Preliminary Validity of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory With Filipino Immigrant Parents

Filipinos are an understudied minority affected by significant behavioral health disparities. We evaluate evidence for the reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) in 6- to 12-year-old Filipino children (N = 23). ECBI scores demonstrated high internal consistency, supporting a single-factor model (preintervention α = .91; postintervention α = .95). Results document convergent validity with the Child Behavior Checklist Externalizing scale at pretest (r = .54, p < .01) and posttest (r = .71, p < .001). We conclude that the ECBI is a promising tool to measure behavior problems in Filipino children.     

In Defense of Hiya as a Filipino Virtue

The Filipino concept of hiya, often translated as ‘shame’ or ‘embarrassment’, has often received ambivalent or negative interpretations. In this article I make an important distinction between two kinds of hiya: (1) the hiya that is suffered as shame or embarrassment (a passion) and (2) the hiya that is an active and sacrificial self-control of one’s individual wants for the sake of other people (a virtue). I borrow and reappropriate this distinction from Aquinas’ virtue ethics. This distinction not only leads to a more positive appraisal of hiya, it also leads to a new understanding of associated concepts that are often confused with hiya such as amor propio, pakikisama and the infamous ‘crab mentality’. Defending hiya as a virtue is part of an even wider philosophical project, the move from ‘Filipino values’ to a ‘Filipino virtue ethics’, which I already introduced in a previous article in this journal.     

Leadership experiences of bicultural business leaders: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Using the lens of interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study explored the leadership experiences of bicultural business leaders in the Philippines. Semistructured interviews were conducted among 16 leaders in family-owned, small and medium-sized enterprises in the Philippines who are ethnically Chinese and have Filipino nationality. Findings focused on salient expressions of biculturalism in leadership, bicultural leadership challenges, and advantages. Most of the participants experienced fluidity in their expressions of Filipino and Chinese identities and how these manifest in the workplace. Challenges shared pertain to generational factors as participants assumed leadership roles through kinship, as well as relational challenges reflective of cultural nuances. The leaders view their being bicultural as having the “best of both worlds” as they have greater access to cultural information and a more holistic view of which values and norms to use in their leadership roles and in various social interactions. Fluency in communicating in Chinese and Filipino was perceived to enable effective interactions and facilitate trust building with their customers, employees, and suppliers. Implications focused on the need to consider biculturalism in leadership development programmes in educational institutions and organizations, especially with increasing bi/multiculturalism in workplaces.     

“Hello,can you hear me?”: Narratives of online mental health counselling among Filipino adults during the pandemic

Filipinos are often reluctant to seek professional mental health (MH) help. However, literature reveals that online counselling is preferable to face-to-face (F2F) MH services, with the pandemic possibly magnifying technology's anonymity and disinhibiting benefits. To further explore facilitators of online MH help-seeking, this study tapped into the lived stories of Filipino adults who experienced at least one counselling session from March 2020 to March 2022. Among 83 screened respondents, 11 semistructured interviews were transcribed and analysed following Crossley's (2000) method. Findings reveal an overarching online MH counselling narrative composed of three phases and their respective events: (a) Precounselling (Resiliency Narrative versus MH Awareness, Turning Point, and Linking versus Searching); (b) Counselling (Two-way Introduction, Unloading and Untangling, and Decision to Maintain or Terminate); and (c) Postcounselling (Relapse and Journey towards Growth and Advocacy). Three all-encompassing facilitators were embedded throughout the process: Autonomy, Financial Capability, and MH Institutions. Notably, participants attributed their MH help-seeking to autonomy, despite culture and stigma, because of enabling environments that entail heightened MH literacy, positive past experiences with professional MH help, social support and encouragement, and a sense of shared reality. Benefits unique to online counselling were also apparent among participants' narratives, including alleviating geographical boundaries and added financial and personal pressures. Overall, findings posit that Filipino adults consider online counselling as a preferable alternative to F2F counselling, thus necessitating further development and institutional support.     

Ethnicity,Coping, and Distress Among Korean Americans,Filipino Americans,and Caucasian Americans

Abstract

The authors examined appraisal, coping, and distress among Korean American, Filipino American, and Caucasian American Protestants. No interaction effects emerged among ethnic groups, but there were significant ethnic main effects for appraisal and coping. Compared with the Caucasian Americans, both Asian American groups appraised stressors as more challenging, and the Korean Americans appraised them also as greater losses. Both Asian American groups reported using more strategies of accepting responsibility, religious coping, distancing, and escape-avoidance than the Caucasian Americans did; the Filipino Americans also reported more problem-solving strategies than the Caucasian Americans. For all participants, challenge appraisals predicted adaptive coping (problem solving and positive reappraisal) and less distress. Problem solving, seeking social support, and positive reappraisal predicted less distress; self-control, accepting responsibility, and escape-avoidance predicted greater distress. The authors stressed the value of assessing ethnicity in coping research.     

Racial Microaggressions and the Filipino American Experience: Recommendations for Counseling and Development

Racial microaggressions are subtle forms of verbal and behavioral discrimination toward people of color. The current qualitative study explores the experiences of Filipino American participants (N= 12), who described 13 categories of microaggressions, including being treated as an alien in one's own land or as a 2nd‐class citizen, being presumed to have inferior status or intellect, being assumed to uphold Filipino stereotypes, or being mistaken for another identity. Recommendations for counseling and development are discussed. Las microagresiones raciales son formas sutiles de discriminación verbal y conductiva hacia las personas de color. El estudio actual cualitativo explora las experiencias de participantes Filipinoamericanos (N= 12), quienes describieron 13 categorías de microagresiones, incluido el ser tratados como extranjeros o como ciudadanos de segunda clase en su propio país, pertenecer presuntamente a una clase social inferior o tener un nivel intelectual inferior, ser presuntamente representantes de estereotipos Filipinos, o ser confundidos con individuos de otra identidad. Se discuten recomendaciones para la consejería y el desarrollo.     

Colonial Mentality and Mental Health Help‐Seeking of Filipino Americans

Filipino Americans present with very low rates of mental health help‐seeking. Because of the colonial history between the Philippines and the United States, the authors examined how colonial mentality and internalized oppression, along with ethnic identity, acculturation, and social support, were related to mental health help‐seeking attitudes of Filipino Americans (N = 410). Furthermore, the authors investigated how colonial mentality affects the ethnic identity of Filipino Americans. Major findings included that colonial mentality was negatively related to ethnic identity development and social support, and higher levels of colonial mentality significantly predicted negative mental health help‐seeking attitudes above and beyond ethnic identity, acculturation, social support, and demographic variables. Implications for the counseling profession are considered.     

And all your problems are gone: religious coping strategies among Philippine migrant workers in Hong Kong

This paper provides an ethnographic account of both hardships and religious coping strategies of Philippine migrant workers in Hong Kong. It will argue that intensified coping needs that arise from the migration process may lead to a reorientation towards more charismatic religious groups, which in turn seem to promote coping strategies specifically tailored towards the (relatively homogenous) experiences of these migrants. It will also argue that, while the “disempowering” implications of religious coping rest ambiguous, it may assist the toleration of exploitative patterns in migration by reducing their emotional cost.     

A Universally Particular Psychology? A Feminist Practical Theological Exploration of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Indigenous and Cultural Psychology</Emphasis>

The newly published volume, “Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context” (2006) seeks to further understandings of human behavior with an indigenous psychology that places culture and context in the foreground of its methods, practices, and analysis. As such it represents a significant development in its field, and is important to practical theologians with their attention to context, culture, and the lived religious practices of persons and communities. This article offers a critical review of the book from the standpoint of feminist practical theology, in an effort to further and support the agenda of indigenous psychology. After describing the importance of indigenous psychology for the work of practical theologians, I consider the volume’s chapter on indigenous Filipino psychology (chapter five by Rogelia Pe-Pua) as paradigmatic of the strengths of an indigenous approach put forward in the larger volume. Last, I critically consider two key paradoxical tensions present in the volume’s articulation of indigenous psychology: the tension between universality and particularity, and the tension between indigeneity and critical gender analysis.