Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jun 27.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02532-4. Online ahead of print.

Ethnic Discrimination and Heart-Focused Anxiety Among Hispanic Young Adults: Effects on Anxious Arousal, Depression, and Fatigue

Pamella Nizio  1   2 , Nubia A Mayorga  3 , Andres G Viana  4 , Jaye L Derrick  1 , Michael J Zvolensky  5   6   7
Affiliations

Ethnic Discrimination and Heart-Focused Anxiety Among Hispanic Young Adults: Effects on Anxious Arousal, Depression, and Fatigue

Pamella Nizio et al. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. .

Abstract

Hispanic young adults in the United States experience disproportionate mental and physical health disparities, including elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Perceived ethnic discrimination has been identified as a key contributor to these disparities, exacerbating stress-related symptoms and worsening overall well-being. Heart-focused anxiety, or the fear of potential negative consequences of cardiac-related symptoms, may be an additional cognitive-affective amplifier for mental and physical health symptoms. However, the independent and interactive effects of perceived ethnic discrimination and heart-focused anxiety on mental health among Hispanic young adults remain unclear. The current study sought to examine the main and interactive effects of perceived ethnic discrimination and heart-focused anxiety on symptoms of general depression, anxious arousal, and fatigue severity among a sample of Hispanic young adults. Participants included 193 (83.4% female; mean age = 22.81 years, SD = 5.81) Hispanic college students from a single university who completed an online survey for extra credit in any of their psychology courses. Block sequential regression models were utilized to analyze the data. Results indicated that both perceived ethnic discrimination and heart-focused anxiety were statistically significantly associated with greater symptoms of general depression (p < 0.001), anxious arousal (p < 0.001), and fatigue severity (p < 0.001). Additionally, there was a statistically significant interaction effect for anxious arousal, such that perceived ethnic discrimination was associated with greater anxious arousal among individuals with higher levels of heart-focused anxiety (p = 0.018), but not among those with lower levels. The current findings highlight the distinct and interrelated roles of perceived ethnic discrimination and heart-focused anxiety in terms of common and often impairing mental and physical symptoms among Hispanic young adults. Clinically, such could guide the development of future research and of specialized intervention strategies for Hispanic young adults.

Keywords: Anxiety; Comorbidity; Depression; Fatigue; Heart-focused anxiety; Hispanic; Perceived ethnic discrimination; Young adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics Approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Houston. Consent to Participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Ortman JM, Guarneri CE. United States population projections: 2000 to 2050. United States Census Bureau. 2009;1(15):1–19.
    1. Lopez MH, Krogstad JM, Flores A. Key facts about young Latinos, one of the nation’s fastest-growing populations. Pew Research Center. 2018.
    1. Gonzalez-Guarda RM, Felsman IC, Solorzano RM. Promoting health equity in the latinx community, locally and globally the Duke University school of nursing model. Nurs Clin North Am. 2022;57(3):393. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Isasi CR, Rastogi D, Molina K. Health issues in Hispanic/Latino youth. J Lat Psychol. 2016;4(2):67–82. - PubMed - PMC
    1. Cummings JR, Druss BG. Racial/ethnic differences in mental health service use among adolescents with major depression. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011;50(2):160–70. - PubMed - DOI