P0218 - Anxiety and social symptoms of immigrant children accurately predict a broad spectrum of psychosocial and behavioral problems

Background: The anxiety and social problems of young people clearly indicate an exponential increase in prevalence over the past decade, especially among children facing disparities, including immigrant children. The occurrence of anxiety and social problems is associated with significant co-morbidities that can persist into adulthood and are linked to the ongoing risk of coexisting conditions, such as lower income and premature mortality. Moreover, both anxiety and social problems can be used to predict the prevalence of other psychosocial and behavioral problems, including internalizing and externalizing problems.
Design/

Methods: Data was collected using a cross-sectional study including 633 6-18 year old attending non-emergent visits to seven university-based clinics in a large metropolitan area with a predominantly Mexican-American population. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) responded by parents and Youth Self Report (YSR) cut scores on the Anxiety social and anxiety/social problem scales predicted Internalizing, Externalizing, Total, Withdrawn Depressed, Somatic, Thought, Attention, Rule Breaking and Aggression problems.

Results: The sample included 321 (50.7%) women and 312 (49.3) men, 359 (56.7%) were first-generation immigrants and 274 (43.3%) were second-generation immigrants, the mean age was 13.01 SD (1.68) range 11-18 years. The prevalence of clinical anxiety problems reported by parents was 8.5% vs. 7.3% of the youth. Social problems reported by parents were 7.6% vs. 6.8% (youth). The comorbidities of psychosocial and behavioral problems associated to anxiety/social problems is presented in Table 1.
Conclusion(s): Social and anxiety problems among immigrant youth combined and individually predict much of the co-morbidity in terms of psychosocial and behavioral problems, with the exception of aggression. Both youth and parents' responses can predict most of the psychosocial and behavioral problems they present. Simple and rapid detection of anxiety and social problems can help doctors detect other comorbidities not necessarily scientifically linked to these conditions.