Anxiety disorders in African-American and white children

Abstract

There are little available data on African-American children with anxiety disorders.

Anxiety and control in African American families.

“…Further, a study conducted by Nalven (1970) examining differences in anxiety disorders among African American and Caucasian children found that African Americans from low socioeconomic areas reported more animal fears than their Caucasian counterparts. Although these differences were observed between African American and Caucasian children, Last and Perrin (1993) observed that African American and Caucasian children were more similar than different in anxiety symptomatology and that they were also found to be more similar than different on a measure of anxiety sensitivity (Ginsburg & Drake, 2002). Given that African American manifestations of anxiety seem to be heavily influenced by culture, parental contributions to child anxiety manifestation need to be considered.…”

“…In general, children of anxious parents are seven times more likely than children of nonanxious parents to develop an anxiety disorder (Turner, Beidel, & Costello, 1987), however there is a dearth in the literature in regards to anxiety disorders in African American children (Last & Perrin, 1993;Neal & Brown, 1994;Neal & Turner, 1991). Overall, studies addressing anxiety in African American children have yielded mixed results.…”

“…There is a dearth in the literature in regards to anxiety disorders in African American adults (Heurtin-Roberts, Snowden, & Miller, 1997;Horwath, Johnson, & Hornig, 1994;Lewis-Hall, 1994;Neal & Turner, 1991;Smith, Friedman, & Nevid, 1999) and even fewer studies addressing these phenomena in African American children (Friedman, Paradis, & Hatch, 1994;Ginsburg & Drake, 2002;Last & Perrin, 1993;Neal & Brown, 1994;Neal & Turner, 1991). Further, this creates a major problem with regard to research in this area since conclusions regarding African American samples are relatively ambiguous.…”

“…Further, this creates a major problem with regard to research in this area since conclusions regarding African American samples are relatively ambiguous. Many studies have reported that African Americans are more likely to develop certain anxiety disorders than their Caucasian counterparts and the prevalence of certain anxiety disorders may be higher in African Americans (Heurtin-Roberts, Snowden, & Miller, 1997;LaPouse & Monk, 1959;Last & Perrin, 1993;Nalven, 1970;Neal & Turner, 1991;Smith, Friedman, & Nevid, 1999). Along these lines, studies have shown that African Americans have been found to be three times more likely than Caucasians to report specific phobia (Heurtin-Roberts, Snowden, & Miller, 1997;Neal & Turner, 1991) and are more likely to endorse agoraphobia than their Caucasian counterparts (Neal & Tuner, 1991).…”

“…Some studies of African American children suggest that African American children may display less school refusal than Caucasian children (Last & Perrin, 1993), but more specific phobia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Last & Perrin, 1993;Neal & Brown, 1994;Neal & Turner, 1991). Other studies report that African American children display lower rates of social phobia (Compton, Nelson, & March, 2000;Last & Perrin, 1993), but higher rates of separation anxiety disorder than their Caucasian counterparts (Compton, Nelson, & March, 2000). Further, a study conducted by Nalven (1970) examining differences in anxiety disorders among African American and Caucasian children found that African Americans from low socioeconomic areas reported more animal fears than their Caucasian counterparts.…”