Characteristics of urban male homeless veterans and non-veterans in Omaha,Nebraska

The current study examined differences between urban homeless veterans and non-veterans on sociodemographics, housing, clinical characteristics, and psychosocial factors. We recruited a sample of 196 homeless men (101 veterans, 95 non-veterans) from the Omaha, Nebraska metropolitan area. Structured interviews were conducted by research staff. The results showed that the two groups were similar in most respects, though there were several notable differences. Homeless veterans were found to be older and more educated than non-veterans, more likely to have married, and reported having fewer non-adult children. Multivariable models controlling for age further showed that veterans reported a higher number of medical problems and were more likely to report being diagnosed with major depression or PTSD than non-veterans. Comparison with previous studies suggests changes in certain characteristics of homeless veterans over the past few decades that may reflect the growing proportion of veterans from the all-volunteer force, initiated after the draft ended in 1975. Findings from this study were consistent with previous comparative studies suggesting limited changes in recent decades in the characteristics of homeless veterans as compared to non-veterans, although the high prevalence of major depression and PTSD merit special treatment for these disorders.     

Service user/survivor-led research in mental health: epistemological possibilities

This paper considers possible epistemologies for user-led and survivor research by drawing on four discourses: the mainstream English tradition, Canadian Mad Studies, critical theory more generally and feminist standpoint epistemology. It discusses general, universalising epistemologies, the extent to which these characterise the discourses at stake and the problems with knowledge claims that rest on such singular conceptualisations. The institutional and political concomitants are considered. The paper has an additional double aim: to engage with survivor scholarship around critical theory and to insert that scholarship into the field of critical theory itself in a novel manner.     

Organized Religious Involvement and Mental Health Among Caribbean Black Adolescents

Though religion has been related to better mental health, the aspects of organized religious life most salient for the mental health of Caribbean Black adolescents in the US, beyond religious service attendance, has been understudied. This research utilized a sub-sample of Caribbean Black adolescents from the NSAL-A, a nationally representative U.S. dataset, to examine (1) the prevalence of organized religious involvement (e.g., participation in religious service activities, choice to attend religious services) and (2) the relationship between organized religious involvement and mental health. Results showed that 62 % of Caribbean Black adolescents attend religious services regularly (at least a few times a month) and 49 % or more attend religious services or participate in religious activities (e.g., youth groups) by choice. Additionally, various aspects of organized religious involvement were positively related to coping and self-esteem, and negatively related to depressive symptoms. Religious service attendance was not related to any of the mental health indicators. Study results can inform the development of individual and group level interventions targeted at supporting the mental health of Caribbean Black adolescents.     

Child Psychiatry in the Chinese Setting

This article introduces the history and social background and describes the present situation of child psychiatry in China. Certain Chinese social, political and cultural issues are explored, as the one-child policy and the Chinese family structure. Numerous currents of thought coexist in Chinese child psychiatry. Four examples of mental health disorders in child and adolescent psychiatry and their treatments in the Chinese public health care system are described (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anorexia nervosa, posttraumatic stress disorder and internet addiction).     

Co-constructing controversy: content analysis of collaborative knowledge negotiation in online communities

Knowledge sharing online has flourished within organizations as well as open online communities due to the pervasiveness of Web 2.0 platforms. This paper builds on previous studies of social construction of knowledge online and investigates how contributors in online communities collaboratively share and construct controversial scientific knowledge. As the general public participates in such knowledge collaboration, understanding the processes through which they contribute content and roles that they play is imperative. The authors conducted the content analysis of three online communities that engage in knowledge collaboration on the subject of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccination, which is perceived as contentious knowledge by the public due to the widespread myth among parents that the MMR vaccine is associated with autism. The study's findings include that the content discussed is influenced by the purposes of the communities, nature of the tasks, and demographics of participants, although they discussed the same topic. The authors also found that the framework of knowledge reuse and knowledge co-construction sites is useful for investigating the content and roles that appeared in the three communities. The contribution of the paper includes the analytical framework of knowledge reuse and knowledge co-construction, articulation of the content and roles that appeared in online communities, and unboxing of discourses in three different online communities. Future research directions are also discussed.     

‘It's Dangerous,but these are my People’: The Assimilation of a Catholic Priest among the Meto of Oecussi

Originally from Pennsylvania, Father Richard Daschbach has lived among the Atoni Pah Meto of West Timor since 1967. In this paper I consider Richard's ministry in the context of the literature on Austronesian cosmological systems, focusing on how his work, though defined by characteristically Meto notions of authority, spirituality and precedence, is also what Collier and Ong have described as a ‘global assemblage’. Tsing's concept of ‘friction’ is used as a way of understanding how both local and notionally universal forces within this encounter have been energised and transformed through their accidental and sometimes uneasy proximity.     

Revitalizing sociology: urban life and mental illness between history and the present

This paper proposes a re‐thinking of the relationship between sociology and the biological sciences. Tracing lines of connection between the history of sociology and the contemporary landscape of biology, the paper argues for a reconfiguration of this relationship beyond popular rhetorics of ‘biologization' or ‘medicalization'. At the heart of the paper is a claim that, today, there are some potent new frames for re‐imagining the traffic between sociological and biological research – even for ‘revitalizing’ the sociological enterprise as such. The paper threads this argument through one empirical case: the relationship between urban life and mental illness. In its first section, it shows how this relationship enlivened both early psychiatric epidemiology, and some forms of the new discipline of sociology; it then traces the historical division of these sciences, as the sociological investment in psychiatric questions waned, and ‘the social' become marginalized within an increasingly ‘biological' psychiatry. In its third section, however, the paper shows how this relationship has lately been revivified, but now by a nuanced epigenetic and neurobiological attention to the links between mental health and urban life. What role can sociology play here? In its final section, the paper shows how this older sociology, with its lively interest in the psychiatric and neurobiological vicissitudes of urban social life, can be our guide in helping to identify intersections between sociological and biological attention. With a new century now underway, the paper concludes by suggesting that the relationship between urban life and mental illness may prove a core testing‐ground for a ‘revitalized' sociology.     

Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under ‘lockdown’ restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic.