Drug Use Among Immigrant and Non‐immigrant Adolescents: Immigrant Paradox,Family and Peer Influences

The present study compared immigrant and Italian native adolescents with regard to drug use. Additionally, we analysed the role of family and peer risk and protective factors for drug use. Participants included 2533 Italian native and immigrant adolescents (mean age = 17.19, SD = 1.6; 66.7% male). Results showed that immigrant adolescents reported lower levels of marijuana and pharmaceutical drug abuse than non‐immigrant adolescents. These results confirm the so‐called immigrant paradox phenomenon: the counterintuitive finding that although immigrants often live under challenging conditions and reported lower economic affluence compared with nationals, some health outcomes have not always corresponded to their relative disadvantage. Immigrant adolescents also reported higher level of parental control and lower levels of affiliation with deviant peers, but lower levels of child disclosure, parental solicitation and parental knowledge. Socio‐economic status and parental monitoring showed equivalent effects on drug use for immigrant and non‐immigrant adolescents. Results have implications for preventive interventions for immigrant adolescents and families, including the need to develop programmes that leverage the benefits of the immigrant paradox for immigrant communities. Future research should analyse the processes that lead to lower levels of drug use in immigrant adolescents and investigate the influence of friendship networks on immigrant adolescent drug use behaviour. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of job demands,climate, and optimism on well-being and distress at work: What are the mediating effects of basic psychological need satisfaction?

IntroductionPsychological health at work, a multidimensional concept grasped by the absence of negative states and by the presence of positive states, is here approximated in terms of distress and well-being.ObjectiveThis study was aimed at examining the extent to which job demands, individual resources (optimism), and organizational resources (climate) are linked to well-being and distress at work. We looked at whether these links are mediated in satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs posited in self-determination theory (competence, relatedness, and autonomy).MethodThe participants were 298 French elementary, middle, and high school teachers who were asked to answer a questionnaire. The data was analyzed using Hayes and Preacher's method for testing multiple mediations.ResultsSatisfaction of the psychological needs for competence and relatedness fully mediated the links between job climate and psychological health at work (well-being and distress). Optimism turned out to be an important factor of health, not only because it had a strong impact on well-being and distress, but also because its effects were partially mediated by satisfaction of the need for competence.ConclusionThe present results confirm the relevance of the variables used to predict psychological health (particularly optimism). Job demands directly affected well-being and distress levels. The climate — by way of satisfaction of the need for competence and for relatedness — plays a critical role in matters of occupational health.     

Conceptualising mental health in the United Arab Emirates: the perspective of traditional healers

Substantial investments in health-care have ensured the widespread availability of allopathic medical services across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, in spite of this accessibility traditional healers (Mutawa) continue to play a significant, albeit, unofficial role in the UAE's health sector. Citizens routinely consult traditional healers for problems that might, from a western biomedical perspective, be considered psychiatric conditions. This qualitative study explores traditional healers' conceptualisations of mental health problems, discussing their perspectives on phenomenology, aetiology, intervention and outcome. Notably, traditional healers distinguished between biomedical illness and states they attributed to demonological or metaphysical causes. The Islamic spiritual narrative was central to discussions of aetiology, intervention and outcome. Greater integration of traditional healers within the UAE's mental health-care services would, in many cases, improve patient experience and outcomes.     

“Oh Events” for the Professor: Studies and Stories of Religious Studies Abroad

This response explains three ways in which the preceding essays are a significant contribution to the study of study abroad, explores three additional issues, and makes three suggestions for future work on religious studies and study abroad. This response is published alongside of six other essays, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).