Internalization of the model minority myth and sociodemographic factors shaping Asians/Asian Americans' experiences of discrimination during COVID-19

Despite appearing positive, the model minority myth (MMM), or the perception that Asian Americans are “problem-free” minorities, maintains unfair racial hierarchies and discredits the pervasiveness of systemic racism faced by Asian Americans and other Black, Indigenous, and people of Color. This study investigated the role of internalized MMM in Asian/Asian Americans' (A/AA) experiences during the syndemic of COVID-19 and our society's racial reckoning. Using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed A/AA college students' open-ended responses to a query about their experiences as A/AA during COVID-19, which resulted in qualitative themes of Personal and Vicarious Discrimination, Vigilance, Safety due to Ethnicity, Safety due to Environment, and No Difference during COVID-19. We then conducted a series of logistic and linear regression models to examine how internalized MMM and sociodemographic factors (i.e., ethnic group, gender, and generational status) were associated with qualitative themes and quantitative measures of COVID-related discrimination. Overall, findings demonstrated that greater internalized MMM, as well as identifying as South Asian, male, and an international/first-generation immigrant student, were linked to fewer qualitative and quantitative reports of vicarious discrimination. We conclude with implications for research and practice in community psychology that further examine the racialized experiences among A/AA college students and ultimately seek to challenge the MMM and racial hierarchies perpetuating systems of oppression.     

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.     

Keeping connected: Family therapists' experiences of working online during the COVID-19 pandemic

For this qualitative study, eight family therapists were interviewed about their experiences of practising online during the pandemic. Findings are organised using a framework of problems, possibilities, resources and restraints (PPRR, Neden & Burnham, 2007). Despite variation in therapist confidence in online practice, all participants found new possibilities in this way of working, including connecting family members across distance, increased co-construction within therapeutic relationships and engaging clients who would not usually attend appointments. Therapeutic alliance was generally possible to establish online, though felt more challenging with whole families than individuals. Problems and restraints included therapist fatigue, risk and safety management, and attuning to nuanced expression of emotion. Implications for practice and future research are proposed. It is suggested that systemic practice has unique qualities to offer the field of online psychotherapy.     

Social connectedness,mindfulness, and coping as protective factors during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented psychological impact, revealing immense emotional disturbances among the general population. This study examined the extent to which social connectedness, dispositional mindfulness, and coping moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression in 1242 adults under the same government-issued COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate. Participants completed measures of anxiety, depression, dispositional mindfulness, social connectedness, and coping, and regression analyses were used to examine associations and interaction effects. Results indicated that social connectedness and dispositional mindfulness were associated with reduced symptoms. For individuals living with a partner, decreased mindfulness and avoidant coping were associated with anxious symptoms. In households with children, overutilization of approach coping served to increase symptoms of depression. Results indicate the importance of considering social connectedness, mindfulness, and coping in counseling to enhance factors serving to protect clients during a public health crisis. Implications for professional counselors and areas of future research are discussed.     

Depressive symptoms and conspiracy beliefs

Conspiratorial beliefs can endanger individuals and societies by increasing the likelihood of harmful behaviors such as the flouting of public health guidelines. While scholars have identified various correlates of conspiracy beliefs, one factor that has received scant attention is depressive symptoms. We use three large surveys to explore the connection between depression and conspiracy beliefs. We find a consistent association, with the extent of the relationship depending on individual and situational factors. Interestingly, those from relatively advantaged demographic groups (i.e., White, male, high income, educated) exhibit a stronger relationship between depression and conspiracy beliefs than those not from such groups. Furthermore, situational variables that ostensibly increase stress—such as having COVID-19 or parenting during COVID-19—exacerbate the relationship while those that seem to decrease stress, such as social support, vitiate it. The results provide insight about the development of targeted interventions and accentuate the need for theorizing about the mechanisms that lead depression to correlate with conspiracy beliefs.     

Prosocial rule breaking,ingroups and social norms: Parental decision-making about COVID-19 rule breaking in the UK

The British public generally adhered to COVID-19-related restrictions, but as the pandemic drew on, it became challenging for some populations. Parents with young children were identified as a vulnerable group. We collected rich, mixed-methods survey data from 99 UK-based parents (91 mothers) of children under 12, who described their lockdown transgressions. Household mixing was the most prevalent broken rule. Template analysis found that rule breaking was driven by ‘ingroup-level’ prosocial motivations to protect the mental and social health of family and loved ones, and that parents were ‘engaged’ decision-makers who underwent careful deliberation when deciding to break rules, making trade-offs, bending rules, mitigating risks, reaching consensus, and reacting to perceived rule injustices. Cumulative link models found that the perceived reasonableness of rule violations was predicted by social norms. Rules were broken by parents not for antisocial reasons, but for ‘ingroup-level’ prosocial reasons, linked to supporting loved ones.     

“Not Being Counted”: Women's Place and Religious Space in Jewish Orthodox Communities During the COVID-19 Crisis

This article draws on the anthropology of crisis to analyze ways in which communal-religious responses to crisis situations can reveal engrained social and cultural structures, and especially their gendered aspects. We focus on two alternative forms of Jewish communal prayer service that emerged in Orthodox communities in Israel during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: street and balcony minyans. Based on interviews and texts, we explore Orthodox women's experiences of these new religious spaces that entailed the rearrangement of traditional gender and spatial boundaries. We show that while these spaces opened room for new religious experiences for women, they ultimately accentuated their experiences of exclusion. We argue that the destabilization of the physical religious space in these alternative communal prayers reinforced symbolic gender boundaries. Thus, our study not only demonstrates how crises can uncover the deep social grammar of a community, but also how they unearth processes that defy and challenge that grammar.     

Les couples mis à l’épreuve du confinement de la crise Covid

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in strict containment. The isolation and anxietyinducing nature of the situation had an impact on the mental health of individuals. Our study examines the intimacy of individuals confined with or without their partners during this period and explores the risk factors and resources available to them.MethodologyWe distributed an online questionnaire during the first lockdown (April 2020). In total, 1985 adults (80.3% female; M = 34.27, SD = 14.96) participated in the study. Several validated scales assessed life context, mental health, substance use (alcohol and cannabis), intolerance of uncertainty and intimacy in the couple. Participants described their experiences through open-ended questions.ResultsOur results indicate that couples who lived in separate households during confinement (n = 453 or 22.8% of our sample) were more depressed, more anxious and more intolerant of uncertainty. Through a thematic analysis, we found that couples who were confined together were more likely to report an improvement in the quality of their emotional and sexual life than couples separated by confinement. However, restriction of available space, reorganisation of work and leisure activities and relationships with children emerged as potential stressors.ConclusionThe intimate partner can be a form of support for stress during containment and supports resilience in a pandemic crisis.     

Activités et motivations sous-jacentes : quelles relations avec le bien-être en confinement ?

IntroductionThe lockdown decided in France to prevent the spread of Covid-19 has temporarily modified the structure of daily activities. But, daily activities and the intention underlying actions influence well-being.ObjectivesThis study explored three variables hypothetically related to well-being under lockdown: the time spent on each activity, the motivation underlying the activity, and a potential moderating effect of time by motivation.MethodWeekly longitudinal tracking of a selection of activities potentially related to well-being in confined individuals was conducted over four weeks (N = 461, 1213 total observations, April 16–May 20, 2020) and then processed by linear mixed model analyses.ResultsAt the activity level, the time spent giving social support, volunteering, physical activity, and meditation were positively associated with well-being. In addition, hedonic, eudemonic, and altruistic motivations were positively related to well-being, whereas extrinsic motivation was negatively related. Motivations were generally more associated to well-being than time spent on activities. Finally, interactions were found between time spent on activities and motivations, particularly with hedonic and altruistic motivations.ConclusionThis study provides insights into the distribution of activity time in confinement and the motivations associated with well-being in such a situation.     

L’évolution des facteurs prédictifs de la détresse psychologique des étudiants en contexte de Covid-19 : un modèle d’équation structurelle exploratoire

IntroductionStudents are at risk for mental health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of lockdowns as a means to curb the spread of the disease have had an impact on this population, as observed in many international studies. However, few studies have investigated the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on students’ mental health.ObjectiveWe explored the relation between individual characteristics of students, context of life, difficulties in emotion regulation and psychological distress over the first two lockdowns in France during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methodology160 university students (90% female, mean of 24 years old) responded to an online questionnaire at three times points: once during the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in march 2020, a second time after this lockdown and a third time during the second lockdown. Difficulties in emotion regulation, psychological distress, acute stress, academic concerns, financial resources, and exchanges with professors were measured.ResultsAn exploratory structural equations model was developed to investigate the factors related to psychological distress (χ² = 1459.18, df = 1064, CFI = 0.910, RMSEA = 0.049, SRMR = 0.068). During both lockdowns, psychological distress was explained by academic concerns and lack of emotional clarity and acceptance. An indirect and negative significant relation was identified between financial difficulties, lack of exchanges with professors during the first lockdown, emotion clarity and experienced psychological distress during the second lockdown. Repeated measures ANOVAs identified high levels of acute stress during both lockdowns and a diminution during the deconfinement indicating an impact of sanitary measures on student's mental health.ConclusionCoherently with the Bruchon-Sweiser translational model of stress, emotion regulation capacities seem to have a central and moderating role in the experience of the pandemic for students. They would benefit greatly from appropriate therapeutic interventions in this pandemic situation and in general.