Within-group differences of Hispanic children's symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social anxiety and their relations with various parenting behaviors

Depression, anxiety, and social anxiety are common internalizing symptoms and disorders in youth (Beesdo, Knappe, & Pine, 2009; Cartwright-Hatton, McNicol, & Doubleday, 2006; Lamb et al., 2010; Merikangas, 2005). Additionally, these symptoms are likely to be more common and debilitating when they present comorbidly and when they are present in minority youth. Myriad risk factors for, and correlates of, these internalizing symptoms in youth have been proposed, namely parenting behaviors. Unfortunately, despite growing numbers of Hispanic youth and families in the United States, the majority of research to date is with European American families. Thus, employing an ethnic-culture perspective in a community sample of Hispanic mother-child dyads, the purpose of the current study was three-fold: to examine depression, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms in Hispanic youth (N = 141, M age = 10.92 years, SD = .88) across various levels of acculturation and self-construal; to examine relations among various parenting behaviors and youth depressive and anxiety symptoms, with some consideration of acculturation status; and to examine maternal hostility/rejection/neglect (HRN) and youth depressive symptoms, while controlling for comorbid anxiety symptoms. Results indicated that a more independent self-construal, as well as a more interdependent, self-construal was negatively related to Hispanic youth self-reported depressive symptoms, although significant relations with acculturation or the interaction between acculturation and self-construal were not found. According to both child- and mother-report, maternal acceptance was negatively related to youth depressive symptoms, and maternal HRN was positively related to youth depression. Contrary to what was hypothesized, according to child-report, maternal acceptance was also negatively related to youth anxiety symptoms. Maternal behavioral control, with or without consideration of youth acculturation status, was not significantly related to youth internalizing symptoms. Finally, according to both child- and mother-report, maternal HRN was specifically and uniquely related to Hispanic youth depressive symptoms, even when controlling for comorbid youth anxiety symptoms. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.