Parenting strategies and socio-cultural influences in childhood anxiety: Mexican, Latin American descent, and European American families
Section snippets
Current study
To date, the majority of research that examines influence of parenting on anxiety development has compared children with anxiety disorders and children with no psychopathology (Wood et al., 2003). Although this research has advanced our understanding of anxiety development in extreme forms (e.g., clinically diagnosed), determining if established links between parenting and child anxiety exist in normative samples is an important first step in establishing whether such influences could lead to
Hypotheses
Due to the cultural similarities between LAs and Ms, and based on the literature, we expected these two groups would be similar in parenting strategies, and cultural schemas. Based on the literature, Mexican and LA parents were expected to be more controlling than the EA parents, but the three groups were not expected to differ in warmth and acceptance. Regarding cultural influences on anxiety, we examined whether simpatia, collectivism, a strong family orientation, and low family communication
Participants
Two-hundred seventeen 7–16-year-old children (age M = 11.27, SD = 5.52) and at least one of their caregivers participated in the study. Ninety-nine youth were Mexican (M: 88 mothers, 24 fathers), 72 were Latin American (LA) living in the U.S. (57 Central American descent, 11 Mexican American, 4 a mixture of both: 64 mothers, 34 fathers), and 46 were European American (EA: 44 mothers, 29 fathers). The groups did not differ in gender composition, χ2 (2) = 5.82, p = ns. The M children were younger than
Group comparisons of anxiety, cultural schemas, and parenting practices
After controlling for children's age and SES, between-group differences were found for several variables (Table 1) including child-reported Total anxiety scores, F (2, 208) = 5.65, p < .01, η2 = .05, and mother-reported Total anxiety scores, F (2, 186) = 5.18, p < .01, η2 = .05. Pair-wise comparisons indicated that M and LA children reported more total anxiety symptoms than the EA children and the same pattern was found for mother report of children's anxiety.
In terms of cultural schemas, between-group
Discussion
An abundance of research suggests cultural phenomena as the agency of variability in the experience and expression of emotions including anxiety. Latin American children, in particular, have been shown to be at risk for anxiety problems, yet very little is known about how cultural characteristics or context-related variables may influence anxiety development in this population. In the present study, we examined whether Latino cultural schemas, parenting, and engagement in the assimilation
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by grant Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund Research Competitiveness Subprogram LEQSF [2003-05]-RD-A-27 awarded to R. Enrique Varela. Additional support was provided by grants awarded to R. Enrique Varela from the Newcomb Foundation, Tulane University, and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University. We are grateful to all the families who participated in this study and to all the principals and teachers who assisted in the recruitment process.
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