Anxiety symptoms in rural Mexican adolescents

Background We investigated the contributions of individual, family, and community-level factors for explaining anxiety symptoms among rural adolescents in Mexico. Method As part of a largescale survey, 3,553 adolescents and their mothers from 333 poor, rural communities in seven Mexican states provided cross-sectional data on family level, socio-economic and psychosocial factors, and individual- level data on anxiety symptoms. Community standard of living indicators were also gathered. Results Linear regressions adjusted for sampling design indicated that adolescents’ anxiety symptoms were uniquely predicted by mothers’ depressive symptoms, maternal perceived stress, larger family size, and lower maternal and adolescent educational attainment. Family income and community standard of living were not directly associated with adolescent symptoms. Adolescent females reported more symptoms than males, but gender did not moderate the relationship between the predictors and adolescents’ symptoms. Conclusions We found that maternal mental health was a key factor in adolescent children’s psychological wellbeing; this finding extends prior research in economically developed countries that emphasizes the importance of maternal functioning for child mental health. Family size, gender, and the educational attainment of mothers and adolescents also uniquely contributed to adolescents’ anxiety symptoms in these rural Mexican communities