The intervening role of anxiety symptoms in associations between Self-Regulation and prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latino/a college students

Abstract

Objective

The present study aimed to investigate the intervening role of anxiety symptoms in relations between self-regulation and multiple forms of prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latino/a college students.

Participants

The sample is based on data from a cross-sectional study on college students’ health and adjustment. Participants were 249 (62% women; M age =20 years; 86% U.S. born) college students who self-identified as Latino/a.

Methods

College students self-reported on their self-regulation, anxiety symptoms, and types and targets of prosocial behaviors using online surveys. Path analyses were conducted to test direct and indirect associations among the study variables.

Results

Self-regulation was directly and indirectly associated with several types of prosocial behaviors via anxiety symptoms. The hypothesized associations also differed by the target of helping.

Conclusions

Our findings underscore a strengths-based view of the coping and mental health resources that predict positive well-being among U.S. Latino/a college students.

Keywords:

• Anxiety symptoms
• Latino/a positive development
• prosocial behaviors
• self-regulation

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of University of Missouri.