Abstract
This cross-sectional study examined the relations among children’s ethnic pride, perceived parenting behavior (i.e., parental control, parental acceptance), anxiety sensitivity, and child anxiety symptoms (i.e., physical symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, separation anxiety symptoms, and harm avoidance symptoms) in 266 African American school children (M = 9.98 years old; 55% girls). Structural equation modeling results indicated that high ethnic pride was associated with high parental acceptance. High perceived parental acceptance, in turn, was related to children reporting low levels of social anxiety symptoms and high levels of harm avoidance. In addition, high parental control was related to high anxiety sensitivity. Anxiety sensitivity partially mediated the relation between parental control and separation anxiety symptoms, such that parental control was both directly and indirectly related to separation anxiety symptoms. Parental control was indirectly related to physical symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and harm avoidance symptoms through its direct link to anxiety sensitivity. The study’s results increment knowledge about factors influencing specific dimensions of anxiety in African American children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angold, A., Erkanli, A., Farmer, E. M. Z., Fairbank, J. A., Burns, B., Keeler, G., et al. (2002). Psychiatic disorder, impairment, service use in rural African American and White youth. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 893–901.
Arbuckle, J. L. (2006). Amos (Version 7.0) [Computer program]. Chicago: SPSS.
Barber, B. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319.
Byrne, B. A. (2001). Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Caughy, M. O., O’Campo, P. J., Randolph, S. M., & Nickerson, K. (2002). The influence of racial socialization practices on the cognitive and behavioral competence of African American preschoolers. Child Development, 73, 1611–1625.
Chorpita, B. F., & Barlow, D. H. (1998). The development of anxiety: The role of control in the early environment. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 3–21.
Chorpita, B. F., Brown, T. A., & Barlow, D. H. (1998). Perceived control as a mediator of family environment in etiological models of childhood anxiety. Behavior Therapy, 29, 457–476.
Compton, S. N., Nelson, A. H., & March, J. S. (2000). Social phobia and separation anxiety symptoms in community and clinical samples of children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 1040–1046.
Craske, M. G. (1999). Anxiety disorders: Psychological approaches to theory and treatment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Finkelstein, J. S., Donenberg, G. R., & Martinovich, Z. (2001). Maternal control and adolescent depression: Ethnic differences among clinically referred girls. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30, 155–171.
Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Ragsdale, B. L., Mandara, J., Richards, M. H., & Petersen, A. C. (2007). Perceived support and internalizing symptoms in African American adolescents: Self-esteem and ethnic identity as mediators. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 77–88.
Ginsburg, G. S., & Drake, K. L. (2002). Anxiety sensitivity and panic attack symptomology among low-income African American adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16, 83–96.
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1997). Meta-emotion: How families communicate emotionally. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Greenfield, P. M., Keller, H., Fuligni, A., & Maynard, A. (2003). Cultural pathways through universal development. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 461–490.
Heurtin-Roberts, S., Snowden, L., & Miller, L. (1997). Expressions of anxiety in African Americans: Ethnography and the epidemiological catchment area studies. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 21, 337–363.
Jaccard, J., & Jacoby, J. (2009). Theory construction and model-building skills: A practical guide for social scientists. New York: Guilford Press.
King, G., Honaker, J., Joseph, A., & Scheve, K. (2001). Analyzing incomplete political science data: An alternative algorithm for multiple imputations. American Political Science Review, 95, 49–69.
Lambert, S. F., Cooley, M. R., Campbell, K. D. M., Benoit, M. Z., & Stansbury, R. (2004). Assessing anxiety sensitivity in inner-city African American children: Psychometric properties of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 248–259.
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.
March, J. S., Parker, J. D., Sullivan, K., Stallings, P., & Conners, C. K. (1997). The Mulitdimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC): Factor structure, reliability, and validity. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 554–565.
Marsiglia, F. F., Kulis, S., & Hecht, M. L. (2001). Ethnic labels and ethnic identity as predictors of drug use among middle school students in the southwest. Journal of Adolescent Research, 11, 21–48.
Mason, C. A., Walker-Barnes, C. J., Shihfen, T., Simons, J., & Martinez-Arrue, R. (2004). Ethnic differences in the affective meaning of parental control behavior. Journal of Primary Prevention, 25, 59–79.
McCreary, M. L., Slavin, L. A., & Berry, E. J. (1996). Predicting problem behavior and self-esteem among African American adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 11, 216–234.
McHale, S. M., Crouter, A. C., Kim, J., Burton, L. M., Davis, K. D., Dotterer, A. M., et al. (2006). Mothers’ and fathers’ racial socialization in African American families: Implications for youth. Child Development, 77, 1387–1402.
Neal, A. M., & Turner, S. M. (1991). Anxiety disorders research with African Americans: Current status. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 400–410.
Neal, A. M., & Ward-Brown, B. (1994). Fears and anxiety disorders in African American children. In S. Friedman (Ed.), Anxiety disorders in African Americans (pp. 65–75). New York: Springer.
Olatunji, B. O., & Wolitzky-Taylor, K. B. (2009). Anxiety sensitivity and the anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 974–999.
Phinney, J. S. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176.
Rapee, R. M. (1997). Potential role of childrearing practices in the development of anxiety and depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 17, 47–67.
Reese, L. E., Vera, E. M., & Paikoff, R. L. (1998). Ethnic identity assessment among inner-city African American children: Evaluating the applicability of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 289–304.
Reiss, S. (1991). Expectancy model of fear, anxiety, and panic. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 141–153.
Scher, C. D., & Stein, M. B. (2003). Developmental antecedents of anxiety sensitivity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17, 253–269.
Schludermann, E. H., & Schludermann, S. M. (1988). Children’s Report on Parent Behavior (CRPBI-108, CRPBI-30) for older children and adolescents (Technical Report) Winnipeg, MB, Canada: University of Manitoba, Department of Psychology.
Silverman, W. K., & Eisen, A. R. (1992). Age differences in the reliability of parent and child reports of child anxious symptomatology using a structured interview. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 117–124.
Silverman, W. K., & Weems, C. F. (1998). Anxiety sensitivity in children. In S. Taylor (Ed.), Anxiety sensitivity: Theory, research and the treatment of the fear of anxiety (pp. 239–268). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Silverman, W. K., Fleisig, W., Rabian, B., & Peterson, R. A. (1991). Childhood anxiety sensitivity index. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20, 162–168.
Udry, J. R. (1998). The national longitudinal study of adolescent health (add health), waves I and II, 1994–1996. Chapel Hill, NC: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Valk, A., & Karu, K. (2001). Ethnic attitudes in relation to ethnic pride and ethnic differentiation. Journal of Social Psychology, 141, 583–601.
Volpe, R. J., Gadow, K. D., Blom-Hoffman, J., & Feinberg, A. B. (2009). Factor-analytic and individualized approaches to constructing brief measures of ADHD behavior. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 17, 118–128.
Watt, M. C., Stewart, S. H., & Cox, B. J. (1998). A retrospective study of the learning history origins of anxiety sensitivity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 505–525.
Wills, T. A., Murry, V. M., Brody, G. H., Gibbons, F. X., Gerrard, M., Walker, C., et al. (2007). Ethnic pride and self-control related to protective and risk factors: Test and the theoretical model for the strong African American Families Program. Health Psychology, 26, 50–59.
Wood, J. J., McLeod, B. D., Sigman, M., Hwang, W., & Chu, B. C. (2003). Parenting and childhood anxiety: Theory, empirical findings, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 134–151.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gray, C.M.K., Carter, R. & Silverman, W.K. Anxiety Symptoms in African American Children: Relations with Ethnic Pride, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Parenting. J Child Fam Stud 20, 205–213 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-010-9422-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-010-9422-3