Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

0000-0002-4637-023X

Advisor

Dozier, Mary

Committee Member

Krafft, Jennifer

Committee Member

Porter, Bennett

Committee Member

Stafford, Ty

Date of Degree

8-12-2026

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Applied Psychology (Clinical Psychology)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Although people who identify as Hispanic and Latinx make up approximately 19% of the United States population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023), most research into hoarding disorder is comprised of White, non-Latinx samples. Thus, the current study investigated Hispanic and Latinx ethnicity as a predictor of several facets of hoarding disorder. Previous literature has shown lower risk for Hispanic and Latinx individuals in terms of several physical health outcomes when compared to individuals of similar socioeconomic status (Markides & Coreil, 1986), though mental health outcomes have more variation by subgroup (Barragán et al., 2020). Previous research has also shown that collectivistic cultural values in Hispanic and Latinx individuals may be a protective factor for mental health outcomes (Campos et al., 2014; Corona et al., 2017). The central hypotheses for this study were that identifying as Hispanic or Latinx would be predictive of lower hoarding symptoms, savings cognitions, acquisition behaviors, and object attachment, and that level of emotional support would moderate these relationships. In a sample of participants (n = 159 Hispanic and Latinx), multiple regression analyses showed that there was a significant, negative relationship between identifying as non-Hispanic and Latinx and overall hoarding symptom levels, savings cognitions, acquiring items for free, and level of object attachment. A logistic regression model predicting elevated scores (≥ 39) on the Saving Inventory-Revised (Frost et al., 2004; Kellman-MacFarlane et al., 2019) also showed that non-Hispanic and Latinx participants had lower odds of clinically significant hoarding symptoms on the SI-R when controlling for age, gender, household size, and anxiety and depression levels. Further work is needed to understand which cultural or broader social factors may increase risk of elevated hoarding symptoms in Hispanic and Latinx individuals. Future research should collect specific data on which Hispanic and Latinx subgroups participants identify with in order to clarify these findings.

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