Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnoracial Historical Trauma in the United States.

Throughout time, ethnoracial groups have endured a range of traumatic experiences as historically marginalized members of the United States. The consequences of these experiences have been referred to as historical trauma (HT): a collective trauma, inflicted on a group of people who share a specific identity, that has psychological, physical, and social impacts on succeeding generations. In this review, we examine the literature on HT in relation to US ethnoracial groups by defining HT, providing a background for its development, and describing critiques of the concept. We then review the literature on HT in relation to Indigenous Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. For each group, we address the nature of HT, the transmission of HT and its impacts, and healing strategies. We conclude with a summary of the benefits, limitations, and complexities of HT research as well as recommendations for future work in this area.

The role of bicultural stress and shame on the well-being of South Asian college students in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: South Asian U.S. college students experience socialization from South Asian cultures they grew up with and White culture outside the South Asian community. The present study considers that the ways of navigating two conflicting cultures and experiences of shame are associated with anxiety and life satisfaction among South Asian U.S. college students. METHOD: An anonymous survey, distributed to 271 South Asian students (mean age = 22, 38.2% male, 59.2% female, 2.3% nonbinary), quantitively assessed how bicultural stress and shame are related to anxiety and life satisfaction. Open-ended questions asked students to describe experiences of bicultural identity stressors and shame. RESULTS: Survey results indicated bicultural stress and shame as predictors of anxiety and lower life satisfaction. Thematic analysis of open-ended question responses revealed experienced stressors related to academics, finances, family expectations, and fitting in. Shame experiences were tied to bicultural stress and family and self-imposed expectations of participants. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to further investigate the relationships found in the present study and explore ways to support South Asian students experiencing bicultural stress and shame. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions of Sibling Relationships and Birth Order among Asian American and European American Emerging Adults.

Drawing from an ecological systems framework, we qualitatively explored how Confucian-heritage Asian American emerging adults compared with non-Hispanic European American emerging adults on views of sibling relationships and birth order. Thematic analysis of 48 semi-structured interviews revealed positive sibling relationship themes for both ethnocultural groups: mutual support, companionship, and appreciation; comfort from shared burden of negative parental interactions; and pride in one another. Birth-order themes were also similar across the groups. First-borns overall reported a strong pressure to be a role model to later-borns, provide sibling care, assume family responsibilities, and not expect to rely on younger siblings. Despite these similarities, Asian American first-borns were unique in taking comfort in having siblings who shared a less traditional Asian cultural perspective than their parents. They also described additional pressure from being the oldest within an immigrant family.

Japanese American reactions to World War II incarceration redress: Just world belief, locus of control, and coping.

This study examines second generation (Nisei) Japanese Americans' reactions to government redress for their unjust incarceration during World War II. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to explore the roles of individual difference factors-Belief in a Just World (BJW), Locus of Control (LOC)-and Incarceration-Related Coping in predicting (a) reported redress-related Suffering Relief and (b) Positive Redress Impacts. Findings show that BJW was a stronger predictor of redress reactions than LOC, with higher BJW associated with more affirmative views of redress. In addition, Incarceration-Related Coping mediated a majority of the relationships between the individual difference factors and redress reactions.

Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Bridging Two Disciplinary Discourses.

In recent years psychologists have been increasingly concerned about potentially harmful therapy, yet this recent discourse has not addressed issues that have long been voiced by the multicultural counseling and psychotherapy movement. We aim to begin to bring these seemingly disparate discourses of harm into greater conversation with one another, in the service of placing the discipline on a firmer foothold in its considerations of potentially harmful therapy. After reviewing the two discourses and exploring reasons for their divergence, we argue that they operate according to differing assumptions pertaining to the sources, objects, and scope of harm. We then argue that these differences reveal the discipline's need to better appreciate that harm is a social construct, that psychotherapy may be inherently ethnocentric, and that strategies for collecting evidence of harm should be integrated with a social justice agenda.

Mental health help-seeking intentions & coping strategies of Chinese international students in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Chinese international students (CIS) in the United States may face unique mental health challenges that are often overlooked in discussions about mainstream college student needs. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the predictors of mental health (MH) professional help-seeking intentions among CIS at a large public Midwestern university, as well as the obstacles that hinder their use of professional MH services. METHODS: The study used quantitative and qualitative approaches to gather data on CIS' help-seeking attitudes. Quantitative analysis focused on the association between specific factors and help-seeking intentions. Qualitative coding of open-ended questions provided additional insights into obstacles and suggestions for improving mental health support. RESULTS: The study identified several factors influencing the mental health help-seeking intentions of Chinese international students. Two primary negative predictors were a preference for emotional self-control and concerns about the questionable quality of treatment. Conversely, having previous experience with professional mental health services, both in China and the United States, was found to be a positive predictor of help-seeking intentions. Additionally, qualitative analysis of open-ended responses revealed further obstacles to seeking help and provided useful suggestions for enhancing mental health support for Chinese international students in college settings. CONCLUSIONS: The study identifies key factors that influence CIS' attitudes toward seeking professional mental health services. Understanding these factors can help in developing strategies to better support the mental health of CIS in college settings. LIMITATIONS: Several limitations must be acknowledged in this study. The cross-sectional design limits the ability to draw causal inferences from the data. Additionally, the sample may not be fully representative of the broader population of Chinese international students, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. Self-reported data may also introduce response biases. Future research should consider longitudinal approaches and a more diverse sample to validate and expand on these findings.

Relationship between religion and redress relief among Japanese American World War II incarceration survivors.

Soon after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans (two-thirds U.S. citizens) were rounded up and ordered into desolate incarceration (internment) camps based only on their ethnic heritage. More than 40 years later, the U.S. government acknowledged that the Japanese American incarceration was unjustified and provided a formal apology and monetary award to surviving incarcerees. The present study investigates the relationship between religious affiliation (Buddhist and Christian) and subsequent perceptions of relief associated with the government's belated redress. Based on a national sample of U.S.-born Japanese American former incarcerees (N = 454), Buddhist incarcerees reported greater relief from receiving redress than Christians. Across religious affiliations, older incarcerees and those with lower income reported more relief. Both Buddhist and Christian respondents who perceived more Japanese American incarceration-related physical suffering, and those who believed in a just world, experienced greater relief. In addition, Buddhists who more strongly believed their lives are controlled by unpredictable fate/fortune, and Christians who more strongly believed their lives were controlled by powerful others experienced greater redress relief. Findings suggest the role of religious frameworks in shaping the restorative capacity of belated reparative acts following historical racial trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Historical Trauma and Descendants' Well-Being.

Because multiple Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the United States have experienced historical trauma (HT), it is important to understand HT's impact on the well-being of members of subsequent generations. This article addresses intergenerational trauma transmission, focusing primarily on Japanese American and Southeast Asian American communities. Research on these groups illuminates strategies for future empirical investigations of intergenerational trauma in other AAPI populations and suggests implications for care.

The Japanese American wartime incarceration: Examining the scope of racial trauma.

Ten weeks after the 1941 Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the U.S. government authorized the removal of more than 110,000 Japanese American men, women, and children from their homes in Western portions of the country to incarceration camps in desolate areas of the United States. The mass incarceration was portrayed as necessary to protect the country from potential acts of espionage or sabotage that might be committed by someone of Japanese ancestry. However, an extensive government review initiated in 1980 found no evidence of military necessity to support the removal decision and concluded that the incarceration was a grave injustice fueled by racism and war hysteria. The Japanese American wartime experience represents a powerful case example of race-based historical trauma. This article describes the consequences of the incarceration for Japanese Americans during and after their unjust imprisonment, their coping responses and healing strategies, as well as the impacts of receiving governmental redress more than four decades after the war's end. Examination of this specific event provides a perspective for understanding the long-term, radiating effects of racial trauma and the process of healing, over a broad arc of time and across social contexts. Current relevance of the Japanese American incarceration and implications for the field of psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Asian values and perceptions of intergenerational family conflict among Asian American students.

This investigation explores the perceptions of intergenerational family conflict among 93 Asian American college students from immigrant families in relation to reported discrepancies in Asian values with their parents, behavioral acculturation, gender, and ethnicity (Chinese and Korean). The study is unique in its examination of parent gender and specific dimensions of Asian values as predictors of perceived parent-child conflict. The findings indicated that as discrepancies in Asian values with either parent increased, reports of parent-child conflict also increased. Values discrepancies, but not behavioral acculturation, were significantly associated with perceived family conflicts. Independent hierarchical regression models revealed a significant association between conflict ratings and values discrepancies with mothers on the dimension of Conforming to Family Norms, and with fathers on the dimension of Education/Career Issues. However, interaction effects within a combined model to test beta coefficients differences between parents were not significant. Results also suggest that intergenerational conflict may be associated with discrepancy on Respecting Elders. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Psychosocial correlates of self-reported coping among Japanese Americans interned during World War II.

This study investigated psychosocial correlates of self-reported internment coping among Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. Economic, physical, emotional, and total coping were assessed in relation to demographics, distal internment characteristics (age interned and length of internment), proximal internment variables (internment talk with parents, negative internment communications and emotions, in-group preference and associations), and individual personality variables (self-esteem and locus of control). Although relationships with distal variables were nonsignificant, proximal variables of negative communications and emotions and preference for Japanese Americans were significantly associated with coping reports. Self-esteem, locus of control, and income were partial mediators of internment coping ratings. Findings are discussed in relation to the complexities of assessing long-term coping responses to historical trauma.

Psychological reactions to redress: diversity among Japanese Americans interned during World War II.

The psychological reactions of 2nd-generation (Nisei) Japanese Americans to receiving redress from the U.S. government for the injustices of their World War II internment were investigated. The respondents, all of whom had been interned during the war, rated the degree to which the receipt of redress nearly 50 years after their incarceration was associated with 8 different areas of personal impact. Results indicated that redress was reported to be most effective in increasing faith in the government and least effective in reducing physical suffering from the internment. Women and older respondents reported more positive redress effects. In addition, lower levels of current income, an attitudinal preference for Japanese Americans, and preredress support for seeking monetary compensation each increased the prediction of positive redress effects. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of social and retributive justice.

Intergenerational communication of race-related trauma by Japanese American former internees.

The present study investigated the intergenerational communications between Japanese Americans who were unjustly ordered into U.S. concentration camps during World War II and their offspring born after the war. Survey data were collected from 450 2nd-generation (Nisei) Japanese American former internees to assess patterns of communication with their children about the internment. The study and its results are discussed in relation to racial socialization and the influence of ethnicity on reactions to traumatic stress.

Asian American and Pacific Islanders Mental Health Issues: A Historical Perspective.

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER. This paper reviews literature documenting these complexities and emphasizes the need to adopt a dynamic, multidimensional framework in conceptualizing Asian American ethnic identity and acculturation. In particular, the paper highlights the importance of evaluating the role of intergenerational and sociohistorical influences that can shape and change an individual's acculturative and ethnic identity experiences. SUMMARY OF THE METHODS UTILIZED. The author reviewed the last ten years of literature on Asian American mental health. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. Mental health professionals recognize the importance of assessing a client's level of acculturation and ethnic identification. However, research findings demonstrate complex relationships among acculturation, ethnic identity, and psychological functioning. CONCLUSIONS. It is proposed that the inclusion of these factors within a multidimensional framework represents a needed step in advancing our understanding of Asian American identity and acculturation. The clinical and research implications of these issues are discussed. RELEVANCE TO ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICAN POPULATIONS. This paper calls attention to the absence of an optimum, mental healthy resolution of ethnic identity formation that can be applied to all Asian Americans and the shared as well as unique qualities of each Asian American. KEY WORDS. Asian American; Pacific Islander; mental health; acculturation.

Exploring the Effects of Mood Checklist Pretesting on Experimental Mood Induction Procedures.

Research was conducted to investigate the potential impact of mood checklist (MAACL) pretesting upon the Velten experimental mood induction procedure. Multivariate analyses (MANOVA and ANCOVA) of the three MAACL subscales (Depression, Anxiety, and Hostility) suggest that variance unique to Anxiety, and that shared between Anxiety and the other subscales, is affected by pretesting, including both a main effect and a pretesting X Velten interaction. In contrast, the Velten manipulation impacted only variance unique to Depression and variance shared between Depression and the other two subscales. Apart from their significance for mood induction research, these findings provide rare evidence for the discrimination validity of the MAAACL subscales. Implications of these findings are discussed along with methodological suggestions for future studies.