Intergenerational family conflict and ethnic identity among Chinese American college students.

There has been a call for increased attention to experiences of sociocultural contexts and their role in mental health and help-seeking among specific subgroups of Asian Americans (Leong, Park, & Kalibatseva, 2013). In particular, as suggested by the integrative contextual framework of minority youth development (García Coll & Marks, 2012), racial minority adolescents and emerging adults develop identity and psychological well-being through their experiences within multiple contexts. Guided by this perspective, the present study examined the role of specific developmental and contextual factors (e.g., acculturation-based intergenerational family conflict and ethnic identity) on depressive and anxiety symptoms and help-seeking attitudes among Chinese American college students. One-hundred and 73 Chinese American college students (132 women and 36 men) from various geographic regions in the U.S. completed a series of questionnaires administered online, assessing acculturation-based intergenerational family conflict, ethnic identity, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and help-seeking attitudes. The findings indicated that the seriousness of acculturation-based intergenerational family conflict and the commitment dimension of ethnic identity were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Additionally, the exploration dimension of ethnic identity was associated with less favorable attitudes toward seeking help from mental health professionals. There was no association between acculturation-based intergenerational family conflict and help-seeking attitudes. The findings underscore the importance of developing culturally informed interventions that attend to the intensity of family conflict and one's sense of connection to ethnic community in the college context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

APA Multicultural Guidelines executive summary: Ecological approach to context, identity, and intersectionality.

The initial version of the Multicultural Guidelines, titled Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists, was published in 2002. Since then, there has been significant growth in research and theory regarding multicultural contexts. The revised Multicultural Guidelines are conceptualized to reconsider diversity and multicultural practice within professional psychology at this period in time, with intersectionality as its primary purview. Psychologists are encouraged to incorporate developmental and contextual antecedents of identity and consider how they can be acknowledged, addressed, and embraced to generate more effective models of professional engagement. The Multicultural Guidelines incorporate broad reference group identities that acknowledge within-group differences and the role of self-definition. Identity is shaped across contexts and time by cultural influences including age, generation, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, race, religion, spirituality, language, sexual orientation, social class, education, employment, ability status, national origin, immigration status, and historical as well as ongoing experiences of marginalization. The theoretical model, a layered ecological model of the Multicultural Guidelines, is presented along with 10 corresponding guidelines. The guidelines are applicable to psychologists in their work with clients, students, research participants, and in practice, education, research, and/or consultation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental and contextual correlates of mental health and help-seeking among Asian American college students.

Guided by an integrative contextual framework of immigrant youth development (García Coll & Marks, 2012), this study investigated the potential role of developmental (e.g., ethnic identity) and contextual factors (e.g., perceived discrimination, stereotyping) in mental health outcomes and help-seeking attitudes, and variations across gender and nativity among Asian American college students. Online surveys assessing perceived subtle and blatant racism, ethnic identity, the internalization of the model minority stereotype, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and attitudes toward seeking help from mental health professionals were administered to Asian American college student participants (n = 465) from diverse ethnic backgrounds and geographic regions in the United States. The findings support prior research indicating that perceived subtle racism and blatant racism are positively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Further, only certain dimensions of ethnic identity and internalization of the model minority stereotype were found to be associated with mental health outcomes and help-seeking attitudes. The findings did not indicate a significant association between perceived racism and help-seeking attitudes. There were also no significant differences in the relationships among variables across gender and nativity, with the exception of the association between ethnic identity and help-seeking attitudes across gender. The study identified potential risk and protective factors in mental health, while underscoring the multidimensional aspects of social and contextual factors that contribute to mental health and help seeking among Asian American college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

South Asian adolescents' experiences of acculturative stress and coping.

Despite the significant growth in the South Asian population in the United States over the past 2 decades, the experiences of South Asian adolescents have remained largely invisible. Guided by a socioecological perspective (American Psychological Association, 2012; García Coll & Marks, 2012), this study examined South Asian adolescents' experiences of acculturative stress and approaches to coping with this stress across home and school contexts. A semistructured interview was completed by 16 participants (9 girls, 7 boys; ages 14-18 years) from different South Asian backgrounds, attending an urban public high school in the Northeastern part of the United States. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the interview data, and revealed 4 broad categories or domains related to participants' experiences as young South Asians in the U.S. These domains include the following: (a) Connection to family, community, and heritage; (b) Challenges to acculturation; (c) Stress accompanying the navigation across cultural contexts; and (d) Coping and resilience. Participants' narratives reflect acculturative stress experienced in home and school contexts which can inhibit psychological well-being and bicultural identity development. The findings have important implications for culturally informed research, intervention, and policy. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ethnic identity, perceived support, and depressive symptoms among racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents.

Although racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents compose a rapidly growing sector of the U.S. population, few studies have examined the role of contextual factors in mental health among these youth. The present study examined the relationship between ethnic identity and depressive symptoms, the relationship between perceived social support and depressive symptoms, and the relationship between sociodemographic factors (ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status) and depressive symptoms, among a culturally diverse group of adolescents. In addition, the potential moderating role of nativity status (U.S. born vs. foreign born) was examined in these associations. Participants were 9th and 10th graders (N = 341; 141 foreign born and 200 U.S. born, from Asian, Latino(a), and Afro-Caribbean backgrounds), attending an urban high school. Consistent with previous research, ethnic identity was negatively associated with depressive symptomatology in the overall sample. Nativity status did not moderate the relationship between ethnic identity and depressive symptoms. Among the sociodemographic factors examined, only gender was associated with depressive symptoms, with girls reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms compared with boys. Contrary to expectations, there were no differences in the degree of depressive symptomatology between U.S.-born and foreign-born adolescents, and perceived social support was not associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The findings suggest the importance of gender and ethnic identity in mental health and, more broadly, the complexity of social location in mental health outcomes among U.S.-born and foreign-born immigrant-origin adolescents. Implications for research and interventions with immigrant-origin adolescents are discussed.

Expanding our borders: Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology's special issue on immigration.

Introduces the current special issue of the journal, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. This special issue focuses on the topic of immigration and highlights the important within group differences often overlooked when immigrants are conceptualized as a homogeneous group. The articles in this journal consider a variety of microsystems, such as educational settings, ethnic and gay communities, and communities with anti-immigration laws.

Perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among immigrant-origin adolescents.

Although discrimination has been found to contribute to psychological distress among immigrant populations, there are few studies that have examined the relationship between racial and ethnic discrimination in the school setting among foreign-born immigrant and U.S.-born immigrant-origin adolescents. This study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination by adults and peers in the school setting and depressive symptoms in a sample (N = 95) of racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents (13 to 19 years of age) attending an urban high school. We examined the relation between perceived discrimination and depressive symptomology across gender and nativity status (foreign born vs. U.S. born), and the potential moderating role of ethnic identity and social support. Consistent with previous research, girls reported higher levels of depressive symptomology than boys, although the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was significant for both boys and girls. Perceived discrimination by adults and by peers at school was positively related to depressive symptoms for U.S.-born adolescents. For U.S.-born adolescents, ethnic identity mitigated the negative effects of perceived adult discrimination on depressive symptoms. However, ethnic identity did not moderate the relationship between perceived peer discrimination and depressive symptoms. Social support did not moderate the relationship between adult and peer discrimination and depressive symptoms for either foreign-born or U.S.-born adolescents. The findings support previous research concerning the immigrant paradox and highlight the importance of context in the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.

Perceived support from adults, interactions with police, and adolescents' depressive symptomology: an examination of sex, race, and social class.

Several risk factors, including female sex, racial minority status, and family poverty, have been implicated in adolescents' depression. The present study focused on the role of one specific aspect of adolescents' ecological context, interactions with adults, in depressive symptomology. We examined the relationship between perceived support from adult family members and adults at school and depressive symptomology, and the relationship between negative interactions with police and depressive symptomology among adolescents, across sex, race, and social class. Participants included 707 adolescents (349 boys and 358 girls) from an urban high school. Analyses revealed that perceived support from adult family members was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, that negative interactions with police were positively associated with depressive symptoms, and that these relationships varied with respect to sex, race, and social class. The implications of the findings for research and practice with adolescents are discussed.

Contemporary impingements on mothering.

Mothering in contemporary Western society needs to be understood in the context of a rapidly changing social context. Increased geographic mobility, improved access to child-related information through the media, and scientific and technological progress have contributed to significant shifts in cultural views on mothering. Several contextual impingements on mothering, including changing family structure, economic pressures, decreased social support, cultural ideals of the perfect mother, and increased awareness of interpersonal and global trauma impact mothers' internal worlds. These societal changes often reinforce mothers' fear of losing their children and an idealization of intensive mothering, and evoke challenges in reorganizing their sense of personal identity. Implications for psychoanalytic theory and practice, and specifically the need to integrate individual and contextual forces related to experiences of mothers will be explored.

A theoretical framework for understanding help-seeking processes among survivors of intimate partner violence.

This paper suggests a conceptual framework for understanding the processes of help-seeking among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). A cognitive theory from general literature on help-seeking in "stigmatizing" situations suggests three relevant processes or stages of seeking help in the IPV context: defining the problem, deciding to seek help, and selecting a source of support. Individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors that influence decision-making at each of these stages are discussed and illustrated with case examples.

Addressing political and racial terror in the therapeutic relationship.

Political and racial terror have important implications for the process of psychotherapy. This type of trauma can have unique effects on individual psychology and the larger social context of patients' lives that are distinct from other types of interpersonal trauma. Several intrapsychic processes, such as one's experience of mirroring, fear of annihilation, identification and internalization of aggression, the collective remembering of trauma, and subsequent mourning, are transformed through one's experiences of political and racial terror. Clinical illustrations of 2 patients treated in psychotherapy before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, elaborate these effects of political and racial trauma. The implications of addressing these types of traumatic experience in psychotherapy, including issues of therapeutic neutrality, are discussed.

Mothering in a foreign land.

The process of becoming a mother in an adopted land presents unique challenges in identity formation of immigrant mothers. The bidirectional influence of the mother's own transformation and that of the larger family system has significant implications for child development. This article addresses the ways in which cultural displacement has an impact on the dilemmas of motherhood, as evident in adaptation to the immigration process, changing conceptions of gender roles and attachment, bicultural conflicts, and changing family structure and social network. Mothers' attempts to integrate the old and the new cultural frameworks are explored, particularly in the context of psychotherapy. Clinical cases are discussed to illustrate the intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts faced by immigrant mothers.