title: Acculturative stress and experiential avoidance: relations to depression, suicide, and anxiety symptoms among minority college students.
abstract: Although college campuses represent strategic locations to address mental health disparity among minorities in the US, there has been strikingly little empirical work on risk processes for anxiety/depression among this population. The present investigation examined the interactive effects of acculturative stress and experiential avoidance in relation to anxiety and depressive symptoms among minority college students (n = 1,095; 78.1% female; Mage = 21.92, SD = 4.23; 15.1% African-American (non-Hispanic), 45.3% Hispanic, 32.5% Asian, and 7.1% other races/ethnicities. Results provided empirical evidence of an interaction between acculturative stress and experiential avoidance for suicidal, social anxiety, and anxious arousal symptoms among the studied sample. Inspection of the significant interactions revealed that acculturative stress was related to greater levels of suicidal symptoms, social anxiety, and anxious arousal among minority college students with higher, but not lower, levels of experiential avoidance. However, in contrast to prediction, there was no significant interaction for depressive symptoms. Together, these data provide novel empirical evidence for the clinically-relevant interplay between acculturative stress and experiential avoidance in regard to a relatively wide array of negative emotional states among minority college students.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Houston , Houston , TX , 77204 , USA.|b Department of Behavioral Sciences , University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center , Houston , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zvolensky
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Houston , Houston , TX , 77204 , USA.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jardin
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Houston , Houston , TX , 77204 , USA.
authors.forename: Lorra
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garey
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Houston , Houston , TX , 77204 , USA.
authors.forename: Zuzuky
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Robles
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Houston , Houston , TX , 77204 , USA.|c Adolescent Treatment Program , The Menninger Clinic , Houston , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sharp
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mental health; anxiety; college students; depression; health disparity; suicide