Psychological maladjustment of Asian and African peacekeepers in Liberia and its related factors

This study aimed to investigate the maladjustment of Asian (Bangladeshi, Pakistani) and African (Nigerian, Namibian, Ghanaian) peacekeepers and its major influence factors. By random cluster sampling, 300 Asian peacekeepers and 271 African peacekeepers were administered the military psychological maladjustment scale (MPMS) and risk factors questionnaire. Investigation at Day 7 and Day 120 into the peacekeeping deployment period indicated that MPMS total score and factor scores of the Asian peacekeepers were significantly lower than those of the African peacekeepers (p < .01). The total score and each factor score of MPMS of the Asian peacekeepers significantly decreased (p < .01); for the African peacekeepers, only the factor score of emotional disorder of MPMS significantly decreased (p < .05). Stepwise regression analysis showed that the education duration was the influence factor for the emotional disorder factor score in the Asian peacekeepers, and the two factors were positively correlated. Age, military service duration, education duration and marital status were the major influence factors for the MPMS factors of the African peacekeepers, among which age was negatively correlated with the total score and each factor score, and military service duration, education duration and marital status were positively related. We conclude that the Asian peacekeepers are more adaptable and resilient than the African peacekeepers. Education duration was the major influence factor for Emotional Disorder in the Asian peacekeepers. The major influence factors for maladjustment in the African peacekeepers were age, military service duration, education duration and marital status.     

Clinical interventions and prevention for Asian American children and families: Current status and needed research

The current status of clinical interventions and prevention for Asian American children and/or adolescents and their families was assessed through a review of the literature on conceptual frameworks, cultural variables and related issues, and empirical studies. Five proposed approaches to treatment or prevention were examined. Some factors that might account for the slow progress of treatment research in this area were also discussed. These included conceptual and methodological issues; the paucity of data on psychopathology in this population; their low service-utilization rates; and societal images, values, and needs. Some needed directions for future research are suggested.     

Inequalities in Mental Health: the Inner City Mental Health Project

This paper draws on the evidence of a 3-year evaluation study of an inner city mental health project. Innovative service developments aimed at Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities are described, as are the reactions of providers of mainstream mental health services to these initiatives. The structural position of special projects aimed at Black communities is explored in relation to mainstream mental health services, as are the difficulties which may be encountered by service users and project staff when the project is integrated into mainstream mental health services.     

Effect of collectivistic cultural imperatives on Asian American meta-stereotypes

The present study explored self-perceptions and meta-stereotypes along two dimensions, individuation and sociability, within a sample of Asian American and European American students. For both ethnic groups, meta-stereotypes in dimensions of individuation and sociability appear to be exaggerated forms of self-perceptions along these dimensions. Both Asian and European Americans distinguish between self-perceptions of sociability and individuation, showing that sociability and individuation are two independent constructs. Asian Americans, however, perceived that others who expect a certain level of sociability from their ethnic group would also expect the same level of individuation. Implications of these findings for the perpetuation of Asian stereotypes are discussed.     

Moving Toward Comprehensiveness and Sustainability in a Social Ecological Approach to Youth Violence Prevention: Lessons from the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center

Youth violence is a serious public health problem affecting communities across the United States. The use of a social ecological approach has helped reduce its prevalence. However, those who have put the approach into practice often face challenges to effective implementation. Addressing social ecology in all its complexity presents one obstacle; the ability of private non-profit and public agencies to sustain such comprehensive efforts presents another. Here, we provide an example of our efforts to prevent youth violence. We worked with the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (APIYVPC) and two communities on O`ahu. We provide a case example from the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (APIYVPC) of our work, in collaboration with two communities on O`ahu, to develop and implement a youth violence prevention initiative that is becoming both comprehensive and sustainable. We illustrate the incremental nature of what it means to be comprehensive and we underscore the importance of reaching sustainability as the project unfolds.     

Group Threat, Collective Angst, and Ingroup Forgiveness for the War in Iraq

We examine the consequences of threat to the ingroup for emotional reactions to ingroup harm doing. It was hypothesized that reminders of a past threat to the ingroup would induce collective angst, and this emotional reaction would increase forgiveness of the ingroup for its harmful actions toward another group. In Experiment 1, Americans read an article about the war in Iraq that implied Americans would soon experience another attack or one where such implied future threat to the ingroup was absent. When the ingroup's future was threatened, forgiveness for the harm Americans have committed in Iraq was increased, to the extent that collective angst was induced. In Experiment 2, Americans experienced more collective angst and were more willing to forgive their ingroup for their group's present harm doing in Iraq following reminders of either the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, or the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor compared to when the victimization reminder was irrelevant to the ingroup. We discuss why ingroup threat encourages ingroup forgiveness for current harm doing.     

INTRODUCTION: RETHINKING PHILOSOPHICAL PRESUMPTIONS IN LIGHT OF COGNITIVE DISABILITY

Abstract: This Introduction to the collection of essays surveys the philosophical literature to date with respect to five central questions: justice, care, agency, metaphilosophical issues regarding the language and representation of cognitive disability, and personhood. These themes are discussed in relation to three specific conditions: intellectual and developmental disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, and autism, though the issues raised are relevant to a broad range of cognitive disabilities. The Introduction offers a brief historical overview of the treatment cognitive disability has received from philosophers, and explains the specific challenges that cognitive disability poses to philosophy. In briefly summarizing the essays in the collection, it highlights the distinctive contributions the collection makes to ethics, political philosophy, bioethics, and the philosophy of disability. We hope that the richness of the topics explored by these essays will be a spur to further investigation.     

A historical and contemporary overview of Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences: Immigration, racialization, and liminality

When various contemporary issues of crime, violence, and gangs confronting Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities are presented, they are often explained from an ahistorical perspective. This leads to a decontextualized understanding of the communities and the challenges they face. The first part of this article will provide a general historical overview of selected AAPI communities that examines salient aspects of immigration and racialization, resulting in generations living a circumscribed life on the margins of mainstream society. The balance of the article will draw on U.S. Census datasets from 1990 to 2000 to capture the size and growth of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and provide population, language, citizenship, education, income, and poverty data to contextualize emerging crime, violence, and gang issues that affect these communities. Data will show commonalities across AAPI communities, but will also reveal information specific to AAPI subgroups, shedding more light on the state of AAPI communities and their diversity.     

Toward an integrative and collaborative approach to Asian American and Pacific Islander youth violence research, practice, and policy

Research into the prevalence of violence and delinquency among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth has proliferated in the last several years, as a result of federal funding. Consequently, this article reviews the literature on AAPI youth violence and delinquency published from 2001 to 2008. The findings demonstrate the frequency of AAPI youth violence and delinquency, provide a sense of the involvement of these youth in the juvenile justice system, reveal ethnic group differences in violence and delinquency, and explore the effects of immigration and acculturation on these phenomena. This article ends with a discussion on AAPI youth violence and delinquency prevention programs, with suggestions for future directions that incorporate a developmental and life-course approach in research and collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.     

The Psychological Cost of Racial Discrimination: What is the Role of Residential Segregation?

Racial discrimination is known to harm health, but to what extent the health burden of racial discrimination is contingent on residential contexts is understudied. This study examines the moderating role of racial residential segregation in the relationship between racial discrimination and psychological distress. Nationally representative data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study were merged with metropolitan-level data from the U.S. Census. Logistic regression models were used to test the independent and joint contributions of racial discrimination and residential segregation to psychological distress among Asians and Latinxs, stratified by nativity status. Higher residential segregation (measured by the interaction index) is associated with lower odds of distress among U.S.-born Asians but not among other groups. As for the moderating effect, residential segregation exacerbates the positive association between discrimination and distress among foreign-born Asians (measured by the dissimilarity index) and foreign-born Latinxs (measured by the interaction index), but not among their respective U.S.-born counterparts. Taken together, the present study highlights that strategies to mitigate the psychological burden of racial discrimination need to move beyond individual-level efforts to incorporate neighborhood-based approaches. In particular, results provide empirical support for efforts to reduce residential segregation, particularly among immigrants who are discriminated against.