Parental socialization of mental health in Chinese American families: What parents say and do,and how youth make meaning

Parental mental health socialization is a process by which parents shape how youth develop and maintain beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors regarding mental health and help-seeking behaviors. Although culture shapes parental mental health socialization, few studies have examined specific parental socialization practices regarding mental health and help-seeking, especially as a culturally anchored process. Using a qualitative approach, this study explores youth-reported parental socialization of mental health within Chinese American families by examining focus group data from 69 Chinese American high school and college students. Findings revealed that youth received parental messages that conveyed culturally anchored conceptualizations of mental health that included stigmatized views of mental illness and perceptions of mental distress as not a legitimate problem. Parents responded to youth distress in culturally consonant ways: by encouraging culturally specific coping methods, dismissing or minimizing distress, or responding with silence. Youth engaged in the active interpretation of parental messages through cultural brokering, bridging the gap between their parents’ messages and mainstream notions of mental health and help-seeking. Overall, our findings point to the significant role of culture in parental mental health socialization in Chinese American families and the need to integrate culturally specific understandings of mental health into future interventions for Asian American youth.     

Sleep as a mediator of the relationship between social class and health in higher education students

A substantial body of research indicates that higher education students from lower social class backgrounds tend to have poorer health than those from higher social class backgrounds. To investigate sleep as a potential mediator of this relationship, online survey responses of students from five large Australian universities, one Irish university and one large Australian technical college were analysed in three studies (Study 1 N = 628; Study 2 N = 376; Study 3 N = 446). The results revealed that sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep disturbances, pre-sleep worries and sleep schedule variability mediated the relationship between social class and physical and mental health. Sleep remained a significant mediator when controlling for related variables and other mediators. Thus, the findings suggest that sleep partly explains social class differences in health. We discuss the importance of addressing sleep issues among students from lower social class backgrounds.     

Infants’ understanding of auditory events

Infants’ reaching‐in‐the‐dark was studied in a sample of normal 7.5–11‐month‐olds to determine whether infants can use sound cues to localize and recognize the action and objects of complex events. Infants were shown an event in which a moving, sounding object rotated clockwise through the infant's reaching space in the light and dark. Infrared recorded videotapes were later coded for reaching behaviour. Results showed that infants were able to localize the object on most trials in the dark but were slower and less efficient than in the light. Infants grasped the object at first contact and contacted the object near its salient feature in the dark, suggesting recognition of the object. Further, contact time was 1.7 s less when infants grasped the object at first contact in the dark (recognition) than when they touched the object, suggesting that recognition of the object improves reaching efficiency. There were no age and gender differences. In sum, the results support the use of the reaching‐in‐the‐dark method to demonstrate auditory localization of moving sounds and to reveal infants capacity to use represented information to guide subsequent action. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding public opinion relating to the establishment of community mental health facilities: implications of a discourse analytic approach

This paper demonstrates a novel approach to investigating the problem of public opposition to community mental health facilities. With the move towards community care, organizations setting up mental health facilities have encountered public opposition. It has been argued that this is due, in part, to the attitudes held by the public towards mentally ill people. A knowledge and understanding of attitudes towards this client group therefore has the potential to be of practical use to policy makers and practitioners who have a responsibility to consult on, and implement, community care for mentally ill people. The survey approaches and hypothetical situations used in previous British studies of community attitudes towards mentally ill people have, however, failed to take account of the rhetorical richness and complexity of the attitudes likely to be expressed in real‐life community care contexts. By contrast, the study reported in this paper used a discourse analytic approach to explore the views expressed about mentally ill people in a ‘hot situation’. Specifically, people's views were explored in the contexts of the arguments they used to challenge or advocate a supported accommodation project for mentally ill people in their community. This paper examines some of these arguments and discusses the theoretical implications for traditional approaches to attitude research. In conclusion, the potential practical utility of the findings is considered. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

农村留守儿童心理健康水平变迁的横断历史研究

研究选取2004年至2017年中采用MHT量表的90篇文献,进行了横断历史元分析,探究留守儿童心理健康状况随年代的变化趋势.结果表明:(1)学习焦虑、过敏倾向与年代呈正相关,其余因子均与年代呈负相关,年代对各因子变异的解释率在14％～23％之间;(2)对人焦虑、身体症状、恐怖倾向、冲动倾向平均下降范围在0.06～0.7...     

Dating violence in the United Kingdom: A preliminary study

A small-scale study of “dating violence” in a sample of UK college students is described. Methodology involved the rating-scale used in existing US studies, with the addition of an assessment of inter-respondent reliability, which was found to be high. A high incidence of some form of violence was found, with women showing higher levels than men, thus replicating previous US findings based on victim reports. Violence in the present relationship was found to be unrelated to violence in past relationships.     

Long-tailed macaques avoid conflicts during short-term crowding

Crowding has been viewed as a factor eliciting increased levels of aggression and tension in gregarious animals. The present study tested predictions derived from two models, the “density/aggression” model and the “active coping” model, which have been proposed to explain the responses of primates to crowding. In particular, we investigated the responses of a well-established group of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) to short-term crowding. The group was periodically crowded for 2-3 hr into a familiar area. Control observations were carried out when the monkeys were in a six times larger enclosure. Data from 42 individuals belonging to different age-sex classes showed that only mild forms of aggression increased under the crowded condition. Crowding also resulted in a decrease in counteraggression, allogrooming, playing, and exploring the environment, while it produced an increase in huddling with companions. The frequency of reconciliation and redirection was not affected by crowding. These findings do not support either of the models but suggest that macaques adopt a “conflict-avoidance strategy” during short-term crowding. They reduce the risk of severe aggression in an environment where interindividual distances are small by simply decreasing the level of activity. Interestingly, however, when aggression occurs during crowding, tension reduction mechanisms such as reconciliation and redirection are used as often as in control conditions. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The aggression test as a taxonomic tool: Evaluation in sympatric and allopatric populations of wood-ant species

Ant-workers of Formica lugubris and F. rufa from colonies living sympatrically (from the same area) and allopatrically (from different areas) were tested in pairs using a laboratory aggression test. The aim was to verify whether sharing the same area of origin influences the relationships among heteroeolonials between and within these species which belong to the F. rufa group. The results suggest that a similar degree of agonistic behaviour (ritualised aggression) was shown in sympatric and allopatric conspecific dyads of both species studied. The interactions between F. lugubris and F. rufa were characterised by a low level of overt aggression both in sympatric and allopatric pairs, confirming the interspecific tolerance observed in our previous studies on these wood-ant species. This reduced aggressiveness between workers of F. lugubris and F. rufa coming from the same or a different area can be interpreted on the basis of their sharing common signals, such as odours and patterns of behaviour. Therefore, their mutual tolerance and acceptance can be indicative of a phylogenetic closeness between such species. We propose that an aggression test can be a valid tool for elucidating systematic problems in this taxonomically difficult group of ants. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Threat Vigilance in Child Witnesses of Domestic Violence: A Pilot Study Utilizing the Ambiguous Situations Paradigm

Research has found that children exposed to family violence exhibit higher rates of maladjustment. We review relevant literature on family violence, marital conflict, and cognitive factors implicated in child behaviour problems. A bias toward perceiving threat in ambiguous contexts has been identified as one factor mediating both aggressive and anxious behaviour disorders. We conducted a study utilizing the ambiguous situations paradigm to assess whether children exposed to violent spousal conflict were more likely than children not exposed to violence (divided into children with an externalizing behaviour disorder and non-clinic children) to perceive threat in two classes of ambiguous situations: Peer and Inter-Parental. The results indicated that children exposed to violent spousal conflict perceived more threat in parental situations than either of the other two groups. A number of considerations were taken into account given the exploratory nature of the study, particularly sample limitations. We conclude with suggestions for improvements to the research design and the further relevance of exploring cognitive factors involved in the adjustment of children from backgrounds of violence.     

Mental Health and Dangerousness: Characteristics and Outcomes of Children and Adolescents in Residential Placements

Violence has been identified as a significant risk behavior among children and adolescents. Dangerousness is a factor in psychiatric hospitalizations and out-of-community placements. However, there is only a small amount of research that has investigated the mental health co-morbidities and treatment outcomes of violent children and adolescents. A random sample of children and adolescents in residential placements through the State of Florida's child welfare system were studied. Cases were classified into three levels of dangerousness. Results indicated that dangerousness was associated with much elevated mental health co-morbidity. Also, cases who were dangerous at the time of admission had less developed peer and moral/spiritual strengths than did other cases. Although dangerous cases had worse dispositional outcomes, there was strong evidence that these cases derived the most clinical benefit from residential treatment.