Indigenous Healing Practices and Asian Immigrant Women

ABSTRACT

The current article highlights the importance of indigenous psychology for Asian immigrant women. A brief overview is provided about Asian American immigration and the importance of understanding women’s experiences with the contextual lens of gender, ethnicity, and race. Key values relevant to help-seeking and service utilization are also presented. Complementary alternative approaches to Western-based mental health treatment are discussed as ways in which feminist and multicultural treatment approaches can be integrated. Given the inherent diversity of Asians and Asian Americans, which includes over 60 ethnic subgroups, the article is not meant to provide an exhaustive list of available native practices nor to reflect the experiences of Asians as a homogenous group. Instead, the goal of this article is to provide readers with an understanding of how culturally based healing practices and concepts are needed to complement and contribute to our extant understanding of help-seeking. We conclude by highlighting the ways in which Western-based healthcare would benefit by integrating indigenous practices with gender and ethnic/racial cultural perspectives.     

Development of an Interactive Decision Aid for Female BRCA1/BRCA2 Carriers

Shared decision making between patients and providers is becoming increasingly common, particularly when there is no clear preferred course of action. As a result, decision aids are being adopted with growing frequency and have been applied to many medical decision-making issues. One such issue where there is uncertainty is breast cancer risk management among BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers. We present the development of a CD-ROM decision aid to facilitate risk management decision making in this population. Our decision aid was developed with the intention of providing it through a randomized clinical trial. The CD-ROM is a multimedia, interactive intervention which provides information about breast cancer, risks associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, risk management options for hereditary breast cancer, and a breast cancer risk management decision aid. The goal of this CD-ROM, offered as an adjunctive intervention, is to reduce decisional conflict and psychological distress and improve comprehension of risk information, decisional satisfaction, medical adherence, and quality of life for this population of women at increased risk for breast cancer.     

Implicit associations between anxiety-related symptoms and catastrophic consequences in high anxiety sensitive individuals

Anxiety sensitivity refers to the fear of anxiety-related physical sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful consequences (Reiss & McNally, 1985). The present study examined whether individuals with high (vs. low) anxiety sensitivity show stronger implicit associations in memory between anxiety-related symptoms, as opposed to neutral body parts, and harmful, as compared to harmless, consequences. A total of 22 undergraduate students (14 F, 8 M) completed the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003). Results indicated that high anxiety sensitive individuals (n = 10) tended to implicitly associate harmful consequences with anxiety-related symptoms. Their performance was significantly faster on trials where target words related to anxiety symptoms were mapped on to the same response key as harmful consequences. No significant difference in performance was found for low anxiety sensitive individuals (n = 12) or when target words were body parts unlikely related to diseases. Between-group differences persisted after controlling for trait anxiety and history of panic attacks, but not when illness-related beliefs were introduced as a covariate. Identifying this implicit association bias provides additional empirical support for the concept of anxiety sensitivity.     

The Network Constellation of Personality and Substance Use: Evolution from Early to Late Adolescence

There is a well-established link between substance use and four personality traits of anxiety–sensitivity, hopelessness, impulsivity, and sensation-seeking. However, construct-level models of personality may conceal indicator-level personality–outcome associations. The current study aims to investigate evolution of the network constellation of personality and cannabis/alcohol use from early to late adolescence. Data comes from the longitudinal Co-Venture cohort (N = 3800). Personality indicators, measured by Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) items, and the frequency of cannabis/alcohol use were assessed at four consecutive years (13–17 years old). Network constellations of the SURPS items and cannabis/alcohol use were estimated using Bayesian Gaussian graphical models at four time points. Results highlighted the age-specific associations between personality indicators and substance use. The positive role of the sensation-seeking trait (e.g. attitude towards transgression) was constant, whereas the positive role of hopelessness indicators (e.g. not being enthusiastic about future) and the negative role of anxiety–sensitivity indicators (e.g. fear of having unusual body sensations) were more prominent at early adolescence. The current study provides a novel perspective on the network structure of personality and substance use in adolescence and suggests substance-specific and age-adjusted targets in intervention efforts. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Adherence across behavioral domains in treatment promoting smoking cessation plus weight control.

The authors tested whether adherence to simultaneous health behavior changes was unitary or domain specific among 76 women who modified smoking, eating, and physical activity to accomplish smoking cessation plus weight control. Random-effects regression analyses showed that adherence to both smoking and diet plans declined linearly and covaried positively; their association tended to grow stronger over time. In contrast, physical activity plan adherence did not change over time and was unrelated to other domains. At the end of treatment, 65%, 30.5%, and 25% adhered well or excellently to smoking, diet, and activity treatments, respectively. Findings support both unitary and domain-specific aspects of adherence and suggest that among smokers, smoking and eating behaviors may have similarities unshared by physical activity.