Cross-Cultural Comparison of Interactions Between Anxious Mothers and Children

描述(由申请者提供)：这笔培训赠款的目标是通过审查使年轻人患上焦虑症的高风险的育儿做法，促进拉美裔青年的积极青年发展。从长远来看，这将使候选人能够量身定做干预措施，以更好地服务于不同的家庭，并缩小心理健康差距。该奖学金的培训目标是使候选人具备(A)了解家庭过程、文化和青年结果之间的相互作用，(B)开发创新的、符合文化的焦虑干预措施的技能，(C)使用合理的研究设计和量化方法进行严格调查的能力。这些目标将通过领先研究人员的指导和课程完成来实现。培训计划最终将完成拟议的原始项目。这项横断面病例对照研究将检查被诊断为焦虑症的母亲(N=60；30名非西班牙裔白人，30名墨西哥裔美国人)与其子女(8-14岁)之间的观察到的相互作用，以考察父母养育行为(例如，控制、自主授予、批评、温暖、焦虑建模)的跨文化差异及其与青少年心理症状和功能的关系。具体目的是(1)检验焦虑母亲观察到的育儿行为的文化差异，(2)明确父母养育行为与青少年心理健康结果之间的联系，以及(3)评估观察到的育儿行为与青少年症状之间关系的潜在调节因素，包括种族和儿童对育儿的感知。焦虑是美国成年人和年轻人最普遍的心理健康问题。焦虑在拉美裔人群中更为普遍，他们是美国规模最大、增长最快的少数群体。焦虑通过对社会关系、学业成绩和心理健康产生负面影响，干扰年轻人充分发挥成年潜力的能力。父母的养育行为通常与青少年焦虑的发展有关；然而，焦虑的墨西哥裔美国人的行为并未受到调查，他们对父母控制等做法给予了不同的文化价值观。因此，本研究具有较高的理论意义和公共卫生意义。该项目是朝着确定特定于文化的父母行为迈出的第一步，这些行为将青少年置于发展内化障碍的高危状态，并可能有助于将焦虑从父母传递给孩子。它将为未来开发适合文化的儿童焦虑预防干预措施奠定基础。公共卫生相关性：我的长期职业目标是提高对患有早发性焦虑问题的年轻人和家庭的干预效率，并帮助为少数族裔群体量身定做治疗，以缩小种族心理健康差距。焦虑是普遍的、令人痛苦的和致残的，其治疗和预防将增加年轻人过上健康生活、摆脱混乱和残疾的可能性。先前的研究表明，父母的心理病理可能在青少年焦虑的发展和维持以及干预措施的实施中发挥着重要作用。具体的育儿行为已经被牵连，然而，关于这些发现如何推广到其他文化群体，我们知之甚少。一个尚未探索的主要领域是焦虑的母亲在不同文化中可能会有不同的育儿方式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this training grant is to promote positive youth development in Latino youths by examining parenting practices that place youths at heightened risk for developing anxiety. Long-term, this will allow the candidate to tailor interventions to better serve diverse families and reduce mental health disparity. Training goals for this fellowship are to equip the candidate with (a) understanding of the interplay between family processes, culture, and youth outcome, (b) skills to develop innovative, culturally-appropriate anxiety interventions, (c) capacity to conduct rigorous investigations using sound research design and quantitative methods. These goals will be met through mentorship from leading researchers and coursework completion. The training plan will culminate in the completion of the proposed original project. This cross-sectional case-control study will examine observed interactions between mothers (N = 60; 30 Non-Hispanic White, 30 Mexican American) with an anxiety disorder diagnosis and their children (ages 8-14) to examine cross- cultural differences in parenting behaviors (e.g., control, autonomy-granting, criticism, warmth, anxiety- modeling) and their associations with youth psychological symptoms and functioning. Specific aims are to (1) examine cultural differences in observed parenting behaviors of anxious mothers, (2) specify associations between parenting behaviors and youth mental health outcomes, and (3) assess potential moderators of the relationship between observed parenting behaviors and youth symptoms, including ethnicity and child perception of parenting. Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health problem in the U.S. in adults and youths. Anxiety is more highly prevalent in Hispanic populations, who are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the U.S. Anxiety interferes with youths' abilities to reach their full adult potential by negatively impacting social relationships, school achievement, and psychological well-being. Parenting behaviors are often implicated in the development of youth anxiety; however, behaviors of anxious Mexican Americans, who place different cultural value on practices such as parental control, have not been examined. Therefore, this study is of high theoretical and public health importance. This project is an initial step toward identifying culture-specific parent behaviors that place youths at high-risk for developing internalizing disorders and that may serve to transmit anxiety from parent to child. It will lay the groundwork for future development of culturally- appropriate child anxiety preventive interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: My long-term career goal is to increase the efficiency of interventions for youths and families with early onset anxiety problems and to aid in the customization of treatment to ethnic minority groups to reduce racial mental health disparity. Anxiety is prevalent, distressing, and disabling, and its treatment and prevention will enhance the likelihood that youths will lead healthy lives, free from disorder and disability. Previous research indicates that parental psychopathology may play a large role in both the development and maintenance of youth anxiety, as well as for the n of interventions. Specific parenting behaviors have been implicated, however, little is known about how these findings may generalize to other cultural groups. A major unexplored area is the potentially different parenting practices of anxious mothers across cultures.