Theories of anxiety development suggest that parental acceptance, control, and modeling of anxious behaviors are associated with children's manifestations of anxiety. This paper reviews research published in the past decade on the relation between parenting and childhood anxiety. Observed parental control during parent-child interactions was consistently linked with shyness and child anxiety disorders across studies. Mixed support for the role of parental acceptance and modeling of anxious behaviors was found in observational studies. However, there was little evidence supporting the contention that self-reported parenting style was related to children's trait anxiety. Because of limitations associated with past research, inferences about the direction of effects linking parenting and child anxiety cannot be made. A conceptual framework based on recent models of anxiety development (e.g., Vasey & Dadds, 2001) is presented to aid in the interpretation of extant research findings and to provide suggestions for future research and theory development. Improved methodological designs are proposed, including the use of repeated-measure and experimental designs for examining the direction of effects.

Although effective treatments for many mental disorders have been developed, little research has been conducted to determine whether these interventions are effective in treating those from diverse backgrounds. Recent reports have suggested that ethnic minorities are less likely to receive quality health services and that they evidence worse treatment outcomes when compared with other groups. To improve care for those from diverse backgrounds, Western-developed psychotherapies may need to be culturally modified or adapted to become more effective in treating ethnic minorities. This article addresses the need for adapting psychotherapy and provides a conceptual framework for making such modifications. The psychotherapy adaptation and modification framework model is applied to recent Asian American immigrants as an illustrative example. However, it may also serve as a point of departure to adapt therapies for other ethnocultural groups.

The authors examined the impact of perceived racial discrimination on various mental health outcomes for Asian American and Latino college students within an emic and etic framework. Results indicate that Asian American and Latino college students experienced similar exposure and reactions to various kinds of discrimination. However, Latino students were more likely than Asian American students to have been accused of doing something wrong, such as cheating and breaking the law, and more likely to appraise these experiences as stressful. Asian Americans evidenced higher risk for trait anxiety. Regardless of ethnicity, perceived racial discrimination was associated with several negative mental health outcomes, including higher psychological distress, suicidal ideation, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression. Findings highlight the need to address discrimination across multiple social and professional settings and to understand the broad array of mental health outcomes.

Despite the rapidly growing immigrant population settling in the United States, our knowledge of acculturative processes and their impact on immigrant families remains quite limited. This article describes a theoretical construct called Acculturative Family Distancing (AFD), the distancing that occurs between immigrant parents and children that is a result of immigration, cultural differences, and differing rates of acculturation. AFD occurs along two dimensions: communication and cultural values. Breakdowns in communication and incongruent cultural values between immigrant parents and children are hypothesized to increase over time and place families at risk for mental illness and family dysfunction. Clinical illustrations of AFD's impact on immigrant Asian families are provided and recommendations for dealing with AFD are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examines the impact of level of acculturation and acculturative stress on the mental health of Asian American college students. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to clarify the relation between level of acculturation, acculturative stress, and mental health outcomes (psychological distress and clinical depression). Being less identified with mainstream United States culture was associated with higher psychological distress and clinical depression, but lost significance when acculturative stress was introduced into the model. Retention or relinquishing of identification with one's heritage culture was not associated with mental health outcomes. Although understanding level of acculturation can help us identify those at risk, findings suggest that acculturative stress is a more proximal risk factor and increases risk for mental health problems independently of global perceptions of stress.