Mental health status of the Hmong Americans in 2011: three decades revisited

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Hmong in America and encompasses their mental health status for the past 35 years. Since their mass arrival to the United States in 1975, limited research has been compiled to track the specific mental health issues that affect this collective community alone. Major chronological research findings were compiled for this article and specific findings concerning the Hmong and their mental health issues were compared to findings for other Southeast Asian groups. In conclusion, the findings of this article indicate that the Hmong still have higher rates of being diagnosed with depression, the lowest help-seeking behaviors in utilizing Western medicine, and the lowest arithmetic average of "happiness" scaled on an assessment tool. The purpose of this article is to better steer future research projects that entail tracking and differentiating the specific mental health domains of the Hmong.     

Do peer effects mediate the association between family socio‐economic status and educational achievement?

Differences in levels of academic achievement according to socio‐economic status (SES), and parental education in particular, have been a persistent feature of Australian education systems. Young people with highly educated parents are more likely than their peers with low‐educated parents to attain high levels of achievement at school. Students with low levels of achievement are less likely than their high achieving peers to complete Year 12 and are more likely to experience negative post‐school outcomes. The SES of the neighbourhood, and in particular, the school attended, has also been found to have an effect on levels of both academic achievement and attainment. For this paper, we conduct analyses of National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy test scores for four cohorts of secondary school students attending government schools in the Australian Capital Territory to examine the associations between parental education, school attended and levels of educational achievement. Our findings show that students with university‐educated parents achieve at much higher levels than their peers with low‐educated parents and that attending a school with a higher proportion of students from educationally disadvantaged families has a negative effect on educational achievement.     

Do Some Students Need Special Protection From Research on Sex and Trauma? New Evidence for Young Adult Resilience in “Sensitive Topics” Research

Institutional review boards (IRBs) have expressed concerns that certain individuals or groups, such as participants who are younger, ethnic minorities, or who have certain psychological or personality traits, may be particularly distressed when participating in “sensitive topics” research. This study examined the effects of several demographic and individual difference factors (i.e., age, sex, ethnicity, religiosity, Big Five personality traits, and baseline psychological distress levels) on reactions to participation in sensitive topics research. Participants were 504 undergraduates who completed an extensive battery of either trauma/sex questionnaires or cognitive tests and rated their positive and negative emotional reactions and the perceived benefits and mental costs of participating. They also compared research participation to normal life stressors. Our findings indicated that individual difference and demographic risk factors do not increase participant distress after participating in sex/trauma research over and above that experienced after participating in traditionally minimal-risk cognitive tasks. Participants generally found research participation less distressing than normal life stressors and even enjoyable.     

Less than human: a qualitative study into the experience of parents involved in the child protection system

This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study into the experiences of parents who were involved in the English child protection system in 2013. Seventeen in‐depth interviews were conducted involving 19 parents and/or partners, and a framework approach was used to analyse the data. There were positive experiences of individual social workers and some positive experiences of the child protection system. However, the overwhelming theme of the parents' experiences was that the system was uncaring, inflexible and for some harmful to both themselves and their children. Despite being included in the child protection process, parents felt they were not afforded the same rights as a participant, as a decision‐maker or as a partner in seeking to improve the situation. The threat of consequences silenced parents who felt unable to speak out or challenge the things they disagreed with or coerced others into signing agreements they did not agree to. Such experiences related to a sense that they were being treated as ‘less than human’. These findings are considered within the context of recent reforms within the English child protection system.     

Shifting STEM Stereotypes? Considering the Role of Peer and Teacher Gender

This study builds on research on the power of counter‐stereotypical cues, as well as intergroup contact theory, to consider whether interactions with a female teacher and female peers in a high school engineering classroom decrease male students' gender/science, technology, engineering, and math stereotypical beliefs and whether this varies according to the initial strength of their stereotypical views. Analyses reveal that among male students who initially reject stereotypes of male superiority, more female peers in the classroom leads to a further decrease in their stereotypical views by the end of the year. In contrast, boys who held strong stereotypical beliefs became less stereotypical by the end of the course when they had a female teacher. Implications for future research and current educational reforms are discussed.     

Perspectives on Filial Responsibility Among Uprooted Families From South Lebanon

This study focuses on filial responsibilities among uprooted families. Views of 20 mothers and 20 adolescents and young adults from southern Lebanon residing in Israel were compared to identify the roles that adolescent children assume and the perceived effects of these roles. Eight domains of filial responsibilities were agreed upon: language broker, cultural broker, financial supporter and breadwinner, surrogate parent and sibling caretaker, emotional supporter of parents, mediator of family conflicts, heritage transmitter, and role model. The roles had simultaneous positive effects and negative effects. The discussion illustrates the importance of cultural context of country of origin and the host culture. Moreover, it suggests implications of the findings for research and practice.     

“Family? … Not Just Blood”: Discursive Constructions of “Family” in Adult,Former Foster Children’s Narratives

Framed by Relational Dialectics Theory, this study explores the ways adult, former foster children discursively construct meanings of “family.” Contrapuntal analysis of 24 interviews revealed two discourses as competing to constitute family: the Discourse of Family as Irreplaceable and Inescapable (Permanence) and the Discourse of Family as Performative Kinning (Performance). Permanence was constituted by themes of biology and historical connection, reifying normative understandings. Performance, comprised of role enactment, need for tolerance, and unconditional love, challenged the Permanence discourse. Throughout the narratives, Performance competed with Permanence for dominance, illustrating the cultural pervasiveness and power of Permanence yet, in some moments, privileging the marginalized Performance discourse. This discursive competition constructed meanings of family in narratives of life before, during, and after foster care. Overall, participant’s talk constructed complex webs of family relationships, allowing access to an important social institution—family—regardless of the presence/absence of culturally valued markers of family (e.g., biology, legality).     

Stress,strain, coping and social support for affected family members attending the National Problem Gambling Clinic,London

Aims were: to compare burden experienced by affected family members (AFMs) attending a problem gambling treatment clinic in London, England with that of AFMs affected by substance problems; to examine socio-demographic correlates of AFM burden; to evaluate change following an intervention designed for AFMs; and to test the assumption of the stress-strain-coping-support (SSCS) model that change in AFM coping is important. AFMs (N = 215) completed a gambling version of the short questionnaire for family members affected by addiction (SQFM-AA) which assesses stressful impact, symptoms of ill health, ways of coping, social support and overall burden. All received a 5-Step Method workbook, based on the SSCS model. The SQFM-AA was repeated three to six months later (n = 96). T-test analyses showed that baseline burden and related variables were comparable to those of family members affected by substance problems, were greater for wives and those living in the same household as the gambling relative, and were significantly reduced at follow-up. Regression modelling indicated the importance, for AFMs’ health, of reduced levels of engaged-emotional coping. Family members affected by gambling, some subgroups especially, experience high levels of burden. They can benefit from a model-based intervention, and coping change may be an important process.     

Comparison of dichotomized and distributional approaches in rare event clinical trial design: a fixed Bayesian design

This research was motivated by our goal to design an efficient clinical trial to compare two doses of docosahexaenoic acid supplementation for reducing the rate of earliest preterm births (ePTB) and/or preterm births (PTB). Dichotomizing continuous gestational age (GA) data using a classic binomial distribution will result in a loss of information and reduced power. A distributional approach is an improved strategy to retain statistical power from the continuous distribution. However, appropriate distributions that fit the data properly, particularly in the tails, must be chosen, especially when the data are skewed. A recent study proposed a skew-normal method. We propose a three-component normal mixture model and introduce separate treatment effects at different components of GA. We evaluate operating characteristics of mixture model, beta-binomial model, and skew-normal model through simulation. We also apply these three methods to data from two completed clinical trials from the USA and Australia. Finite mixture models are shown to have favorable properties in PTB analysis but minimal benefit for ePTB analysis. Normal models on log-transformed data have the largest bias. Therefore we recommend finite mixture model for PTB study. Either finite mixture model or beta-binomial model is acceptable for ePTB study.