Ethnic discrimination, sexism, and depression among Latinx women: The roles of anxiety sensitivity and expressive suppression.

Latinx women are twice as likely to experience depression compared to Latinx men. Latinx women are also subjected to heightened stress in the form of ethnic and sexist discrimination. Limited research has sought to explore variables that may have explanatory roles between discrimination and mental health outcomes among women of color. The current study tested whether anxiety sensitivity and expressive suppression uniquely link discrimination and depression for Latinx women. This crosssectional study included 246 Latinx women primarily of Mexican descent (n = 173) recruited from community events and Mechanical Turk. On average, participants were 36.29 years old (SD = 12.61, range = 18–72). Participants completed several self-report measures on ethnic discrimination (Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire), sexism (Schedule of Sexist Events), anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3), expressive suppression (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire— Suppression), and depression (Brief Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression). Using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013), two parallel mediation analyses examined whether discrimination had an indirect effect via anxiety sensitivity and expressive suppression on depression. Anxiety sensitivity (indirect effect = .65, SE = .24, 95% CI [.21, 1.15]) and expressive suppression (indirect effect = .25, SE = .13, 95% CI [.07, .56]) uniquely linked ethnic discrimination and depression. Anxiety sensitivity (indirect effect = .66, SE = .21, 95% CI [.29, 1.13]) uniquely linked sexist discrimination and depression symptoms, while expressive suppression did not (indirect effect = .13, SE = .10, 95% CI [−.001, .40]). Anxiety sensitivity linked both ethnic and sexist discrimination with depression; however, expressive suppression only linked ethnic discrimination and depression. Evidence suggests that there are different links to depression depending on the type of discrimination for Latinx women.