AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND ANXIETY DISORDERS RESEARCH - DEVELOPMENT OF A TESTABLE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The past decade has witnessed a tremendous growth in the population of minorities in this country. As this segment of the population has gro wn, psychology has slowly begun to realize the need to examine the pre sentation of psychological symptoms among minorities as well as the re sponse of minorities to traditional psychological treatment. While sev eral investigations have been conducted to date, the results are far f rom consistent. Some studies have demonstrated marked differences in t he symptom profiles and treatment responses of minorities as compared with Whites, while others have found little, if any, differences. A ma jor contributing factor to such inconsistent results may be that resea rch in this area has typically proceeded in the absence of a testable theoretical framework. This review examines research conducted with a specific minority population, African Americans, suffering with a DSM anxiety disorder. We first examine the epidemiological and treatment o utcome studies in an effort to ascertain the consistencies and inconsi stencies that exist within the literature. More importantly, we then p rovide a preliminary theoretical framework that not only accounts for the discrepant findings, but also allows investigators to generate tes table hypotheses regarding the manifestation and presentation of anxio us symptoms, and to evaluate the efficacy of psychological interventio ns among African Americans. We conclude with suggestions for future in vestigations in this area.