Perceived racial discrimination, anxiety sensitivity, and mental health among Latinos in a federally qualified health center.

Abstract

This investigation examined the explanatory role of anxiety sensitivity in the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and anxiety–depressive symptoms and disorders among Latinos seeking health services at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Participants included 202 Spanish-speaking Latino adults (86.1% female; Mage = 38.99 years, SD = 12.43) who completed a structured interview and study measures. Results indicated perceived racial discrimination was indirectly related to depression, social anxiety, anxious arousal, and mood and anxiety disorders through anxiety sensitivity. Indirect effects were of medium-large size for all criterion variables. Observed effects were evident above and beyond variance accounted for by age, gender, marital status, and years in the United States. Comparative models revealed significant bidirectional effects from anxiety sensitivity via perceived racial discrimination in relation to anxiety–depressive symptoms and disorders. The current results suggest anxiety sensitivity may be an individual difference factor that serves as a mechanism between perceived racial discrimination and mental health among Latino adults, but these 2 constructs may also maintain bidirectional relations with 1 another.

COVID-19 and Anxiety Sensitivity Across Two Studies in Argentina: Associations with COVID-19 Worry, Symptom Severity, Anxiety, and Functional Impairment

“…It would therefore be important to replicate the findings in another sample, controlling for trait level of negative affect, to elucidate the unique effects of AS over and above general negative affect. That said, it is important to note here that past work has recurrently demonstrated AS maintains incremental predictive power relative to trait level negative affect across decades of research (Eifert et al 1999;Schmidt et al 2006;Zvolensky et al 2005Zvolensky et al , 2019.…”

Ethnic discrimination, sexism, and depression among Latinx women: The roles of anxiety sensitivity and expressive suppression.

“…Longitudinal studies have shown that anxiety sensitivity is a significant mediator of the relationship between life stressors and negative affect (McLaughlin & Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Zavos et al, 2012). Furthermore, anxiety sensitivity has been found to function as a mediator between several cultural stressors, including acculturative stress (Bakhshaie et al, 2018; Jardín et al, 2018), ethnic discrimination (Zvolensky et al, 2019), and subjective social status (Zvolensky et al, 2015) and depression among Latinx samples. Again, limited studies have tested whether these findings hold among Latinx women while including their experiences of sexism.…”

“…Traditionally, these models have been critical in identifying the potential constructs and vulnerabilities underlying the relationship between cultural stressors and psychological health (Chun, Moos, & Cronkite, 2006; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). As such, empirical work has highlighted the role of anxiety sensitivity , or one’s heightened awareness and negative interpretation of autonomic arousal (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally, 1986), and expressive suppression , or inhibiting expression of emotion (Gross, 1998), as key mechanisms that contribute to negative mental health outcomes (Zvolensky et al, 2019). Still, the relative function of stress responses in changing psychological health is dependent on cultural context and environment (Driscoll & Torres, 2013).…”

Interpretation biases and depressive symptoms among anxiety‐disordered children: The role of individual differences in respiratory sinus arrhythmia

“…All MINI‐KID interviews were videotaped and all diagnoses made were reviewed during supervision sessions with assessors. Fifteen percent of videotaped interviews were reviewed for interrater reliability; as in past work using fully structured interview formats (Duncan et al., 2018; Zvolensky et al., 2019), no instances of diagnostic disagreement were found.…”