title: Emotional nonacceptance within the context of traumatic event exposure: The explanatory role of anxiety sensitivity for traumatic stress symptoms and disability among Latinos in a primary care setting.
abstract: Research has found that Latinos (versus non-Latino Whites) evince higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet little attention has been given to intra-individual, emotion-related processes to explicate the higher incidence of these symptoms among Latinos.
  
  
  
  Participants included 183 trauma-exposed adult Latinos (88.5% female; Mage=37.7, SD=10.7 and 93.4% reported Spanish as their first language) who attended a community-based primary healthcare clinic in Houston. It was hypothesized that anxiety sensitivity would explain the relation between emotional nonacceptance and traumatic stress symptoms, namely re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal difficulties as well as overall disability. Additionally, it was expected that the observed effects would be evident above and beyond the variance accounted for by number of traumas reported, gender, age, marital status, educational status, years living in the U.S., and negative affectivity.
  
  
  
  Consistent with our hypotheses, difficulties accepting negative emotions were associated with increased trauma-related re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal difficulties. Additionally, anxiety sensitivity was an underlying mechanism in the association between emotional nonacceptance and all but one facet of traumatic stress symptoms (i.e., re-experiencing symptoms) and disability. Alternative models yielded no significant effects, providing greater confidence in the direction of the hypothesized effects.
  
  
  
  Findings are discussed in the context of their significance for informing the development of specialized intervention strategies that target anxiety sensitivity for Latinos in primary care with elevated risk for PTS and PTSD by their heightened levels of emotional nonacceptance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States. Electronic address: agviana@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Andres G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Paulus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Jafar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bakhshaie
authors.affiliation: Legacy Community Health Services, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garza
authors.affiliation: Legacy Community Health Services, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Jeanette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valdivieso
authors.affiliation: Legacy Community Health Services, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ochoa-Perez
authors.affiliation: Legacy Community Health Services, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Chad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemaire
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Jodi Berger
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Behavioral Science, Houston, TX, United States. Electronic address: Mjzvolen@central.uh.edu.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zvolensky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000208:ethnology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000208:ethnology*; D013781:Texas / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult