Abstract
The cross cultural equivalence of child (n = 217) and parent (n = 283) versions of the revised children’s manifest anxiety scale (RCMAS), multidimensional anxiety scale for children (MASC), and the fear survey schedule for children—revised (FSSC-R) was examined in Mexican youth in Mexico, and Hispanic and white European American youth in the USA. The RCMAS, MASC, and FSSC-R showed cross ethnic measurement equivalence. The Mexican and Hispanic youth reported more worries, and the Mexican youth reported more somatic symptoms than the European American youth. Per mother report, Mexican and Hispanic youth express more somatic symptoms than European American youth who also show the least number of fears of the unknown and fears of danger and death. The results support the validity of commonly used child anxiety measures with these populations and accrue evidence for greater anxiety and fear expression by Hispanic and Mexican youth in certain domains.
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Notes
Marital status data were not collected for the Mexican families.
Hispanics of Central American descent are likely to share cultural values and beliefs with Hispanics of Mexican descent. In this study, these two groups did not differ in any of the variables tested.
Most items of the translation for Spain were semantically comparable to items of the present translation; however, there were sufficient items that were not easily understandable in Mexico or Central America or that were semantically different to warrant the use of the present version of the scale.
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Acknowledgement
This study was funded by grant Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund Research Competitiveness Subprogram LEQSF [2003-05]- RD-A-27 awarded to R. Enrique Varela. Additional support was provided by grants awarded to R. Enrique Varela from the Newcomb Foundation and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University. We are grateful to Monica Albizvrez, Sandra Alicia Blanco, Ludovico Feoli, Carmen Elena Garcia-Prieto, and Angelica Riveros for their help in translation of the measures. We are grateful to Emilia Lucio Gómez-Maqueo, Consuelo Duran Patiño, Genoveba Rodriguez, Ivette Miriam Btesh, and Enrique Anchondo Lopez for assisting in comparing FSSC-R translations. We acknowledge Sara Debus, Sarah Vetter, and Roberto Israel Patoni Maldonado for their assistance with the data collection process.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10862-007-9069-6
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Varela, R.E., Sanchez-Sosa, J.J., Biggs, B.K. et al. Anxiety Symptoms and Fears in Hispanic and European American Children: Cross-Cultural Measurement Equivalence. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 30, 132–145 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-007-9056-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-007-9056-y