children, like children from other cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, can experience all types of trauma irrespective of whether they reside in urban or rural settings.