Adolescents And Adolescent Multiethnic Populations : Challenges And Opportunities For Enhancing Knowledge And Practice

Current epidemiological data suggest anxiety disorders are the most prevalent type of childhood psychological disorders. Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD is described by excessive worrying about a variety of events, including those in the past, present, and future. Children with this disorder worry excessively about a number of issues, including past conversations or actions, upcoming events, school, family health, their own health, competence in sports or academics, and world events. Typically, children experiencing such excessive worry find it difficult to control the amount of time that they worry, and the worrying interferes in their daily life. Sometimes children don’t realize their anxiety is excessive considering the situation.

In all psychological and biological assessment, the use of culturally attuned assessments is top priority. “We may define culturally informed psychological assessment as an approach to evaluation that is keenly perceptive of and responsive to issues of acculturation, values, identity, worldview, language, and other culture-related variables as they may impact the evaluation process or the interpretation of resulting data” (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Through this process key individuals contribute to the understanding of the client including family, friends, and coworkers input and information. Through the use of translators and other cultural affiliates clinicians are able to demonstrate a clearer understanding, a culturally applicable assessment, and ensure that the client understands the ins and outs of the assessment process. One important aspect of the implementation of the “one size fits all approach” to culturally attuned treatment and care in our mental health facilities (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Assessment and clinical evaluations should not be a cookie cutter experience. The amount of patients that are

Currently, 21.4% of youth aged 13-18 and 13% of children aged 8-15 experience significant mental health problems in the U.S. (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015). Also, mental health problems are currently extremely stigmatizing in most Asian cultures, and compared to Caucasians, Asian Americans exhibit significantly high levels of mental health problems (Young et al., 2010). In general, depressive symptoms are associated with major developmental impairments that may persist a child’s later life. Thus, experiencing various stressors of Asian American immigrant children during their before and after immigration processes impact their psychological well-being.

The DSM-5s' inclusion of the Cultural Formation Interview (CFI) has positive cultural care implications as it expanded cultural considerations and enabled greater provision of more individualised care by reducing racial and ethnic disparities in treatment (Halter, Rolin-Kenny, Dzurec, and Cox, 2013). “The CFI follows a person-centered approach to cultural assessment designed to avoid stereotyping, in that each individual’s cultural knowledge affects how he or she interprets illness experience and guides how he or she seeks help” (APA, 2013, p.

uri, and King-Kallimanis, 2010). Many Latinos enter the United states as immigrants and then bring their families. They then encounter many stressors with the transition of settling into a new country and having to assimilate into a new culture. This makes them vulnerable to many hardships, ranging from poverty, abuse, trauma, discrimination and more, that then turn into life stressors that when left unresolved can lead to mental health problems (Kanel, 2002). Latino adolescents also deal with the stressors and can come to manifest themselves through mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression that left alone can lead to substance abuse and suicide. (Cervantes, Zarza, and Salinas, 2007). One landmark study found that Latino

Adolescence is a difficult time period in a young person’s transition into their later stage of both physical and mental development. Mood disorders are often overlooked during this time for the brain becoming more developed; however among children, anxiety disorders seem to be the most common disorders to be experienced (Nelson; Israel, pg 112). Barlow (2002) defines anxiety as a future-oriented emotion that is characterized by the inability to be in control and predict future events that can be potentially dangerous to the individual. Anxiety shares commonalities with fear, but the difference between the two being that fear is the initial response made from a present threat, where anxiety is due to a unknown future event. A common

Latinos are an ethnic minority that is among the largest and fastest growing in the US comprising over 16% of the population and accounting for over 50% of the population growth since the turn of the century (Gudino & Rindlaub, 2014). Latinos in the US experience several challenges, ranging from low socioeconomic status, discrimination, language barriers to cultural shocks that have important implications on their mental health (Gudino & Rindlaub, 2014). This paper explores the prevalence of PSTD among Latinos, the stressors, and possible interventions.

Researchers have noted that microaggressions are a substantial risk factor for mental health concerns among non-white children, adolescents and adults (Forrest-Bank & Jenson, 2015). Forrest-Bank and Jenson (2015) examined the differences in experiences with microaggressions among a sample of 409 Asian, Latina/o, Black and White young adults. Participants in this study completed the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS) as a measure of experiences with racial microaggressions. The results of this study indicated that non-White respondents endorsed significantly more experiences with racial and ethnic microaggressions. An additional finding of this study was that there were no significant differences among mean scores for non-White groups, which indicated that microaggressions were experienced at similar rates among different non-White groups.

This limits the data that are collected at the end because Latino adolescents are not included. To obtain an understanding of mental health problems in Latinos, there needs to be a more culturally-sensitive research. The authors article is affective and comprehensible; however, if they were to make their research a multicultural research, it would allow for the audience to see the research as a whole, instead of it being specifically of just one growing minority group. By obtaining this knowledge, it would help health care providers, researchers, and policymakers in trying to treat and stop mental issues (Kapke). Research also shows that it is important to acknowledge the conceptual idea of Latino youth because they could have a lower self-esteem, increased chances of abuse, and internal problems. Therefore, if the child has affectionate parents and a desirable relationship with them, this can help boost their self-esteem. Conceptual ideas correlate with cultural adaptation since the effects are about the same and could change the person’s beliefs, values, and behaviors. These changes are significant to the person in the early stages, and once these fundamental ideas are changed, it could change the way a person visualizes life. Self-esteem has shown to relate to cultural adaptation and mental health because the increased levels of self-esteem help cease the formation of internal conflicts. The evidence provide by the authors allows the audience to obtain appropriate citations and with relative and up-to-date articles. The way that the authors structured and organized the article allowed for the audience to follow and easily understand what the authors are trying to portray. This article is geared to a general audience with moderately comprehendible language. In general, this article uses well developed ideas that are portrayed in an understandable

In a study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health (2003), researchers addressed mental health disparities between communities of color and the White community in several areas of health and well-being. Results indicated that although the amount of Asian Americans and African Americans students living in Greater Minnesota is relatively small, they reported much higher levels of several key risk behaviors than do their counterpart. More specifically, African Americans tend to score twice as worse as their White counterparts in most areas (sexual activity, fighting, emotional distress, smoking, drinking, family ties, activities, and etc.).

Thesis Statement: Early Anxiety is stemmed from many factors, however the main cause of anxiety in adolescents is directly related to parenting and/or family influences.

Numerous studies over the years have explored the relationship that connects cultural factors, such as ethnicity and religion, with the amount of anxiety and alleviating coping skills people experience. The aim of this study is to examine the captivating phenomenon in which ethnicity and religion exhibit an impressive influence on the level of anxiety an indivudal endures and the coping skills that are taken to relieve their feelings. Mirroring previous studies, an effective framework was developed to further research the link between these four variables. In addition, one can observe the underlying effects that culture implements on a human being’s cognition and mental health. A total of 300 participants will be gathered from Benedictine University

This is an article that specifically looks at anxiety in the school setting for adolescents. This article starts off with a story of a girl named Samantha. Samantha is a fourteen year old student that has test taking anxiety. She feels sweaty and would see the nurse daily because of her anxiousness. The article talks about the case of Samantha being common with many students in school. The article then goes into the different characteristics such as worry. Anxiety can manifest in three different ways: behaviorally, physiologically, and cognitively. Many different behaviors that children exhibit because of anxiety are reflected their attempts to control their anxiety. When discussing anxiety, there are different causes of anxiety and

Also the retest-reliability of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS; Leary, 1983) is .80. “The correlation coefficient of the IAS and Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD; Peng et al., 2004) is 0.66, whereas it is 0.29 for the Self-rating Anxiety Scale.” Although the IAS was very valid, it did not cover all factors of social anxiety of the Tibetan, Han, and Muslim college students in Qinghai Province. Another limitation was the stratified random sampling that they used in their study. Representations of this study are unclear because of this method of sampling is random and simple. This sampling method should be paired with other sampling methods to make this study more effective and representations more clear. A further limitation was time and capacity therefore limiting the researchers. They did not consider situational factors effect anxiety in their studies on the students. Furthermore they only studied students of Tibetan, Han, and Muslim ethnicity so the result may not be generalized to other

The specific assignments I undertook included: 1) review the literature to identify mental health assessment tools that are suitable for inclusion in Project RICE baseline, 3-month, and 6-month surveys; 2) develop focus group guides specific to each community partner to explore their mental health needs; 3) assist in the curriculum preparation for the stress management and mental health intervention session, and 4) co-author two manuscripts on Asian American mental health, titled “Asian American mental health disparities research: Putting community-based research principles to work” and "Annual Review of Asian American Psychology". Both were submitted to the Asian American Journal of Psychology (AAJP).