Religion and health in Mexican Americans

The relationship between religion and health was investigated using data from a three-generation study of mexican Americans. Two measures of religion—religious institution attendance and self-rated religiosity—were correlated with a number of functional health indicators, including self-rated health, activity restriction owing to health, bed disability days, physician utilization, worry over health, a physical symptoms scale, and a depression scale. In addition, prevalence rates were calculated for several major chronic diseases. Many significant associations obtained, as well as an inverse relationship between self-rated religiosity and hypertension. These findings are interpreted in light of the literature on religious attendance and health and on religion and aging.This research was supportive by Grant No. AG04170 of the National Institute on Aging. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Laura Ray in teh programming phase of the data analysis.     

Barriers to use of mental health services by Japanese university students

The present cross-sectional study assessed the attitude of Japanese undergraduates towards mental health services and investigated whether mental distress is associated with reluctance to use, and a decreased perceived need for, mental health services. A convenience sample of 194 students (98 men and 96 women) completed the 28-item Japanese version of the General Health Questionnaire and questions regarding reluctance to use and perceived need for mental health services. Participants were in the second to fourth years of undergraduate work and their majors were psychology and technology. Analyses showed that approximately 70% of students were reluctant to use mental health services and this reluctance was less in the group scoring high on anxiety and insomnia than the group scoring lower. Also, perceived need for mental health services was higher for those scoring high on depression. There were some discrepancies in the results and previous studies. Implications of these findings for clinical and preventive practice and for direction for research are discussed.     

Japanese Americans and mental health

This is a personal account by a second-generation Japanese American of the special problems faced by certain minority groups and their effects on the mental health of individuals and families in these groups. It discusses the cultural and historic forces in traditional Japanese life whose interaction with American customs produces emotional stresses and delineates the barriers to seeking professional help that originate in the Japanese emphasis on avoidance of family shame. It reports on studies indicating an increase in intermarriage and emphasizes the commonality existing among groups and races that can serve to fuse the special uniqueness of each into the larger human family.Based on an address given on June 16, 1978 to the Japanese American Citizens League and reprinted here with permission from theNew York Nichibei.     

Gender and mental health: An examination of procedural justice in a specialized court context

The procedural justice framework has been applied in the criminal justice contexts of policing, corrections, and courts. According to this perspective, fair treatment, respectful dialogue and being given a proper voice will contribute to citizens' positive views of authority figures. While this literature has grown immensely, several questions remain unanswered. Do males and females perceive similar levels of procedural justice? Does mental health status influence perceptions of fair treatment? Whether procedural justice is a general perspective that can be applied across social groupings has important implications for correctional treatment in that programs that truly “work” for all are more cost‐effective. Toward that end, the current study investigates the relationships among procedural justice perceptions, gender, and mental health status in specialized drug courts, a context that has received little empirical attention. We do so using secondary data originally collected between 2003 and 2009 for Rossman, Roman, Zweig, Rempel and Lindquist's Multisite Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE). Results from a full‐sample analysis reveal that women report higher levels of procedural justice; that drug court participation significantly influences procedural justice perceptions; and that depressive symptomology is a significant predictor of procedural justice perceptions. In male‐ and female‐specific subsamples, drug court participation exerts similar effects for males and females, as does depressive symptomology. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Developing coordination of services between a mental health center and a public school system

A child-and-family oriented community mental health center of necessity is concerned with the manner in which the school system in its community is providing for the psychological, social, and emotional development of children. Fortunately, over the last decade, the number of school systems that are aware of their responsibility in this regard has greatly increased, and many affluent and enlightened school systems have moved to develop extensive pupil personnel services, functioning in many ways as in-house mental health programs. Where there are mental health providers both within the community and within the school system, however, problems may develop such as professional competition, overlapping functions, and differences with regard to how mental health problems are best dealt with. This paper will examine the relationship of a town-supported mental health program and the town's public school system. Highlighted will be the variety of problems which develop, including those mentioned above, and strategies adopted to resolve the problems.     

Suicide survivors seeking mental health services: a preliminary examination of the role of an active postvention model

Archival data from suicide survivors presenting for treatment from 1999-2005 at the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center (BRCIC) were used to examine differences in those who received an active model of postvention (APM; n=150) compared to those who received a traditional passive postvention (PP, n=206). APM presented sooner for treatment (48 days) than PP (97 days). APM survivors were more likely to have been the survivor of a violent suicide. APM were more likely than PP to attend survivor support group meetings and APM attended more groups. To better understand the efficacy of APM in helping survivors, a prospective evaluation is needed.     

Mental health services for African Americans: a cultural/racial perspective

African Americans have made consistent progress toward first-class citizenship since 1965. Nonetheless, mental health services for this population have been biased, incomplete, and deficient because similarities to European Americans have been emphasized whereas differences were largely ignored. This article addresses some differences, including cultural/racial identity and the cultural self, that affect assessment, psychiatric diagnoses, and psychotherapy or other interventions. An assessment-intervention model illustrates how cultural information can inform service delivery and improve services to African Americans. Cultural/racial perspectives on mental health in a multicultural society suggest innovations in the design of these services and access to them that can increase utilization by African Americans.     

State planning of mental health services

Planning is the vital process that links needs to solutions. The interorganizational field of human services constitutes a "turbulent environment," a condition of rapid change, and there needs to be greater receptivity toward comprehensive planning on the part of state departments of mental health. Increased overlap with various welfare and educational service, advances in scientific knowledge, and shifts in general attitudes and social philosophy lead to demands for new and different types of service and require changes in approach and method. Generalized findings of a study of 14 state departments of mental health are presented.     

The impact of living in a bio-secure bubble on mental health: An examination in elite cricket

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on many people’s lives, including the use of bio-secure environments to facilitate the continuation of professional sport. Although it is well documented that the pandemic has negatively impacted mental health, the impact of bio-bubbles on mental health is yet to be investigated. In the present study we sought to identify the impact of bio-bubbles on the mental health of those residing within, and then to explore the underlying mechanism of any such impact. Individuals (n = 68) who resided in England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) created bio-bubbles between March 2020 and April 2021 provided data, regarding their time inside and outside of bio-bubbles, on measures of mental health and basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration. Analysis revealed that bio-bubbles increased anxiety and depression and reduced wellbeing. Additionally, MEMORE mediation analyses revealed that autonomy frustration mediated the relationship between bubble status and all mental health markers. Furthermore, compared to men, women were more likely to experience elevated levels of anxiety and depression inside the bubble. The findings suggest that bio-bubbles negatively impact mental health and further suggest that satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs is a contributing factor. Findings suggest organizations tasked with creating bio-bubbles would do well to tailor their environment with an awareness of the importance of basic psychological needs and sex differences in relation to mental health. To the best of our knowledge, this research represents the first investigation of the impact of bio-bubbles on mental health.     

Sexuality among Mexican Americans: a case of sexual stereotyping

The purpose of this study was to establish an empirical base for the comprehensive study of sexual preferences and practices among Mexican Americans. The sample consisted of 165 Mexican-American (86 male, 79 female) and 99 Anglo (47 male, 52 female) undergraduates. The instrument used was the Sexual Knowledge and Attitude Test (SKAT; Lief & Reed, 1972). The first section of the SKAT consists of four attitudes subscales dealing with autoeroticism, abortion, heterosexual relations, and sexual myths. The second section includes 50 true-false items testing knowledge of the biological, psychological, and social facts of human sexuality. The last section focuses on the respondent's sexual value system and practices. The design was a 2 (ethnicity) X 2 (gender) X 4 (religion) X 3 (socioeconomic status) incomplete factorial, in which the effect of interest was ethnicity. This effect was assessed controlling for subjects' age, gender, religious preference, and socioeconomic status. The dependent variables were subjects' sexual attitudes, knowledge, sexual value system, and sexual practices. Tests of significance were undertaken separately for each set of dependent variables, with a correspondingly reduced alpha level. Significant differences were obtained between Mexican Americans and Anglos, in attitudes, knowledge, value system, and practices, in clear support of the hypotheses.     

Cultural competence and evidence-based practice in mental health services: a complementary perspective

The need for cultural competence and the need for evidence-based practice in mental health services are major issues in contemporary discourse, especially in the psychological treatment of people of color. Although these 2 paradigms are complementary in nature, there is little cross-fertilization in the psychological literature. The present article illustrates the complementary nature of these 2 paradigms. A main point of convergence is related to the development of culturally adapted interventions in the move from efficacy research to effectiveness studies. The implications of cultural adaptations of empirically supported treatments for mental health services in terms of research and practice with ethnic/racial minority populations are discussed.     

Church-based social relationships, belonging, and health among older Mexican Americans

The purpose of this study is to explain how church-based emotional support influences the health of older Mexican Americans. This issue is evaluated with a theoretical model that contains the following core linkages: (1) older Mexican Americans who go to church more often will be more likely to receive emotional support from fellow church members; (2) older Mexican Americans who receive more support from their fellow church members will be more likely to feel they belong in their congregation; (3) older Mexican Americans who feel they belong in their congregation are likely to have a stronger sense of personal control; and (4) older Mexican Americans who have a stronger sense of personal control are likely to enjoy better health. Data from a recent nationwide survey of older Mexican Americans provide support for each of these relationships.     

Wrapping community-based mental health services around children with a severe behavioral disorder: An evaluation of project wraparound

During the past two decades there has been a significant increase in community-based mental health and educational services for children and youth with serious emotional and behavioral problems and their families. However, in the vast majority of programs there are no reliable longitudinal data on the adjustment of the children that are served. Project Wraparound was a community-based individualized treatment program which served children and youth with severely maladjusted behavior and their families by providing intensive home and school-based services. The purpose of this paper is to provide a longitudinal analysis of client and family adjustment data. Data on client adjustment within the home and characteristics of the home environment were obtained at intervals of 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Data on client adjustment in school was obtained at four points over a period of 2 years. The results from 19 cases indicate that substantial change occurred on measures of the home environment and client adjustment in the home with no significant change in adjustment in the school. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Sexual assault history and use of health and mental health services

A history of sexual assault may be associated with increased current use of mental health and medical services because of the psychologically and physically disruptive consequences of assault. To test this hypothesis, we estimated rates of mental health and medical services use among 2560 randomly selected community residents, 343 of whom had been sexually assaulted. Sexual assault was associated with seeking both forms of care. Controls for demographic variables, psychiatric diagnosis, health status, and insurance suggested that assault increases use indirectly, through poor mental and physical health. Uninsured, assaulted respondents were especially likely to consult medical providers. Respondents assaulted during childhood were particularly likely to seek mental health care. Assault was more common among mental health service users than nonusers, and among women using medical services compared to female nonpatients. The high prevalence of assault among service users underscores the need for providers to recognize and treat sexual assault-related problems.     

Attitude similarity and familiarity and their links to mental health: An examination of potential interpersonal mediators

Similarity and familiarity with partner’s attitudes are linked to positive relationship outcomes, while interpersonal variables have been linked to mental health. Using multilevel models (MLMs), we modeled the associations between these attitudinal variables and mental health outcomes in 74 married couples. We found that higher levels of attitude similarity in couples were linked to lower depression, while higher levels of attitude familiarity in couples were associated with greater satisfaction with life. Mediational analyses indicated marital satisfaction and interpersonal stress mediated the link between attitude similarity and depression. Marital satisfaction also mediated the link between familiarity and satisfaction with life. This study is the first linking attitude familiarity to mental health and provides evidence that familiarity and similarity have mental health effects partly due to their interpersonal consequences.