SOCIAL REACTIONS TO SEXUAL ASSAULT DISCLOSURE,COPING, PERCEIVED CONTROL,AND PTSD SYMPTOMS IN SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS

The social reactions that sexual assault victims receive when they disclose their assault have been found to relate to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Using path analysis and a large sample of sexual assault survivors (N = 1863), we tested whether perceived control, maladaptive coping, and social and individual adaptive coping strategies mediated the relationships between social reactions to disclosure and PTSD symptoms. We found that positive social reactions to assault disclosure predicted greater perceived control over recovery, which in turn was related to less PTSD symptoms. Positive social reactions to assault disclosure were also associated with more adaptive social and individual coping; however, only adaptive social coping predicted PTSD symptoms. Negative social reactions to assault disclosure were related to greater PTSD symptoms both directly and indirectly through maladaptive coping and marginally through lower perceived control over recovery.     

COMPARING NEIGHBORHOOD‐FOCUSED ACTIVISM AND VOLUNTEERISM: PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL‐BEING AND SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS

Does participating in neighborhood‐focused activism confer different benefits than volunteering? The engagement of community members in neighborhood civic life has been identified as an important component of safe and healthy communities. Research on community engagement has encompassed voluntary associations, volunteering, as well as participation in neighborhood activism. A diverse set of research suggests that there are psychological and social benefits to community engagement, but also suggests that there are differences between forms of participation. To understand these differences, I examine the relationship of both volunteerism and neighborhood activism to psychosocial outcomes using survey data from a neighborhood‐based sample of Chicago residents (n = 3105). Findings suggest that activism is different—activists have higher neighborhood and personal mastery than those who only volunteer. Participation in neighborhood activism is also associated with an increased likelihood of contact with local officials and social ties in the neighborhood. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

DEPRESSION STIGMA, RACE, AND TREATMENT SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES

This study examined the relationship between internalized and public stigma on treatment-related attitudes and behaviors in a community sample of 449 African American and white adults aged 18 years and older. Telephone surveys were administered to assess level of depressive symptoms, demographic characteristics, stigma, and treatment-related attitudes and behaviors. Multiple regression analysis indicated that internalized stigma mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward mental health treatment. Within group analyses indicated that the mediating effect of internalized stigma was significant for whites only. Among African Americans, internalized stigma did not mediate public stigma; it was directly related to attitudes toward mental health treatment. The internalization of stigma is key in the development of negative attitudes toward mental health treatment, and future research should focus on this aspect of stigma in both individual and community-based efforts to reduce stigma.     

PERCEIVED NEIGHBORHOOD VIOLENCE,PARENTING STYLES,AND DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES AMONG SPANISH ADOLESCENTS

This article analyzed perceptions of neighborhood violence of Spanish adolescents (N = 1,015) from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families, and its association with three sets of developmental outcomes (psychological, behavioral, and academic). Tests of main and interactive effects were conducted to answer research questions regarding the potential moderating role of perceived neighborhood violence on the relationship between parenting styles and developmental outcomes. Results yielded only main effects of parenting styles and perceived neighborhood violence on developmental outcomes, as well as an interaction between gender and perceived neighborhood violence. Parenting styles and perceived neighborhood violence made an independent contribution to adolescent outcomes. Adolescents from authoritative and indulgent families were those who performed better in all developmental domains examined, and adolescents who perceived their neighborhoods as violent performed worse in all outcomes. Results suggested, however, that irrespective of parental behavior, perceived neighborhood violence was a developmental risk in adolescence.     

RACE AND COLOUR IN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL REALITY

To understand the psychological origins and impact of racism, two assumptions are proposed. The first is that racism develops out of internal paranoid schizoid splits. The second relates to the manner in which these splits are organized. The history of racial exploitation provides powerful projection highways that can be used to maintain these internal splits. Reciprocal projective identification between internal and external white part-objects and internal and external black part-objects locates desirable aspects of the self in white objects and undesirable aspects in black objects. Some of the resulting complex defences and identifications are illustrated using case material.     

THE EFFECT OF CULTURAL FACTORS ON DAILY COPING AND INVOLUNTARY RESPONSES TO STRESS AMONG LOW‐INCOME LATINO ADOLESCENTS

This study used daily diary methodology to examine associations between cultural factors and daily coping and responses to stress among predominantly low‐income Latino adolescents. A total of 58 middle school students (53% male, mean age = 13.31, 95% Latino) completed baseline measures assessing demographic characteristics, familism, ethnic identity, and family ethnic socialization. They subsequently completed 7 consecutive daily diaries assessing daily stress, coping, and involuntary stress responses. Results yielded main effects of stress, gender, familism, and ethnic identity on adolescents’ coping and involuntary stress responses. In addition, interactions between stress and familism, ethnic identity, and family ethnic socialization emerged. Results suggest that familism may promote adaptive responses to stress, while adolescents who report more family ethnic socialization may rely more on maladaptive responses at high levels of stress. Findings related to ethnic identity were mixed and varied depending on levels of ethnic identity exploration versus commitment.     

ALCOHOL ENVIRONMENT,PERCEIVED SAFETY,AND EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL,TOBACCO, AND OTHER DRUGS IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE

This study examined the association between the count of alcohol outlets around children's homes and opportunities to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) during preadolescence. Data were collected in 2007 from 394 Baltimore City children aged 8–13 years (86% African American). Participants’ residential address and alcohol outlet data were geocoded with quarter mile (i.e., walking distance) buffers placed around each participant's home to determine the number of outlets within walking distance. The unadjusted logistic regression models revealed that each unit increase in the number of alcohol outlets was associated with a 14% increase in the likelihood of children seeing people selling drugs (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14, p = .04) and a 15% increase in the likelihood of seeing people smoking marijuana (OR = 1.15, p < .01). After adjusting for neighborhood physical disorder, the relationship between alcohol outlets and seeing people selling drugs and seeing people smoking marijuana was fully attenuated. These results suggest that alcohol outlets are one aspect of the larger environmental context that is related to ATOD exposure in children. Future studies should examine the complex relationship between neighborhood physical disorder and the presence of alcohol outlets.     

THE ROLE OF NEIGHBORHOOD COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND FEAR OF CRIME IN SOCIALIZATION OF COPING WITH VIOLENCE IN LOW‐INCOME COMMUNITIES

The influences of public housing, caregiver fear of crime, and collective efficacy on messages caregivers relay to their offspring regarding coping with community and peer violence were examined using a 3‐wave prospective design. Caregivers (N = 358; 92% African American/Black) living in moderate to high violence areas of a midsized southern city completed face‐to‐face interviews. Coping suggestions were coded at Wave 3 from audiotaped responses to a vignette measure depicting five neighborhood‐based and five school‐based situations involving violence or aggression. Path models indicated that residing in public or Section 8 housing was associated with greater fear of crime and lower collective efficacy. Fear of crime was associated with more suggestions to use active coping strategies for neighborhood‐based situations involving violence; collective efficacy was associated with messages to use less aggression for school‐based situations. These findings extend our understanding of caregiver socialization of coping processes in poor and underresourced neighborhoods.     

ERP STUDIES OF CHINESE LANGUAGE ON ATTENTION,MEMORY AND SEMANTIC DISCRIMINATION

<正> 1 Cross-Modal Selective Attention to Spoken and Written Chinese Words Modulates Endogenous ERP Components In two experiments event-related potentials (ERPs) to spoken and written Chinese words Were recorded in 15 healthy young subjects. A cross-modal and delayed-response paradigm was used that allows ERPs to be obtained separately to attended and unattended stimuli under conditions in which unattended Stimuli are less likely to be covertly or randomly attended. Attention-related ERP components were obtained by     

SKIN RESISTANCE, SWEAT-GLAND COUNTS, SALIVARY FLOW, AND GASTRIC SECRETION: AGE, RACE, AND SEX DIFFERENCES, ANDINTERCORRELATIONS

Skin resistance, sweat-gland counts, salivary flow, gastric secretion, and pH were measured in volunteers and patients of both sexes, Negroes and Caucasians. Correlational analysis suggested two negatively related clusters: (A) salivary flow, sweat-gland counts, and gastric secretion; and (B) age, skin resistance, and pH. Skin resistance was higher in Negroes than Caucasians, and in females than males, increasing irregularly with age.     

LIBERATION‐FOCUSED COMMUNITY OUTREACH: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF PEER GROUP SUPERVISION DURING DISASTER RESPONSE

While it is clear that community outreach and disaster response must include cultural and social justice competence, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the process by which this can occur. Guided by liberation psychology, this qualitative study examined the peer group supervision process of psychologists and counselors providing outreach to Haitian communities in Florida after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The findings suggest that peer supervision generated a cyclical process in which the practitioners focused on both content and process themes that were salient to the community outreach. During supervision, practitioners used content information on the community's culture, strengths, and sociopolitical issues to conceptualize the community's experiences and needs. This content informed the outreach process, including the practitioners’ roles and the ways in which they connected and developed respectful relationships with the community. Ongoing peer supervision appeared to facilitate a liberation‐focused community outreach and increase consciousness among the practitioners.     

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERCEIVED EMPLOYMENT BARRIER SCALE (PEBS): MEASURING PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF‐SUFFICIENCY

The purpose of this study is to (a) validate the psychometric properties of the Perceived Employment Barrier Scale (PEBS) and (b) investigate the effect of perceived barriers on employment hope. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and a series of invariance tests were conducted to validate PEBS using two independent samples. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationship. The latent factor structure generated by EFA failing to fit efficiently in CFA, the model was revised to a 5‐factor, 20‐item structure. This model demonstrated a common latent factor and item structure in both samples. And SEM results suggest a significant negative effect of perceived employment barriers on employment hope. PEBS is a reliable and valid measure that could be used as an evidence‐based tool for comprehensively assessing client‐centered employment barriers and providing appropriate support services to low‐income jobseekers.     

THE INFLUENCE OF RACE AND ETHNICITY IN CLIENTS’ EXPERIENCES OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

Clinicians and researchers have pointed to the need for culturally sensitive mental health interventions. Yet it has not been determined if the inclusion of cultural elements affects the way mental health clients experience services. This study examined 102 clients who had received mental health treatment from outpatient mental health clinics to investigate whether culturally related elements involving race and ethnicity were important to clients and whether they were related to client satisfaction and perceived treatment outcomes. Ethnic minority clients generally felt that issues regarding race and ethnicity were more important than did White clients. When these elements were considered important but were not included in their care, clients were less satisfied with treatment. Consistent with the notion of cultural responsiveness, these findings provide empirical evidence that culturally relevant aspects of the mental health service experience are salient to ethnic minority clients and can affect how they respond to services.     

EVERYDAY DISCRIMINATION,FAMILY CONTEXT,AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG LATINO ADULTS IN THE UNITED STATES

Research suggests that experiences of discrimination can threaten the viabilities of families, which may subsequently affect an individual's mental health. Our study tests the hypotheses that (a) everyday discrimination will be indirectly associated with psychological distress through family cultural conflict and lower family cohesion among Latinos and (b) gender will moderate these relations. The sample included Latinos (N = 2,554) from the National Latino and Asian American Study. Path analysis revealed that among the total sample, greater exposure to everyday discrimination was associated with higher levels of family cultural conflict and, in turn, increased psychological distress. Multiple‐group path analysis revealed no effect modification by gender. Results underscore the need to consider sociocontextual mechanisms through which discrimination (a) may impinge on the mental health of Latinos and (b) may have implications for the development of mental health interventions that are culturally informed, thus needing to take into consideration family functioning and the role of contextual factors such as discrimination.     

HOPE,SELF‐ESTEEM,AND SELF‐REGULATION: POSITIVE CHARACTERISTICS AMONG MEN AND WOMEN IN RECOVERY

Hopefulness remains unclear in relation to aspects of self‐control and self‐esteem among adults in substance abuse recovery. The present study explored the relationship between dispositional hope (agency and pathway) with self‐esteem (self‐liking, self‐competency, and self‐confidence) and self‐regulation (impulse control and self‐discipline), using a latent variable measurement model and structural equation modeling among adults (n = 601) residing in a communal living setting for persons in substance abuse recovery. Results showed that multiple dimensions of these constructs were significant as individual predictors. With persons in recovery, self‐regulation included impulsivity control and self‐discipline, while self‐esteem reflected self‐liking, competence, and a sense of self‐confidence. Furthermore, both hope‐pathways and hope‐agency significantly related to self‐control/impulse control but not self‐control/discipline, and self‐esteem/competency was associated with hope‐pathways but not hope‐agency.     

FINANCIAL STRESS,NEIGHBORHOOD STRESS,AND WELL‐BEING: MEDIATIONAL AND MODERATIONAL MODELS

This study explores whether high quality neighborhoods or social integration have protective effects on psychological well‐being, especially in the face of financial challenges. Previous research suggests that low levels of financial stress, lower neighborhood stress, and social integration are each associated with greater levels of well‐being; few studies, however, investigate these contextual variables in confluence. Data from the Notre Dame Study of Health and Well‐Being were used to investigate whether (a) neighborhood stress mediates the relationship between financial stress and psychological well‐being and (b) social integration moderates the relationship between neighborhood stress and psychological well‐being. Results were consistent with both hypotheses and were replicated in data from Successful Aging in Context. These results suggest that proximal contextual variables, such as social integration and neighborhood stress can arbitrate the effect that less proximal contextual variables, such as economic conditions, have on individuals’ psychological well‐being.     

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE ETHNIC DENSITY EFFECT: ISSUES OF ACCULTURATION,DISCRIMINATION AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

Ecological factors in psychological acculturation research are often neglected, although recent work suggests that context and acculturation may interact in predicting adaptation outcomes. The ethnic density effect–the protective effect related to a greater proportion of people from the same ethnic group living in a particular neighborhood–might be one such ecological candidate. The current study integrates these constructs by unpacking the perceived ethnic density effect and examining how it is related to acculturation in a diverse sample (N = 146) of immigrant students in Montreal, Canada. It was found that the negative relation between perceived ethnic density and depression was mediated by discrimination but not by social support. Furthermore, a crossover interaction indicated that heritage acculturation was protective against depression for those residing in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods but not for those living in ethnically sparse neighborhoods. This strongly supports an ecology‐acculturation fit, highlighting the need to contextualize acculturation research.