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Journal of Anxiety Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

arenting practices, interpretive biases, and anxiety in Latino children

. Enrique Varelaa,∗, Laura A. Niditcha, Lauren Hensley-Maloneyb, Kathryn W. Moorea,1,

. Christiane Crevelinga,2

Tulane University, Department of Psychology, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, 6400 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118, USATexas A&M University, Commerce, Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, P.O. Box 3011, Commerce, TX 75429, USA

r t i c l e i n f o

rticle history:eceived 25 July 2012eceived in revised form4 December 2012ccepted 22 December 2012

eywords:hildren

a b s t r a c t

A number of factors are believed to confer risk for anxiety development in children; however, culturalvariation of purported risk factors remains unclear. We examined relations between controlling andrejecting parenting styles, parental modeling of anxious behaviors, child interpretive biases, and childanxiety in a mixed clinically anxious (n = 27) and non-clinical (n = 20) sample of Latino children and atleast one of their parents. Families completed discussion-based tasks and questionnaires in a lab setting.Results indicated that child anxiety was: linked with parental control and child interpretative biases,associated with parental modeling of anxious behaviors at a trend level, and not associated with low

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parental acceptance. Findings that controlling parenting and child interpretive biases were associatedwith anxiety extend current theories of anxiety development to the Latino population. We speculatethat strong family ties may buffer Latino children from detrimental effects of perceived low parentalacceptance.

© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ognitive bias

. Introduction

A wealth of literature highlights the importance of familial andognitive influences in the development of child anxiety (Manassis

Bradley, 1994; Pollock, Rosenbaum, Marrs, Miller, & Biederman,995; Vasey & Dadds, 2001). To date, however, theoretical mod-ls proposed to explain anxiety development in children have beenased on research conducted mostly with White, non-Latino popu-

ations. Examination of whether such models extend to ethnicinority populations is important for a number of reasons. Some

iterature is emerging to suggest that such models may not apply tothnic minorities, including Latino youth (Anderson & Mayes, 2010;arela & Hensley-Maloney, 2009). Latinos are the most numer-us and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United Statesnd approximately 15.4 million are under the age of 18 years (U.S.

ensus Bureau, 2009). In addition, Latino youth are at higher risk

or anxiety problems relative to the corresponding risk for White,on-Latino youth (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

∗ Corresponding author at: School of Science and Engineering, Department of Psy-hology, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, 6400 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118-5636,SA. Tel.: +1 504 862 3344; fax: +1 504 862 8744.

E-mail address: evarela@tulane.edu (R.E. Varela).1 Now at: Saint John’s Health Center, Child and Family Development Center, Santaonica, CA, USA.2 Now at: Assessment and Psychological Services, New Orleans, LA, USA.

887-6185/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.12.004

2001). In this study, we examined associations between parentingpractices, children’s cognitive biases, and anxiety in Latino youth.

1.1. Parenting practices and child anxiety

Parenting practices indicating control have been associatedwith child anxiety in several observational studies conducted withWhite, non-Latino families (Ballash, Leyfer, Buckley, & Woodruff-Borden, 2006; Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003). Forinstance, during family interactive tasks, parents of children withanxiety disorders grant less autonomy, are more intrusive, andforeclose discussions with their children more often than par-ents of children without anxiety disorders (e.g., Hudson & Rapee,2001; Siqueland, Kendall, & Steinberg, 1996). Similarly, parent-ing practices reflecting rejection of children have been associatedwith clinical anxiety in children. These parents are less accept-ing of their children’s ideas, display less warmth, and are morejudgmental and dismissive (e.g., Dumas, LaFreniere, & Serketich,1995; Hudson & Rapee, 2001). Additionally, findings from studiesemploying self-report in lieu of or in addition to behavioral observa-tions are consistent with these results (e.g., Messer & Beidel, 1994;Siqueland et al., 1996; Stark, Humphrey, Crook, & Lewis, 1990).

Theoretically, controlling parenting restricts children fromexploring new situations independently and may convey to themthat they are incapable of navigating their surroundings suc-cessfully. Along these lines, rejection and criticism may thwart

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72 R.E. Varela et al. / Journal of An

hildren’s attempts at self-sufficiency. Both of these parenting prac-ices then likely convey to children that they are not in commandf their environment and thus live in an unsafe and threateningorld, resulting in increased anxiety (Chorpita & Barlow, 1998).

Relevant to the investigation of parenting practices and anxietyn a cultural context is a large body of literature suggesting thatatino parents may utilize strategies reflecting authoritarian par-nting more often than White, non-Latino parents in socializingheir children (Knight, Virdin, & Roosa, 1994; Varela et al., 2004a).hat is, normative parenting in Latin American cultures empha-izes greater unquestioning obedience and respect for authoritynd less verbal reasoning and discussion from their children rel-tive to normative parenting among majority White, non-Latinoarents. Thus, the possibility exists that Latino children are atreater risk for anxiety disorders through exposure to controllingarenting. However, an alternative hypothesis is that because sucharenting is expected in Latino culture, particularly of fathers, it

s adaptive and does not produce a sense of insecurity in chil-ren that it otherwise does in European American culture, andonsequently does not increase the risk for anxiety symptomsn Latino children as it does for White, non-Latino children. Pro-iding some support for this hypothesis within a communityample, Luis, Varela, and Moore (2008) found a positive associa-ion between parental commands observed during a parent-childnteraction task and child-reported anxiety for White, non-Latinohildren but not for Mexican American children. Consistent withhose results, a follow-up study also with a community sampleound that child-reported father control was positively related tonxiety for White, non-Latino children but not for Latino childrenVarela, Sanchez-Sosa, Biggs, & Luis, 2009). However, in this lattertudy, mother control was associated with child anxiety regardlessf ethnic background.

The parenting literature for Latinos suggests that although con-rolling practices may be common, Latino parents are also warmnd accepting with their children (Staples & Mirande, 1980; Varelat al., 2004a). For instance, Varela et al. (2004a) found that althoughexican American parents rated their parenting as more author-

tarian than the parenting of White, non-Latinos, all three groupstudied (Mexican, Mexican American, and White, non-Latino) ratedheir parenting as more authoritative than authoritarian. Consid-ring that rejection/criticism is not normative in Latin Americanultures, one would expect this type of parenting to exert a similarnfluence in Latino children as it does in White, non-Latino chil-ren. However, contrary to expectations, one study found that morearental warmth and acceptance was linked to higher child anxietyor White, non-Latino and Mexican American children (Luis et al.,008). Another study found that less father warmth and acceptanceas related to more anxiety for White, non-Latino and Latino chil-ren, whereas more mother warmth and acceptance was relatedo more anxiety for both cultural groups (Varela et al., 2009). Thus,he literature is inconsistent on how lack of acceptance and warmth

ay relate to child anxiety in Latino populations.The anxiety literature also points to a relationship between

arental modeling of anxiety-related verbalizations and increasednxiety in children. Mothers of clinically anxious children haveeen found to provide more threat-related interpretations ofmbiguous situations when discussing these with their childrenBarrett, Rapee, Dadds, & Ryan, 1996; Chorpita, Albano, & Barlow,996; Dadds, Barrett, & Rapee, 1996), and are more likely toiscuss problems with their children in a catastrophic mannerMoore, Whaley, & Sigman, 2004; Whaley, Pinto, & Sigman, 1999)han mothers of non-anxious children. Modeling is a potent force

n socializing children across cultures (Thyer, 1994). Thus, oneould postulate that similar to findings from studies with White,on-Latino youth, parental modeling of threat interpretations isssociated with increased child anxiety in Latino families. To date,

Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177

only one study has examined this relation in a community sam-ple that included mostly Latino children (Varela et al., 2004b). Inthis study, Varela et al. examined parental interpretations of threeambiguous scenarios during a family discussion task. They did notfind an association between the number of anxious interpretationsprovided by the parents and child anxiety.

1.2. Cognitive biases and child anxiety

Relative to non-anxious children, children with anxiety disor-ders have been found to provide more interpretations indicativeof threat and danger in response to ambiguous scenarios andto provide more responses indicating avoidance (Barrett et al.,1996; Chorpita et al., 1996; Dadds et al., 1996). To date, how-ever, only two studies have examined threat interpretations in acultural context, and both of these studies employed communitysamples (Suarez-Morales & Bell, 2006; Varela et al., 2004b). In astudy conducted by Suarez-Morales and Bell (2006), African Amer-ican, Latino, and White, non-Latino children were administereda measure of worry/oversensitivity and a measure of informa-tion processing including interpretation, subjective probability injudgments, and problem solving biases in response to ambigu-ous hypothetical situations. Findings indicated no differences inthe manner in which worry related to interpretive biases betweenLatino and White, non-Latino children. Specifically, worry was asignificant predictor of negative spontaneous interpretations andratings of threat for the ambiguous situations independent of cul-tural group. Varela et al. (2004b) examined whether Mexican andMexican American children produced more somatic and anxiousinterpretations of ambiguous scenarios than White, non-Latinochildren and whether these interpretations were related to anxi-ety reporting. The three groups did not differ in the percent of totalinterpretations generated that indicated anxiety, and interpreta-tions were not related to anxiety for the entire sample.

1.3. Present study

The literature dealing with mechanisms of child anxiety haslargely neglected potential culture-specific effects on such mecha-nisms. A universal approach to this area of research would call foruniform effects across cultures; however, on theoretical grounds,some known risk factors for child anxiety (e.g., parental control)may be expected to have variable effects depending on the culturalcontext in which they are embedded. On the other hand, otherrisk factors (e.g., cognitive biases) are expected to produce simi-lar results independent of the cultural environment. Unfortunately,the literature focusing on child anxiety in Latinos is limited and haslacked a clear pattern of results. One possible reason for inconsis-tent findings in this area may be that such literature has focusedon community samples, thus failing to replicate or refute existingassociations found in the broader child anxiety literature, which hasfocused mostly on youth diagnosed with anxiety disorders or com-pared clinically anxious youth to non-clinical controls. Another rea-son that inconsistent findings may exist in the literature regardingrisk factors for anxiety among Latino children may be that this liter-ature has not considered or has neglected to account for the effectof basic demographic variables known to affect child anxiety lev-els. For example, some studies incorporating Latino youth in theirsamples indicate that girls report higher levels of anxiety than boys(Ginsburg & Silverman, 1996; Silverman, La Greca, & Wasserstein,1995; Weems & Costa, 2005). In addition, failure to account forglobal parent anxiety levels may also obscure relations between

more concrete parental behaviors, such as modeling of interpreta-tion biases, and children’s anxiety. In this study, we include a mixedsample of clinically anxious Latino youth and Latino youth with nopsychiatric conditions, focus on a restricted age range (7–13 year

R.E. Varela et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177 173

Table 1Mean scores and standard deviations of demographic variables by group status.

Variables Group status

Non-clinical ClinicalM(SD) n M(SD) n F

Child’s age 10.15(1.84) 20 9.93(1.62) 27 0.20Years father in U.S. 16.05(9.14) 19 11.18(7.50) 17 3.02Years mother in U.S. 14.47(8.36) 19 15.25(10.90) 22 .06

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Years child in U.S. 8.00(3.48) 19

Household income 42,841(24,420) 20

** p < .01.

lds), and account for potential gender effects in all analyses andor potential effects of parent anxiety in analyses dealing with par-nt interpretation biases. Moreover, as reflected in the discussionbove (Section 1.1), the majority of research regarding the effects ofarenting practices on child anxiety among Latinos has focused onothers; however, the limited available research also examining

ffects of fathers’ parenting has demonstrated differential effectsased on parent gender. Therefore, in this study, we examine effectsf parenting style separately for mothers and fathers.

Based on theory and the scant empirical literature in this area,e expected that: (a) mother controlling parenting would be posi-

ively associated with child anxiety, (b) father controlling parentingould not be associated with child anxiety, (c) mother and fatherarmth and acceptance would be negatively associated with child

nxiety, (d) parental modeling of threat interpretations would beositively associated with child anxiety, and (e) child interpreta-ion bias for anxious responses would be positively associated withhild anxiety.

. Materials and methods

.1. Recruitment and procedure

We employed a multifaceted recruitment and screening pro-ess in order to obtain a mixed clinically anxious and non-anxiousample of Latino children and their caregivers. Clinically anxioushildren were recruited through the local school system (n = 18) orere referred for the study by local mental health clinics (n = 9).hildren from the schools were recruited in two steps. First, let-ers were sent to parents of Latino children informing them theyould be eligible to participate in a study if their children expe-ienced anxiety symptoms on a regular basis (e.g., nervousness,earfulness, or worries). Parents who returned the letters alongith phone numbers were then further screened by phone using

he Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) toauge if their child might meet criteria for an anxiety disorder. Par-nts endorsing symptoms for their children in the clinical range ofny internalizing subscale of the CBCL were invited to participate.his method has been used successfully in recruiting youth fromhe community with psychiatric disorders (e.g., Bird, Gould, Rubio-tipec, Staghezza, & Canino, 1991). Parents of children referred byental health clinics were also administered the CBCL and only

hose who scored in the clinical range of any internalizing subscaleere invited to participate.

Non-anxious children did not meet criteria for any psychiatricisorder and were recruited through the school system in a similaranner as the clinically anxious children (n = 10) and by word ofouth (n = 10). To recruit non-anxious children from the schools,

rst, letters were sent to parents of Latino children informing themhey could be eligible to participate in a study focusing on chil-

ren without mental health problems if their children did notxhibit anxiety symptoms on a regular basis. Parents who returnedhe letters along with phone numbers were then further screenedy phone using the CBCL to gauge if their child might not meet

7.34(3.80) 22 .3326,512(15,224) 27 7.94**

criteria for any disorder. Parents of children whose scores werebelow the clinical cut-off for all clinical subscales were invitedto participate. Similarly, parents of children referred by word ofmouth were invited to participate if their children’s scores on theCBCL were below the cut-off for the borderline clinical range.

All qualifying families participated in a data collection sessionlasting approximately 3.5 h. After consent and child assent formswere signed, participants completed the Anxiety Disorders Inter-view Schedule for DSM-IV: Child and Parent Versions (ADIS-C/P;Silverman & Albano, 1996), followed by brief interviews with thechild, a parent-child discussion task, and questionnaires below(Section 2.3). Participating families were compensated $100.00.

2.2. Participants

Participants were 47 Latino children (27 clinically anxious, 20non-anxious) aged 7–13 years (M = 9.98; SD = 1.70) and at least oneof their caregivers (85% mothers only, 9% mothers and fathers, and6% fathers only). Parents were immigrants to the United States(U.S.) from Mexico (n = 8; i.e., both parents for 8 children), Cen-tral America (n = 24), South America (n = 3), and combinations ofCaribbean and Central America (n = 5), and South America and Cen-tral America (n = 1). Four children had one parent born in the U.S. ofLatino ancestry (i.e., both parents from a Latin American country) incombination with one immigrant parent, and data regarding placeof birth were missing for two couples. Twenty-five of the childrenwere born in the U.S. and 19 were immigrants from Mexico (n = 5),Central America (n = 11), and South America (n = 3). Three childrendid not indicate their place of birth. The clinically anxious groupdid not differ from the non-anxious group in gender composition(�2(1) = 5.82, p = ns), children’s age, children’s number of years inthe U.S., and mothers’ or fathers’ years in the U.S.; however, the twogroups differed in household income (Table 1).

Clinically anxious children met criteria for primary diagnosesof Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD; n = 4), Social Phobia (SoP;n = 8), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD; n = 5), Specific Phobia(SP; n = 3), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; n = 2), and SelectiveMutism (SM; n = 1) based on results of the ADIS-C/P. Four chil-dren with a secondary diagnosis of SAD (n = 1), SoP (n = 2) or GAD(n = 1) were included in this group. We included these childrenbecause the clinician severity ratings for their anxiety diagnoseswere within one point of the severity rating of the primary dis-order. Primary diagnoses for these four children were Dysthymia(DY; n = 1), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD; n = 2), and Atten-tion Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Combined Type (ADHD; n = 1).Eighty-five percent of the children in the clinically anxious groupmet criteria for more than one anxiety diagnosis.

2.3. Measures

2.3.1. The Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6–18 (CBCL;Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001)

The CBCL is a 112-item multidimensional parent-report mea-sure that assesses children’s functioning across several domains.

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tems are presented as statements and parents are asked to rateow descriptive each item is of his or her child’s behavior withinhe past six months on a three-point scale ranging from ‘not true (asar as you know)’ to ‘very true or often true.’ The CBCL is widely useds a screening measure of child emotional and behavior problemsnd shows good internal consistency and good construct validity,ith higher scores being associated with more maladjustment in

atino youth (Rubio-Stipec, Bird, Canino, & Gould, 1990).

.3.2. Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV: Childnd Parent Versions (ADIS-C/P; Silverman & Albano, 1996)

The ADIS-C/P was administered by doctoral students who hadeen trained to 100% diagnostic agreement. The ADIS-C/P is aemi-structured diagnostic interview based on DSM-IV criteriaesigned to assess major psychiatric disorders of childhood, includ-

ng anxiety disorders. The ADIS-C/P is widely used in both researchnd clinical settings and has demonstrated good test-retest reli-bility for both English (Silverman, Saavedra, & Pina, 2001) andpanish (Pina & Silverman, 2004) versions. Consistent with guide-ines established by the developers of the ADIS-C/P, diagnoses

ere determined on the basis of composite between parent andhild reports (i.e., diagnoses resulting from either parent or childnterview were aggregated), and the diagnosis yielding the high-st severity rating was established as the primary diagnosis. Allnterviews were videotaped and a reliability check for diagnosticccuracy of 6 randomly selected cases yielded excellent agreementor primary and secondary diagnoses, Cohen’s kappa = 1.00.

.3.3. The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS;eynolds & Richmond, 1978)

The RCMAS is a 37-item self-report measure that assesses anxi-ty in youth aged 6–19 years. Participants are instructed to choose

yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate whether each statement describes them-elves. The RCMAS has well-established psychometric propertiesnd is a valid indicator of anxiety among Latino samples (Pina, Little,night, & Silverman, 2009; Varela & Biggs, 2006; Varela, Sanchez-osa, Biggs, & Luis, 2008). In this study, the total anxiety score wassed as a continuous measure of anxiety. Cronbach’s alpha for thistudy was .88.

.3.4. Children’s Report Of Parenting Behavior Inventory-Shortorm (CRPBI-SF; Schaefer, 1965)

Parenting strategies reflecting control and acceptance wereeasured using the Hostile Control (8 items) and Acceptance (8

tems) subscales of the CRPBI-SF. The CRPBI-SF uses a three-choiceesponse scale (‘not like my parent;’ ‘somewhat like my parent;’ ‘likey parent’) designed to assess various aspects of parenting behavior

rom a child’s perspective. Children completed separate CRPBIs forothers and for fathers. These two subscales have been shown to

e valid with Latin American families (Knight, Tein, Shell, & Roosa,992; Varela et al., 2009). Cronbach’s alphas for this study were .75nd .83 for control, and .77 and .77 for acceptance for reports ofother and father behavior, respectively.

.3.5. Children’s Interpretive Bias: The Ambiguous Situationsuestionnaire (ASQ; Barrett et al., 1996; Chorpita et al., 1996)

The ASQ was used to tap interpretation biases. Here, oneituation from the ASQ that evokes a range of possible causalnterpretations (“on the way to school, you begin to feel funnyn your stomach”) was presented to the child. Children generates many explanations as possible for the scenario, select a most

ikely explanation and course of action, and explain their reasoning.n example of an interpretation indicating anxiety is, “I might getidnapped.” All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed.hildren’s interpretive biases were measured by the number of

Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177

interpretations generated for the situation that indicate anxiety(e.g., threat or danger).

Two independent raters blind to the group status of the childwere trained to code interpretations as anxious or non-anxiousuntil they reached 90% agreement based on coding systems devel-oped by Chorpita et al. (1996) and Dadds et al. (1996). Theseraters coded all interpretations, and inter-rater agreement was high(Cohen’s kappa = .89).

2.3.6. Family Discussion TaskTo obtain an indicator of parental modeling of threat bias, par-

ents and children discussed the ASQ situation for 5 min. All familydiscussions were audio recorded and transcribed. The number ofnew interpretations produced by the parents during this 5 minsegment that indicate threat or danger was used as an index ofparental modeling of anxious behavior. Coding of the family dis-cussions occurred in the same manner as coding for the ASQ.Cohen’s kappa for inter-rater agreement on parental anxious vs.non-anxious interpretations was .93.

2.3.7. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory–Trait Scale (STAI-T;Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1977)

The STAI-T was used in this study to gauge mother trait anx-iety. Because very few fathers participated in the study, onlymother self-reports were considered here. The STAI-T is a 20-itemadult self-report measure that assesses relatively enduring anxi-ety experienced by the respondent. Participants are asked to ratethe frequency at which they experience the thought or feelingdescribed via a 4-point Likert scale (‘almost never;’ ‘sometimes;’‘often;’ and ‘almost always’). Responses are summed to yield a totalanxiety score, which was used as an indicator of anxiety in thisstudy. The STAI-T has demonstrated excellent test-retest reliabilityand good concurrent validity (Metzger, 1976). Cronbach’s alpha forthe current study was .61.

3. Results

Zero order correlations among variables are presented inTable 2. To test our hypotheses, we conducted five hierarchicalregressions in which child gender and total annual householdincome were entered in each first step and each variable of inter-est in the second step (mother control, father control, motheracceptance, father acceptance, interpretation bias; Table 3). A sixthhierarchical regression was conducted to examine the potentialeffect of parental modeling of anxious verbalizations on children’sanxiety (Table 3). For this latter regression, mother trait anxiety wasentered in the first step in addition to gender and annual house-hold income, and mothers’ number of anxious interpretations wasentered in the second step.

Results showed that mother control, = .41, p = .004, fathercontrol, = .41, p = .008, and children’s interpretive bias, = .32,p = .032, predicted variance in children’s anxiety scores beyonddemographic variables. There was a trend in the prediction of chil-dren’s anxiety scores by the number of anxious interpretationsgenerated by the parents during the family discussions, ˇ = .34,p = .074. Mother acceptance, = .18, p = .25, and father acceptance

= .18, p = .24, were not associated with child anxiety.

4. Discussion

A number of risk factors for anxiety development have been

identified among samples of White, non-Latino youth; however,it remains unclear whether these models of risk apply similarlyto Latino youth. The present findings suggest that, consistent withthe current state of the literature, paternal and maternal control

R.E. Varela et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177 175

Table 2Correlations among study variables.

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. Gender –2. Income .01 –3. Anxiety .18 −.15 –4. Mother control −.04 .07 .39** –5. Mother acceptance −.01 .14 .15 .31* –6. Father control −.17 −.04 .37* .59** −.30† –7. Father acceptance −.13 .07 .15 .14 .64** .53** –8. Anxious interpretation .07 −.10 .34* .32* .16 .20 −.06 –9. Parent modeling .08 −.14 .33† .11 −.18 .21 −.11 .35† –10. Mother anxiety .08 −.05 −.02 −.08 .00 −.16 −.19 .15 −.03 –n 47 47 47 47 46 42 43 45 33 41

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nd child interpretive biases are associated with anxiety in Latinoouth. However, parental lack of warmth and acceptance was notssociated with anxiety in our sample.

.1. Parenting style and child anxiety

Our findings that paternal and maternal control were associatedith child anxiety in Latino youth are consistent with research con-ucted with White, non-Latino samples including clinically anxiousouth and help extend theories of anxiety development to Latinoouth (Manassis & Bradley, 1994; Pollock et al., 1995; Siquelandt al., 1996; Vasey & Dadds, 2001). However, these results are inontrast with findings from community samples in which com-ined mother and father commands (Luis et al., 2008) and fatherontrol (Varela et al., 2009) were associated with anxiety for White,on-Latino children, but not for Latino children.

One explanation for the differences in results may be that oururrent sample included children with extreme and impairing anx-ety (i.e., anxiety disorders) and the association between parentalontrol and anxiety may look different for these children than forhildren with normative levels of anxiety. Although only children’serceptions of the amount of parental control they experienceere assessed in the current study, it is possible that children who

scribe negative attributions to this type of parenting are moreikely to develop severe anxiety independent of cultural affiliation.

egative attributions theoretically may lead to schemas that puthildren at risk for processing biases that elicit anxious affect andehaviors (Chorpita & Barlow, 1998; Creveling, Varela, Weems,

Corey, 2010). In contrast, when children expect discipline and

able 3ummary of hierarchical regressions predicting child anxiety from each variable of intere

Variables Mother control Father control Mother acce

(SEˇ) �R2 (SEˇ) �R2

(SEˇ)

.05 .06

Step 1Child gender .18 (.15) .20 (.16) .18 (.15)

Income −.15 (.15) −.13 (.16) −.15 (.15)

Mother anxiety – – –

.17** .16**

Step 2Variable of interest .41** (.14) .41** (.15) .18 (.15)

Total statistics R2 = .22,F(3,43) = 4.07,p = .012

R2 = .22,F(3,38) = 3.51,p = .024

R2 = .09,F(3,42) = 1.2p = ns

ote: Controlling for the presence of a father in the family discussion task yielded the sam* p < .05.

** p < .01.† p = .074.

control from their parents, this type of parenting may be associatedwith lower levels of anxiety for them. Although the majority ofchildren in both cultural groups expect discipline and some controlfrom parents, fathers in particular, this expectation may be strongerfor Latino children (Varela et al., 2004a). Therefore, Latino childrenmay interpret strict parenting from fathers as an expression of careand concern because this is a culturally sanctioned rearing style.

Our finding that child-reported parental acceptance was notassociated with anxiety was unexpected, as previous literature hasdemonstrated a link between child anxiety and parents’ rejectingbehaviors (McLeod, Wood, & Weisz, 2007; Wood et al., 2003). Theo-retically, parental rejection teaches children that positive outcomes(i.e., parental warmth and approval) are rare and not dependent onone’s actions, and this uncertainty leads to anxiety (Rapee, 1997).Latino culture emphasizes the importance of family in an individ-ual’s life (Marin & Marin, 1991) and perception of strong familycohesion has been found to relate negatively to children’s anxiety(Varela et al., 2009). It is possible that Latino children who do notperceive warmth and acceptance from one or both parents mayhave a sufficient number of positive and rewarding interactionswith other family members so that lack of parental warmth andacceptance does not have a detrimental effect.

4.2. Cognitive biases and child anxiety

There was evidence to support an association between chil-dren’s interpretive biases and child anxiety. Specifically, responsesindicative of threat or danger to a scenario describing a child expe-riencing a funny feeling in his or her stomach on the way to

st.

ptance Father acceptance Anxious interpretation Parent modeling

�R2 (SEˇ) �R2

(SEˇ) �R2 (SEˇ) �R2

.06 .05 .05 .16

.20 (.15) .20 (.15) .39* (.19)−.13 (.15) −.11 (.15) −.15 (.19)– – −.06 (.19)

.03 .03 .10* .11†

.18 (.16) .32* (.15) .34† (.15)

9,R2 = .09,F(3,39) = 1.24,p = ns

R2 = .15,F(3,41) = 2.47,p = .076

R2 = .27,F(4,23) = 2.17,p = ns

e result as the analysis above in which parent modeling predicts child anxiety.

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76 R.E. Varela et al. / Journal of An

chool were associated with increased anxiety. Previous studiesith Latino youth in community samples were inconsistent in theirndings of such an association (Suarez-Morales & Bell, 2006; Varelat al., 2004b). It is possible that interpretive biases are only rele-ant in predicting anxiety in samples with wide ranging degrees ofnxiety including severe forms, as was the case here. Interpretiveiases are believed to be proximal influences on children’s behaviorCrick & Dodge, 1994) and research points to a clear link betweenognitive biases and child anxiety (Vasey & MacLeod, 2001; Watts &

eems, 2006). The present findings help extend theoretical modelsf anxiety development based on such research to Latino youth.

.3. Parental modeling and child anxiety

Results from this study provide some evidence for an associationetween parental modeling of anxious behaviors (i.e., more inter-retations related to threat or danger) and anxiety among Latinohildren. Although the finding here was only a trend, there waso theoretical reason to postulate that Latino mothers of anxioushildren would differ in generating interpretations indicative ofnxiety from White, non-Latino mothers as documented in the lit-rature (e.g., Barrett et al., 1996; Chorpita et al., 1996; Dadds et al.,996; Moore et al., 2004; Whaley et al., 1999). Of interest is thatothers’ level of trait anxiety was not associated with children’s

nxiety. This finding suggests that mothers’ anxiety may influencehildren’s anxiety through more specific forms of modeling (e.g.,roviding negative interpretations of ambiguous situations) thanhrough a global anxious disposition.

.4. Limitations and conclusions

Although the present findings are informative, they must beonsidered in the context of the study’s limitations. The sampleas relatively small, and therefore it is uncertain how well find-

ngs generalize to other Latino populations. However, that mostf the findings were theoretically consistent gives us some confi-ence that these results are not idiosyncratic. In addition, the studysed a cross-sectional design, which limits any conclusions aboutausality. Furthermore, unfortunately, we did not assess interpre-ive biases by the children pre and post family discussions, whichould have more directly tested the effect of parent modeling of

nxious behaviors on children’s anxiety. Moreover, we examinedhild-reported level of parental control but did not assess children’snterpretations or attributions of their parents’ controlling behav-ors, which may have clarified discrepancies between our currentndings and those of past research employing community sam-les. Finally, our goal was to examine whether basic mechanismsurported to influence children’s anxiety development and main-enance were applicable to Latino youth. As such, we limited ournalyses to examine main effects of the variables of interest andid not examine potential interactive effects.

Despite these limitations, the study provides evidence for thepplicability of some components of current models of child anxi-ty to Latino youth while highlighting cultural variations for otheromponents. One clinical implication is that anxiety in Latino youthay be addressed with current cognitive behavioral approaches

hat target maladaptive cognitions and controlling parenting prac-ices (Pina, Silverman, Fuentes, Kurtines, & Weems, 2003). Fornstance, controlling parenting and cognitive biases may serve to

aintain anxiety for children who are suffering from anxiety dis-rders. Parental rejection or lack of warmth and acceptance maylso not be as relevant for anxiety development in Latino culture,

n which strong family cohesion may mitigate the potential nega-ive effects of parental rejection. However, whether family cohesionndeed buffers the effects of lack of warmth and acceptance on theart of parents needs to be examined in future research.

Disorders 27 (2013) 171– 177

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the National Insti-tute of Mental Health (50R03MH076874-01 A2) to R. EnriqueVarela. We are grateful to the Jefferson Parish Public School Systemand to all the participating children and their families.

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