Poster #15 - Mind the Gap: the Effect of Interpersonal Religious Struggles on Latinx Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptomatology

• In Event: Poster Session 16

Abstract

Compared to their non-Latinx counterparts, Latinx adolescents are more likely to endorse being religious as an important aspect of being moral, identify as Catholic, and practice religion with their families (Pew Research Center, 2020). In Latinx emerging adults, research suggests that having culturally-based spiritual beliefs is associated with less mental health-seeking, potentially contributing to psychological distress (Turner & Llamas, 2017). Latinx youth who place importance on religion and spirituality have been found to report more anxiety symptoms and less hope for the future (DiPierro et al., 2017). Latinx youth who experience conflict with others around religious issues (i.e., interpersonal religious struggles) have also indicated increased depressive symptoms (Kim-Spoon et al., 2012), suggesting that familial religious differences may be important in the development and/or maintenance of depression in Latinx youth. Yet, the role of interpersonal religious struggles between Latinx youth and their parents has been largely overlooked in the literature. This study sought to identify culturally relevant predictors of internalizing symptoms in a diverse, community-based sample of U.S. Latinx adolescents aged 11 - 16 years (N = 91). We hypothesized that youth who reported more interpersonal religious struggles with their parents would report more anxiety and depressive symptoms. Participants completed the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS-14), the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders-Child Version (SCARED-C), and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ). Participants reported elevated anxiety symptoms on the SCARED-C (M = 37.87, SD = 12.26, range = 5 - 67) and elevated depressive symptoms on the MFQ (M = 12.35, SD = 4.56, range = 0 - 20), indicating potentially clinical levels of anxiety (scores >25) and depression (scores >8). The sample was moderately religious and Catholic. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test our hypotheses. Generation status, SES, parent internalizing symptoms, and adolescent externalizing symptoms, discrimination, and religiosity were entered in the first block for each model. Interpersonal religious struggles, as captured by the RSS-14 interpersonal subscale, did not significantly predict anxiety symptoms, R2 = .82, F(7, 83) = 52.50, p = .114, adjusted R2 = .80. Interpersonal religious struggles did significantly predict depressive symptoms, R2 = .68, F(7, 83) = 25.05, p = .008, adjusted R2 = .65, such that an increase in interpersonal religious struggles was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, β = .20, t(84) = 2.70, p = .008. As expected, parent-child interpersonal religious struggles were positively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. Results are consistent with previous literature, extending them to a diverse sample of Latinx youth. Interestingly, the lack of association between interpersonal religious struggles and adolescent anxiety symptoms also aligns with rigorous meta-analytic findings that demonstrated a more robust relationship between religious struggles and depressive symptoms than with anxiety symptoms (Yonker et al., 2012). Results further suggest that Latinx adolescents may have unique mental health outcomes associated with the interplay between their own religiosity and that of their parents, highlighting the need for further culturally relevant research. Clinical implications include considering and practicing culturally mindful assessment and treatment of parent-child interpersonal religious struggles in Latinx youth reporting depressive symptoms.

Authors

• Elisa Borrero, Case Western Reserve University
  Presenting Author

• Amy Przeworski, Case Western Reserve University