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Culture Specific Influences on Anxiety in Latino Youth

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Abstract

Background

Accumulating evidence indicates that Latino children and adolescents are at risk for higher anxiety relative to youth of other ethnicities. However, to date, very little research has been conducted to examine culture specific mechanisms of anxiety in Latino youth.

Objective

This study explored whether strict adherence to Latino cultural values emphasizing maintenance of group harmony, familismo and simpatia, in combination with poor awareness and identification of negative emotions predicts increased anxiety among Latino youth.

Method

Familismo, simpatia, poor emotion awareness, and anxiety were measured in a mixed clinically anxious (n = 27) and non-clinical (n = 20) sample of 7–13 year-old Latino children. Anxiety was measured through self-report and mother report.

Results

Two way interactions between familismo and simpatia, and between poor emotion awareness and simpatia predicted anxiety level. Graphs of the interactions indicated that the combination of high levels of each variable was associated with the highest levels of child-reported anxiety, while high familismo in the context of low simpatia was associated with low anxiety levels per child and parent report. In contrast, low simpatia in the context of poor emotion awareness was associated with low mother-reported child anxiety.

Conclusions

Strict adherence to cultural values emphasizing family cohesion and positive interdependent social experiences in combination with poor emotion awareness are linked to anxiety in Latino youth.

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Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (50R03MH076874-01 A2) to first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Loyola University, 6363 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    R. Enrique Varela

  2. Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Laura A. Niditch

  3. Grayson and Associates PC, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Lauren Hensley-Maloney

  4. Providence Saint John’s Health Center - Child and Family Development Center, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Kathryn W. Moore

  5. Creveling-Benefield, LLC/YourPsych360, New Orleans, LA, USA

    C. Christiane Creveling

  6. Pediatric Behavioral Health, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Kathryn M. Jones

Authors
  1. R. Enrique Varela
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  2. Laura A. Niditch
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  3. Lauren Hensley-Maloney
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  4. Kathryn W. Moore
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  5. C. Christiane Creveling
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  6. Kathryn M. Jones
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Enrique Varela.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Varela, R.E., Niditch, L.A., Hensley-Maloney, L. et al. Culture Specific Influences on Anxiety in Latino Youth. Child Youth Care Forum 48, 1–17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-018-9476-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-018-9476-8

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