Caregiver experienced racism, acculturative stress, and political hostility predict anxiety in Latinx families residing in the United States.

Abstract

Objective Cultural stress potently predicts mental health inequities, such as anxiety, among adult and adolescent immigrants in the United States. However, less work has focused on preadolescence, a period marked by neurodevelopmental and psychosocial changes that can exacerbate anxiety symptoms. Latina girls, who exhibit heightened levels of untreated anxiety, may be at elevated risk. The present study tests whether cultural stress predicts anxiety symptoms in Latina girls and their caregivers. Method The primary caregivers of 161 predominantly Mexican-identifying Latina girls ( M age = 10.70, SD = 1.68) reported their exposure to racism, acculturative stress, and political hostility. They also reported their own and their daughter's anxiety severity. Results To index cultural stress, a principal component was extracted from composite scores of the racism, acculturative stress, and political hostility questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analyses then tested whether the multidetermined cultural stress component predicted caregiver and child anxiety, with child age, annual household income, and subjective socioeconomic status entered at the first step. Cultural stress positively predicted caregiver (Δ R ² = .13, p R ² = .15, p p p Conclusions The results of this study highlight the role of racism, acculturative stress, and political hostility in escalating anxiety symptoms in Latinx families and identify cultural stress as a factor that likely contributes to the high rates of anxiety in Latina girls during a key developmental period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).