The diversity and rapid growth of the Latino community has only exacerbated the significant
challenges that Latino families and children face. Overall, Latinos are more likely to be exposed to
risk factors related to negative physical and mental health outcomes than any other ethnic minority
group (Gallo et al., 2009). The difficulties Latinos in the United States experience have long been
documented. In his writings about the delivery of mental health services for urban Latino families
and children, Rosado (1980, 1986) underscored the various migrational, linguistic, acculturative,
and socioeconomic stressors experienced by many urban, low-income Latino families. Although
many Latinos have settled in rural and suburban communities beyond the major urban regions of the
United States, not much has changed in terms of the nature and extent of stressors experienced by a
significant number of Latino children and families.