Acculturative stress and mental health among economically disadvantaged Spanish-speaking Latinos in primary care: The role of anxiety sensitivity

Abstract

The present study examined the role of anxiety sensitivity in the relation between acculturative stress and mood and anxiety symptoms and disorders among Latinos seeking health services at a primary healthcare facility. Participants included 142 adult Latinos (86.6% female, M_age = 39.05 years, SD = 12.46%, and 96.3% reported Spanish as their first language). Results indicated that acculturative stress was indirectly related to the number of mood and anxiety disorders, anxious arousal, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms through anxiety sensitivity. The observed effects were evident above and beyond the variance accounted for by gender, age, marital status, educational status, employment status, years living in the United States, and negative affectivity. Overall, the present findings suggest that there is merit in focusing further scientific attention on the interplay between acculturative stress and anxiety sensitivity to better understand and inform interventions to reduce anxiety/depressive vulnerability among Latinos in primary care.

Keywords: Acculturation; Anxious arousal; Depression; Hispanics; Social anxiety.

Fig. 1.

Proposed model: Anxiety Sensitivity as the Proposed Mediator of the Relationship between Acculturative Stress and Mood and Anxiety Symptoms and Disorders. Note: a = Effect of X on M; b = Effect of M on Y_i; c = Total effect of X on Y_i; c’ = Direct effect of X on Y_i controlling for M; a*b = Indirect effect of M.