Educating Somali Immigrant and Refugee Students: A Review of Cultural-Historical Issues and Related Psychoeducational Supports

Somali immigrants and refugees have entered the United States with increasing frequency due to civil war-induced violence and instability in their native country. The resultant increase of Somali students is of particular relevance to educators and school psychologists because Somali youth possess unique cultural backgrounds. In addition, refugee youth are at an elevated risk for mental health and academic difficulties due to their pre-immigration exposure to traumatic events and lack of formal education. In this article, we provide an overview of Somali history and culture, recent immigrant trends, and the challenges faced by Somali children and youth in the United States. Then, we describe the research on school-based supports for the academic and social-emotional needs of this population, and discuss implications for school psychological services and applied research.     

Toward Understanding Each Other: Bridging Gaps in the Science-and-Religion Dialogue

Abstract. The high degree of specialization in society and compartmentalization in education have resulted in increasing difficulty in communicating across different fields of study. I propose that these gaps in communication across disciplines must be addressed to ensure a fruitful ongoing science‐and‐religion dialogue.     

Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation

Cet article présente plusieurs des principaux résultats d’une grande étude internationale sur l’acculturation et l’adaptation de jeunes immigrés (âgés de 13 à 18 ans) qui se sont implantés dans treize pays (N = 5,366); il y est adjoint un échantillon de jeunes nationaux (N = 2,631). La recherche s’appuyait sur trois questions centrales: comment les jeunes migrants gèrent‐ils le processus d’acculturation? Comment parviennent‐ils à s’adapter? Et y a‐t‐il un lien manifeste entre la forme d’acculturation et le succès de l’adaptation? L’analyse en clusters déboucha sur quatre profils d’acculturation: intégrateur, ethnique, national et diffus. L’analyse factorielle de cinq variables d’adaptation mit en évidence deux types d’adaptation: psychologique et socioculturel. Il existe une forte relation entre la façon dont les jeunes s’acculturent et leur adaptation: ceux qui présentent un profil intégrateur bénéficient des meilleurs indicateurs d’adaptations psychologique et socioculturelle alors que ceux souffrant d’un profil diffus ont les pires. Entre les deux, le profil ethnique présente une adaptation psychologique relativement bonne et une adaptation socioculturelle plutôt pauvre, tandis que le profil national a une adaptation psychologique relativement pauvre et une adaptation socioculturelle légèrement négative. Cette configuration de résultats fut en grande partie retrouvée à travers une modélisation en équation structurelle. Les conséquences pour l’implantation des jeunes immigrés sont claires: ils devraient être encouragés à préserver l’appartenance à leur culture d’origine tout en établissant des liens étroits avec la société d’accueil. This paper reports some of the main findings from a large international study of the acculturation and adaptation of immigrant youth (aged 13 to 18 years) who are settled in 13 societies (N= 5,366), as well as a sample of national youth (N= 2,631). The study was guided by three core questions: How do immigrant youth deal with the process of acculturation? How well do they adapt? Are there important relationships between how they acculturate and how well they adapt? Cluster analysis produced four distinct acculturation profiles: integration, ethnic, national, and diffuse. Factor analysis of five adaptation variables revealed two distinct forms of adaptation: psychological and sociocultural. There were substantial relationships between how youth acculturate and how well they adapt: those with an integration profile had the best psychological and sociocultural adaptation outcomes, while those with a diffuse profile had the worst; in between, those with an ethnic profile had moderately good psychological adaptation but poorer sociocultural adaptation, while those with a national profile had moderately poor psychological adaptation, and slightly negative sociocultural adaptation. This pattern of results was largely replicated using structural equation modeling. Implications for the settlement of immigrant youth are clear: youth should be encouraged to retain both a sense of their own heritage cultural identity, while establishing close ties with the larger national society.     

Examining the Meaning of Training Animals: A Photovoice Study With At-Risk Youth

Using the photovoice method, we explored the benefits of engaging in a rescue-animal training program for at-risk youth. While participating in the community-based program, five adolescent males in residential care took pictures and shared their experiences through interview and focus groups. Six themes emerged: Gaining patience, forming an attachment to the dog, wanting to better themselves or make better choices, helping others or volunteering, teaching, and relating to the dog. Individually and collectively, the themes suggest that training rescue animals may be a meaningful occupation for at-risk youth and may provide therapeutic benefits.     

Diagnosis of Youth At-Risk for Suicide,Pregnancy, and Drug and Alcohol Abuse

The intent of this paper is to overview three selected subgroups of at-risk youth. These subgroups are: suicidal adolescents, pregnant teenagers, and drug and alcohol abusers. Alternatives to traditional diagnostic procedures will be examined from the perspective of determining whether they can effectively and efficitently provide information necessary to develop a client management plan. A continuing diagnostic process providing the data base for a client information system is proposed. Such diagnostic practices can promote the early recognition of at-risk behaviors, thus increasing the general awareness, or early recognition, that may be crucial to preventive efforts. Discussion is provided for the use of the term at-risk. In this paper, the term is used to mean more than an adolescent who is simply at academic risk and prone to dropping out (being stopped or pushed out) of school. As used here, the at-risk group includes a number of students who are not only failing academically, but display unwanted social-personal behaviors, leading to possible adjudication or requiring community based support services, while some may even be in life-threatening circumstances.     

Reassessing the Assessment of Change in At-Risk Youth: Conflict and Coherence in Overall Versus Contextual Assessments of Behavior

This research examined how a contextual approach to personality assessment can reveal change processes that are obscured by measures of overall behavior frequencies. Using field observations of 336 children from three summers at a program for at-risk youth, we illustrate how children’s social experiences change over time, how their reactions to these experiences change, and how both processes contribute to changes in the overall frequencies of their prosocial, aggressive, and withdrawn behavior. Children showing opposite patterns of change in their environments and their reactions to them were nevertheless similar in their overall amount of change. The results clarify how changes in reactions and social experiences can be disentangled and reintegrated in order to deepen our understanding of personality change processes. Implications for change assessments that rely on overall behavior summaries are highlighted for program, individual, and intra-individual levels of analysis.     

Youth Suicide Trends in California: An Examination of Immigrant and Ethnic Group Risk

Although immigrants are in better health than the U.S.-born population according to a variety of indicators, little research has investigated current foreign-born/U.S.-born differentials in suicide. A review of 32,928 California death certificates from 1970 to 1992 indicates that although foreign-born persons are consistently underrepresented in the suicide deaths of 15- to 34-year-olds (risk ratio = 0.60), any foreign- versus U.S.-born difference by ethnicity appears to be decreasing. Specifically, although Hispanics born outside the United States consistently are at significantly lower risk of suicide than U.S.-born Hispanics, the discrepancy between the two groups has diminished over time. And, in a comparable trend, non-Hispanic white persons born outside the United States were at higher risk of suicide than their U.S.-born counterparts until 1990, when their risk became similar. Black and Asian/other foreign- and U.S.-born persons have been at statistically similar risk since 1970. A man using a firearm at home was the typical pattern for both the foreign- and U.S.-born.     

At-Risk for Diabetes: Coping with the News

This study assessed 37 children's and 38 adults', as well as their family members' (39 mothers and 26 spouses), coping responses to the news that they (or a loved one) were islet-cell antibody positive (ICA+) and at risk for type 1 diabetes. The Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) was administered 4 months after ICA+ notification and at follow-up 10 months later. Participants' state anxiety was measured a few days after ICA+ notification and again 4 months later, at the time of the initial WCC administration. Children's coping strategies differed from those of adults, and mothers' coping strategies differed from spouses'. Initial state anxiety in response to ICA+ notification was related to how participants subsequently coped with the news. Coping, in turn, was related to maintenance of state anxiety over time.     

Immigrant Youth and Employment: Lessons Learned from the Analysis of LSIC and 82 Lived Stories

Finding a job has become a critical challenge to many youth. Immigrant youth, who have been a key part of the global migrants, are particularly vulnerable when entering the job market of the host country due to various structural barriers. However, in both public policy discourse and research, their labour market experience tends to be overlooked. In this paper, we report the employment experience of recently arrived immigrant youth based on an analysis of the LSIC and findings of in-depth interviews of 82 immigrant youth in four cities in Canada. Our results reveal that recently arrived immigrant youth tend to work in lower-skilled employment, experience significant delays in finding employment, have difficulties with foreign credential recognition, and have fewer means to access to job markets.     

Network Structure of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Conduct Disorder Symptoms Among At-Risk Youth: Multi-Informant Reports and Gender Differences

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Network analytic techniques examine how items used to measure underlying constructs are related to one another and identify core characteristics....     

Evaluation of a Community-Based Peer-to-Peer Support Program for Parents of At-Risk Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Parents of children with emotional and behavioral needs frequently experience difficulty navigating community-based services for their child, as well as experience increased stress and parental strain. Peer-to-peer support programs are an emerging approach to assist these parents, and evidence suggests that they are effective in increasing parents’ perceptions of social support, self-efficacy, and well-being. However, these programs often focus on parents of youth with diagnosed mental health disorders, despite the potential benefit for parents of youth who are at-risk for significant emotional and behavioral problems. In the current study, we used a pre-post design to evaluate a community-based, peer-to-peer support prevention program delivered via telephone to parents (N = 139) of youth with emerging behavioral and emotional difficulties. We evaluated (1) whether the intervention was delivered as designed, (2) the pre- and post-intervention gains in social support and concrete support, and (3) whether parents’ level of participation in the intervention and program adherence predicted outcomes. Results indicated that the intervention was delivered as intended and resulted in increased parental perceived social support and concrete support over time. Furthermore, higher levels of parental participation and intervention adherence were associated with increases in perceived social support. Thus, findings suggest that it may be beneficial for parents of at-risk youth with significant emotional and behavioral difficulties to engage in a peer-to-peer phone support prevention program.     

The Unravelling of Identities and Belonging: Criminal Gang Involvement of Youth from Immigrant Families

Grounded in the experiences of 30 gang-involved respondents in Calgary, this Canadian study examined criminal gang involvement of youth from immigrant families. Our analysis showed that gang-involved youth had experienced multiple, severe and prolonged personal and interpersonal challenges in all facets of their lives and that gradual disintegration of their relationships with family, school and community had resulted in the unravelling of self-concept, ethnic identity, sense of belonging and sense of citizenship and progressively propelled them towards membership in high-risk social cliques and criminal gangs. Our findings brought attention to the need for coordinated, comprehensive support for youth from immigrant families through family-based, school-based and community-based programs.     

Longitudinal Pathways to Educational Attainment and Health of Immigrant Youth in Young Adulthood: A Comparative Analysis

Journal of Child and Family Studies - This study examined longitudinally sequential pathways between parental socioeconomic status and immigrant children’s school performance and depressive...     

Hope as a Crucial Factor in Integration Among Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in the USA: A Pilot Project

In 2014, 53,518 unaccompanied immigrant youth, predominantly from Central America, arrived in the USA. By mid-2015, over 12,000 had already arrived (Office of Refugee Resettlement 2015). Despite experiencing a myriad of risk factors and challenges, these children display remarkable resiliency. An important component of this resiliency which, in turn, enhances the well-being of these populations, is the maintenance of hope. This paper reports on a study conducted in spring 2013 on the presence of hope among 138 unaccompanied immigrant children, ages 9–18, receiving services from 20 affiliates of a family reunification program in 12 states in the USA. The study found that children reported a high level of hope on the Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., New York Free Press 1994; Psychological Inquiry 13(4):249, 2002). This article reports on these findings and discusses their implications for policy, practice, and research.     

Subjects At-Risk for Genetic Diseases in Portugal: Illness Representations

This study investigates illness representations of subjects at-risk for 3 autosomal dominant late-onset disorders: Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (FAP) TTR V30M, Huntington’s disease (HD) and Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), comparing them with the illness representations of subjects at-risk for Hemochromatosis (HH). The present study included a clinical group that consisted of 213 subjects at genetic risk (FAP, HD and MJD), comprising 174 subjects at-risk for FAP, 34 subjects at-risk for HD and only 5 subjects at-risk for MJD; and the control group consisting of 31 subjects at genetic risk for HH. All subjects at-risk were undergoing the process of genetic counseling to learn their genetic status (carrier or non-carrier). Subjects were assessed through a semi-structured single interview, in order to obtain sociodemographic data and the answer to an open-ended question relating to the illness representation issue: “What does this illness mean to you?/ What is this disease to you?” It was in the subjects’ metaphors that subjects best expressed what they felt regarding the disease and the situation of being at-risk for this disease. Family is their mirror and their source of learning and, therefore, it is inevitable that family is related to the meaning of the disease itself.     

Aetiology of Coexisting Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Disorders: Perspectives of Refugee Youth and Service Providers

In the general population, people with comorbid mental health (MH) and alcohol and other drug (AOD) disorders (comorbidity) have great difficulty accessing appropriate services, and poor outcomes. Little is known about comorbidity in resettled refugees in Australia. This study was designed to identify risk factors and patterns of comorbidity development in young people from refugee backgrounds living in a disadvantaged urban region of Adelaide, South Australia. This qualitative study utilised in‐depth semi‐structured interviews (n = 30) with resettled refugee youth and workers from MH, AOD, and refugee support services. Thematic analyses were conducted to investigate the aetiology of MH and AOD disorders in young refugees. Interviews with both groups revealed how the interrelated nature of risk factors may place young people from refugee backgrounds at heightened risk of experiencing MH and AOD problems. The situations and conditions described by both groups are discussed under six main themes: pre‐migration experiences of torture and trauma; familial factors of intergenerational conflict; post‐migration adjustment difficulties in terms of language, culture, education, and employment; exposure to and availability of substances; maladaptive coping strategies and self‐medication; and access to information and services. Implications for psychologists and MH professionals are identified, emphasising the need for clinicians to understand the complexities surrounding the aetiology of comorbidity in these youth. The initial assessment needs to be comprehensive, including pre‐ and post‐settlement experiences and cultural and family dimensions of their current situation. Treatment may often need to simultaneously address multiple contributing factors and involve culturally sensitive psycho‐education.     

Living at the Crossroads of Cultural Worlds: The Experience of Normative Conflicts by Second Generation Immigrant Youth

The children of immigrants are often referred to as second-generation youth. Although there is tremendous diversity among them, they often share the common experience of being bicultural by holding both heritage and mainstream cultural identities. Given that cultures generally promote similar expectations for youth (e.g., showing respect for parents), holding two cultural identities is not necessarily problematic. Even when cultural expectations do differ, these individuals can typically switch between cultural identities (e.g., South Asian at home; mainstream Canadian at school) as a strategy to avoid conflict. For some issues, however, switching between identities will not resolve the conflict because fulfilling the normative expectations associated with one identity is done at the expense of the ones of the other identity (e.g., choosing a romantic partner that is either from the heritage culture or from mainstream culture). The current paper presents a normative approach to understanding the experience of culturally-based conflicts among second-generation youth. In addition, research stemming from this normative approach in the area of intimate relationships is presented to further illustrate the value of the model in understanding the potential cultural conflicts of second-generation youth and how they may be negotiated.