Exploring the moderating effects of heritage and US identity between discrimination and social anxiety

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Although college enrollment rates have risen, Hispanic/Latinx students only account for 9% of emerging adults who complete bachelor’s degrees (Krogstad, 2016). Previous research has found anxiety disorders often negatively affect attendance and academic performance (Baez, 2005) and socially anxious students are more likely to drop out (Topham, & Russell, 2012). Thus, social anxiety, which is often defined by the fear of negative evaluation in social contexts by others (Hofmann et al., 2010), may play an important role in Hispanic/Latinx youth retention. Indeed, the challenge of having to balance one’s heritage and US culture while facing a variety of stressors rooted in the widespread framing of Hispanics as a threat to the US (García Coll et al., 1996) may lead youth to have difficulty navigating their social context. Although previous research has found an association between acculturation and mental health problems (e.g., Crockett et al., 2007) and discrimination and social anxiety (Levine et al., 2014), the links between acculturation, discrimination and anxiety have been understudied among Hispanic/Latinx. Addressing this gap, the current study aims to examine independent and interactive effects of acculturation and discrimination on social anxiety among a large multi-site sample of Hispanic/Latinx college students.
Data utilized for this study came from the Multi-Site University Study of Identity and Culture (MUSIC; Castillo & Schwartz, 2013), a cross-sectional study of college students across 32 universities in the United States. The sample consisted of 1,072 first-generation and second-generation Hispanics (Mage = 19.70, SDage = 1.62; 67.8% women). A multiple linear regression was estimated to determine the moderating effects of both US and Heritage identity on the relationship between discrimination and social anxiety symptoms. Discrimination, US and Heritage identity, and their respective interactions accounted for a significant amount of the variance in participant anxiety symptoms, R2 = .051, F (5, 1093) = 11.708, p<.001. Heritage identity (β = -.113 p =.001) and US identity (β = -.085, p < .001) were both negatively associated with social anxiety, whereas discrimination was positively associated with symptoms of social anxiety (β = .126, p < .001).
Findings were consistent with our broader hypothesis. Indeed, discrimination may potentially lead to social anxiety because it serves as an indicator of rejection (Levine et al., 2014). Additionally, the negative association between both heritage and US identity and social anxiety serves to illustrate the importance of identification with one’s ethnicity and mainstream society/culture and its influence on mental health and potential influence on acculturative stress (Yoon et al., 2013; SIT; Tajfel & Turner; Sellers & Shelton, 2013). Identifying with one group over the other may allow individuals to hold on to their sense of self in the face of discrimination. Similarly, when having both high identification with your heritage and the U.S., individuals will face rejection from one group or another when experiencing between-group discrimination, commonly reported among Hispanic/Latinx Americans (Córdova & Cervantes, 2010).

Authors

• Taylor Webb, Old Dominion University
  Presenting Author

• Alicia Moulder, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kyla Monique Carr, Old Dominion University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio
  Non-Presenting Author