Anxiety Sensitivity and Rumination: Transdiagnostic Factors Involved in the Relation Between Subjective Social Status and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms and Disorders Among Economically Disadvantaged Latinos in Primary Care

• Published in: American journal of orthopsychiatry Vol. 88; no. 5; pp. 571 - 581
• Main Authors: Zvolensky, Michael J., Paulus, Daniel J., Bakhshaie, Jafar, Garza, Monica, Valdivieso, Jeanette, Ochoa-Perez, Melissa, Reitzel, Lorraine R., Viana, Andres G., Lemaire, Chad, Bogiaizian, Daniel, Robles, Zuzuky, Manning, Kara, Mayorga, Nubia A., Schmidt, Norman B., Collado, Anahi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Educational Publishing Foundation 2018; American Psychological Association
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - ethnology; Anxiety Sensitivity; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; Depression - diagnosis; Depression - ethnology; Disadvantaged; Female; Health Disparities; Health problems; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data; Human; Humans; Latinos/Latinas; Major Depression; Male; Medicine; Mental depression; Mental Health; Mental health services; Physical Health; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Rumination (Cognitive Process); Rumination, Cognitive; Social Class; Social Status; Status; Surveys and Questionnaires; Symptoms; Vulnerable Populations; primary care; vulnerabilities; Latinos; subjective social status; mental health
• ISSN: 0002-9432; 1939-0025
• DOI: 10.1037/ort0000307

Latinos face striking physical and mental health disparities. One factor associated with such disparities is subjective social status, reflecting subjective ratings of social standing. Yet there is presently a lack of empirical information about the mechanisms underlying relations between subjective social status and anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders among Latinos in community medical services that serve as focal catchment areas for assessment and intervention programming. The present investigation examined the unique explanatory roles of 2 transdiagnostic factors, rumination and anxiety sensitivity, in the relation between subjective social status and depressive, suicidal, social anxiety, and anxious arousal symptoms as well as anxiety/depressive disorders, among Latinos seeking health services at a primary health care facility. Participants included 253 Latino adults with annual incomes of less than $30,000 (M age = 39.1, SD = 11.1). Results indicated that rumination and anxiety sensitivity each significantly (independently) mediated associations between subjective social status and all dependent variables except suicidal symptoms. For suicidal symptoms, only rumination was a mediator. The present findings suggest that rumination and anxiety sensitivity may represent mechanisms for associations between subjective social status and anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders among economically disadvantaged Latinos in primary care settings.
Public Policy Relevance Statement
In the United States the Latino population faces striking mental and physical health disparities. This study sought to inform the current literature on subject social status and its relation with anxiety and depression among this population. The results of this study suggest that rumination and anxiety sensitivity are independent and significant mediators of this relation and are promising vulnerability factors that may inform future treatment for anxiety and depression among the Latino population.