The iBelong Scale: Construction and validation of a measure of racial-ethnic-cultural belonging.

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of racial-ethnic-cultural (REC) belonging for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). The iBelong Scale was designed to assess the multidimensional components of REC belonging across diverse BIPOC groups. The scale was constructed based on a grounded conceptual framework of REC belonging, and the initial pool of items received feedback from community members and content experts. Validation of the iBelong Scale comprised data from 808 BIPOC participants collected across three interrelated studies for the purposes of initial validation, construct validity, and test-retest reliability. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis yielded a 25-item scale with five factors: (a) Home, (b) Connection, (c) Authenticity, (d) REC Thriving, and (e) Self-Definition. Results from Study 2's confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the five-factor model was an acceptable fit of the data and the best fit among competing models. Measurement invariance was assessed, and results indicated that the iBelong Scale measures REC belonging similarly across differing BIPOC groups. The iBelong Scale was related to a range of measures in theoretically expected ways, including positive associations with general belonging, racial/ethnic identity, and general well-being, and negative associations with loneliness and REC nonbelonging. Findings from Study 3 indicated the test-retest reliability of the iBelong Scale over a 2-week period. Limitations of the studies and implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Experiences of racial Trauma among perinatal women of color in seeking healthcare services.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of perinatal Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) women in healthcare interactions. METHODS: We conducted eight virtual focus groups with perinatal BIPOC women across the USA from November 2021 to March 2022. A semi-structured interview protocol was used, and focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Our team used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze the qualitative data and describe our findings. RESULTS: Three latent themes emerged related to racial trauma in healthcare interactions: (1) observations and experiences of anti-Black bias, (2) experiences of dismissal of pain and withholding of care, particularly among Black and Latinx patients, and (3) common race-based traumatic experiences across all BIPOC women, including a consistent lack of bodily autonomy and deferral to White people for decision-making. Recommendations from participants included more transparent communication and greater empathic care for all patients, with calls to specifically address anti-Black bias in healthcare treatment. CONCLUSION: The study's findings suggest that perinatal healthcare needs to reduce mental stress and exposure to racial trauma for perinatal BIPOC women. This study offers a discussion of implications for future training for healthcare providers and implications for addressing systemic racial disparities in perinatal mental health.

Resistance and restoration: Healing research methodologies for the global majority.

Objectives: Recently, research has focused both on the influence of institutional racism and how the Global Majority, which includes Black, Indigenous and People of Color, heal from processes related to racial and other forms of oppression. We propose a framework of healing research methodologies that is situated within emerging diversity science trends. This framework specifically is designed to apply diversity science principles to develop research that is culturally relevant and can help explain intragroup processes related to healing from institutional racism. Methods: Drawing from the diversity science, liberation and critical research methodologies, and psychological healing practices literature, we propose a healing research methodologies framework. Results: The healing research methodologies framework consists of six critical components: maintains social justice ethics, adopts liberation methodologies, implements healing methods, embraces interdisciplinary approaches, catalyzes action, and promotes community accessibility. Conclusions: We offer recommendations to guide future diversity science healing research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Internalization of the model minority myth and sociodemographic factors shaping Asians/Asian Americans' experiences of discrimination during COVID-19.

Despite appearing positive, the model minority myth (MMM), or the perception that Asian Americans are "problem-free" minorities, maintains unfair racial hierarchies and discredits the pervasiveness of systemic racism faced by Asian Americans and other Black, Indigenous, and people of Color. This study investigated the role of internalized MMM in Asian/Asian Americans' (A/AA) experiences during the syndemic of COVID-19 and our society's racial reckoning. Using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed A/AA college students' open-ended responses to a query about their experiences as A/AA during COVID-19, which resulted in qualitative themes of Personal and Vicarious Discrimination, Vigilance, Safety due to Ethnicity, Safety due to Environment, and No Difference during COVID-19. We then conducted a series of logistic and linear regression models to examine how internalized MMM and sociodemographic factors (i.e., ethnic group, gender, and generational status) were associated with qualitative themes and quantitative measures of COVID-related discrimination. Overall, findings demonstrated that greater internalized MMM, as well as identifying as South Asian, male, and an international/first-generation immigrant student, were linked to fewer qualitative and quantitative reports of vicarious discrimination. We conclude with implications for research and practice in community psychology that further examine the racialized experiences among A/AA college students and ultimately seek to challenge the MMM and racial hierarchies perpetuating systems of oppression.

Navigating Pregnancy and the Healthcare System during COVID-19: A Qualitative Study with Perinatal Women of Color.

OBJECTIVE: To address health disparities in the perinatal period (i.e., during pregnancy and through one year after birth) by exploring the intersectional experiences of perinatal Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) women during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, participants were asked if and how COVID-19 had impacted their experiences of receiving healthcare, whether they had faced any challenges during this time, how they had navigated these challenges, and what recommendations they had for improving perinatal healthcare. METHODS: Between November 2021 and March 2022 our team conducted eight virtual focus groups comprising perinatal BIPOC women. A semi-structured interview protocol was used, and interviews were voice recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three major themes common in BIPOC perinatal healthcare experiences during COVID-19 were generated through engaging in reflexive thematic analysis: (1) an overwhelming lack of support from providers, (2) experiences of blame and shame, and (3) difficulties navigating institutional policies that were unclear or ever-changing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations from participants included greater empathic communication from providers in the face of uncertainty during COVID-19, greater access to information and guidance for caring for themselves and their babies, and an overall request for greater compassion while navigating an exciting and busy time. RELEVANCE: These findings have implications for trauma-informed and inclusive perinatal care that can reduce the impacts of systemic inequalities for perinatal BIPOC women. This study offers a discussion of implications for future training for maternal health providers and implications for community-based programs.

The public psychology for liberation training model: A call to transform the discipline.

Written against the backdrop of the 2020 twin pandemics of a global health crisis and greater national awareness of structural racism, this article issues a call for psychology to invest in training all psychologists to respond to the social ills of racial and other forms of oppression. We introduce a public psychology for liberation (PPL) training model. Essentially, the model reflects a science, a pedagogical commitment, and practice of, by, and with the people who have been most marginalized in society. The PPL consists of five foundational domains or cross-cutting areas of expertise (e.g., facilitate human relationships; generate reciprocal knowledge and translation) and 10 interrelated lifelong practices (e.g., cultural humility; care and compassion) that foster healing and equity. The model centers the perspectives of the Global Majority, focuses on radical healing and equity, and emphasizes a developmental, culturally grounded, strengths-based approach to training. Various training initiatives consistent with a public psychology for liberation approach are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Characteristics of child psychiatric outpatients with slow processing speed and potential mechanisms of academic impact.

While slow processing speed (PS) is well documented in youth with ADHD, growing evidence suggests that this difficulty affects children with other neuropsychiatric conditions. Clarifying the relationship between slow PS and different forms of psychopathology is important clinically, given the potential impact of PS on academic functioning, and conceptually. In 751 youth, ages 6-21, consecutively referred for neuropsychiatric evaluation, we examined the association between slow PS (i.e., Wechsler PS Index < 85) and seven neuropsychiatric diagnostic groups. In 492 of these youth, we also related slow PS to eight psychopathology symptom dimensions. Finally, we modeled the relationship between PS, other cognitive functions and academic achievement. Data are from the Longitudinal Study of Genetic Influences on Cognition. Analyses included one-sample t tests, ANOVA, logistic regression, mixed modeling, and structural equation modeling (SEM), controlling for age, sex, and medication. Compared to normative data, all clinical groups showed PS decrements. Compared to referred youth without full diagnoses and accounting for other psychopathology, risk for slow PS was elevated in youth with autism spectrum disorder (OR = 1.8), psychotic disorders (OR = 3.4) and ADHD-inattentive type (OR = 1.6). Having multiple comorbidities also increased risk for slow PS. Among dimensions, inattention (OR = 1.5) associated with slow PS but did not fully explain the association with autism or psychosis. In SEM, PS had direct effects on academic achievement and indirect effects through working memory. Findings extend evidence that PS relates to multiple aspects of child psychopathology and associates with academic achievement in child psychiatric outpatients.

Translating Discoveries in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Genomics to an Outpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Cohort.

OBJECTIVE: Genomic discoveries should be investigated in generalizable child psychiatric samples in order to justify and inform studies that will evaluate their use for specific clinical purposes. In youth consecutively referred for neuropsychiatric evaluation, we examined 1) the convergent and discriminant validity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) polygenic risk scores (PRSs) in relation to DSM-based ADHD phenotypes; 2) the association of ADHD PRSs with phenotypes beyond ADHD that share its liability and have implications for outcome; and 3) the extent to which youth with high ADHD PRSs manifest a distinctive clinical profile. METHOD: Participants were 433 youth, ages 7-18 years, from the Longitudinal Study of Genetic Influences on Cognition. We used logistic/linear regression and mixed effects models to examine associations with ADHD-related polygenic variation from the largest ADHD genome-wide association study to date. We replicated key findings in 5,140 adult patients from a local health system biobank. RESULTS: Among referred youth, ADHD PRSs were associated with ADHD diagnoses, cross-diagnostic ADHD symptoms and academic impairment (odds ratios ∼1.4; R2 values ∼2%-3%), as well as cross-diagnostic variation in aggression and working memory. In adults, ADHD PRSs were associated with ADHD and phenotypes beyond the condition that have public health implications. Finally, youth with a high ADHD polygenic burden showed a more severe clinical profile than youth with a low burden (ß coefficients ∼.2). CONCLUSION: Among child and adolescent outpatients, ADHD polygenic risk was associated with ADHD and related phenotypes as well as clinical severity. These results extend the scientific foundation for studies of ADHD polygenic risk in the clinical setting and highlight directions for further research.

Slow Processing Speed and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in Pediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence for Differentiation of Functional Correlates.

The association between slow processing speed and sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), a phenotype described within attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) samples over the past decade, remains unclear. We examined whether SCT and processing speed predict different functional correlates within children and adolescents with ADHD. Participants were 193 clinically-referred youth meeting DSM ADHD criteria without comorbid conditions (mean age = 9.9 years, SD = 2.5; age range 6-16). The incremental utility of SCT and processing speed to predict (1) adaptive functioning and (2) academic achievement, after controlling for age, sex, medication status, and ADHD symptom burden, was assessed using hierarchical multiple regressions. SCT symptoms significantly predicted adaptive functioning, accounting for 6% of the variance, but did not predict academic achievement. Processing speed did not add incrementally to the prediction of adaptive functioning, but did predict academic achievement, accounting for 4% of the variance. Results suggest that SCT and processing speed differentially predict functional abilities not accounted for by ADHD symptom burden.