The Relationship Among Trauma, Acculturation, and Mental Health Symptoms in Somali Refugees

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-232
Author(s):  
Katherine C. Jorgenson ◽  
Johanna E. Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Somali Refugees ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
The Relationship

More than 100,000 Somali refugees have resettled in the United States, creating a need for additional research about mental health needs and premigration experiences that precede resettlement. The purpose of this study was to learn more about premigration traumatic experiences, the process of acculturation following resettlement, and the relationship between premigration trauma, acculturation, and mental health. Eighty Somali refugees from two mid-sized Midwestern cities participated. It was hypothesized that acculturation would mediate the relationship between premigration trauma and mental health symptoms. The results partially supported this hypothesis, dependent upon the dimension of acculturation included in the path analysis. Unexpected relationships among the various acculturation dimensions in the model (American cultural identity, English language competency, and American cultural competency) occurred with traumatic experiences, mental health symptoms, and time in the United States. We discuss implications and directions for future research, practice, advocacy, and training.

scholarly journals Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders Are Associated With Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States

10.2196/19347 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. e19347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas C Jacobson ◽  
Damien Lekkas ◽  
George Price ◽  
Michael V Heinz ◽  
Minkeun Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to dramatic changes worldwide in people’s everyday lives. To combat the pandemic, many governments have implemented social distancing, quarantine, and stay-at-home orders. There is limited research on the impact of such extreme measures on mental health. Objective The goal of this study was to examine whether stay-at-home orders produced differential changes in mental health symptoms using internet search queries on a national scale. Methods In the United States, individual states vary in their adoption of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19; as of March 23, 2020, 11 of the 50 states had issued stay-at-home orders. The staggered rollout of stay-at-home measures across the United States allows us to investigate whether these measures impact mental health by exploring variations in mental health search queries across the states. This paper examines the changes in mental health search queries on Google between March 16-23, 2020, across each state and Washington, DC. Specifically, this paper examines differential changes in mental health searches based on patterns of search activity following issuance of stay-at-home orders in these states compared to all other states. The participants were all the people who searched mental health terms in Google between March 16-23. Between March 16-23, 11 states underwent stay-at-home orders to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Outcomes included search terms measuring anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, negative thoughts, irritability, fatigue, anhedonia, concentration, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. Results Analyzing over 10 million search queries using generalized additive mixed models, the results suggested that the implementation of stay-at-home orders are associated with a significant flattening of the curve for searches for suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances, with the most prominent flattening associated with suicidal ideation and anxiety. Conclusions These results suggest that, despite decreased social contact, mental health search queries increased rapidly prior to the issuance of stay-at-home orders, and these changes dissipated following the announcement and enactment of these orders. Although more research is needed to examine sustained effects, these results suggest mental health symptoms were associated with an immediate leveling off following the issuance of stay-at-home orders.

scholarly journals Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders Are Associated With Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas C Jacobson ◽  
Damien Lekkas ◽  
George Price ◽  
Michael V Heinz ◽  
Minkeun Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to dramatic changes worldwide in people’s everyday lives. To combat the pandemic, many governments have implemented social distancing, quarantine, and stay-at-home orders. There is limited research on the impact of such extreme measures on mental health. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to examine whether stay-at-home orders produced differential changes in mental health symptoms using internet search queries on a national scale. METHODS In the United States, individual states vary in their adoption of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19; as of March 23, 2020, 11 of the 50 states had issued stay-at-home orders. The staggered rollout of stay-at-home measures across the United States allows us to investigate whether these measures impact mental health by exploring variations in mental health search queries across the states. This paper examines the changes in mental health search queries on Google between March 16-23, 2020, across each state and Washington, DC. Specifically, this paper examines differential changes in mental health searches based on patterns of search activity following issuance of stay-at-home orders in these states compared to all other states. The participants were all the people who searched mental health terms in Google between March 16-23. Between March 16-23, 11 states underwent stay-at-home orders to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Outcomes included search terms measuring anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, negative thoughts, irritability, fatigue, anhedonia, concentration, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. RESULTS Analyzing over 10 million search queries using generalized additive mixed models, the results suggested that the implementation of stay-at-home orders are associated with a significant flattening of the curve for searches for suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances, with the most prominent flattening associated with suicidal ideation and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that, despite decreased social contact, mental health search queries increased rapidly prior to the issuance of stay-at-home orders, and these changes dissipated following the announcement and enactment of these orders. Although more research is needed to examine sustained effects, these results suggest mental health symptoms were associated with an immediate leveling off following the issuance of stay-at-home orders.

scholarly journals Critical Care Recovery Center: a model of agile implementation in intensive care unit (ICU) survivors

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 1409-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Wang ◽  
Philip Hanneman ◽  
Chenjia Xu ◽  
Sujuan Gao ◽  
Duane Allen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms

ABSTRACTBackground:As many as 70% of intensive care unit (ICU) survivors suffer from long-term physical, cognitive, and psychological impairments known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). We describe how the first ICU survivor clinic in the United States, the Critical Care Recovery Center (CCRC), was designed to address PICS using the principles of Agile Implementation (AI).Methods:The CCRC was designed using an eight-step process known as the AI Science Playbook. Patients who required mechanical ventilation or were delirious ≥48 hours during their ICU stay were enrolled in the CCRC. One hundred twenty subjects who completed baseline HABC-M CG assessments and had demographics collected were included in the analysis to identify baseline characteristics that correlated with higher HABC-M CG scores. A subset of patients and caregivers also participated in focus group interviews to describe their perceptions of PICS.Results:Quantitative analyses showed that the cognitive impairment was a major concern of caregivers. Focus group data also confirmed that caregivers of ICU survivors (n = 8) were more likely to perceive cognitive and mental health symptoms than ICU survivors (n = 10). Caregivers also described a need for ongoing psychoeducation about PICS, particularly cognitive and mental health symptoms, and for ongoing support from other caregivers with similar experiences.Conclusions:Our study demonstrated how the AI Science Playbook was used to build the first ICU survivor clinic in the United States. Caregivers of ICU survivors continue to struggle with PICS, particularly cognitive impairment, months to years after discharge. Future studies will need to examine whether the CCRC model of care can be adapted to other complex patient populations seen by health-care professionals.

scholarly journals Evaluating Mental Health–Related Symptoms Among Cancer Survivors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the COVID Impact Survey

2021 ◽  
pp. OP.20.00752
Author(s):  
Jessica Yasmine Islam ◽  
Denise C. Vidot ◽  
Marlene Camacho-Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
High School ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
High School Degree ◽  
Health Related

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of adults in the United States because of recommended preventive behaviors such as physical distancing. Our objective was to evaluate mental health symptoms and identify associated determinants among cancer survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. METHODS: We used nationally representative data of 10,760 US adults from the COVID-19 Impact Survey. We defined cancer survivors as adults with a self-reported diagnosis of cancer (n = 854, 7.6%). We estimated associations of mental health symptoms among cancer survivors using multinomial logistic regression. We estimated determinants of reporting at least one mental health symptom 3-7 times in the 7 days before survey administration among cancer survivors using multivariable Poisson regression. RESULTS: Cancer survivors were more likely to report feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.42; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.90); depressed (aOR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.18 to 2.09); lonely (aOR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.91); and hopeless (aOR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.11 to 2.06) 3-7 days per week in the last 7 days when compared with adults without cancer. Among cancer survivors, adults of age 30-44 years (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.87; 95% CI, 1.18 to 2.95), females (aPR, 1.55, 95% CI, 1.12 to 2.13), adults without a high school degree (aPR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.05 to 3.04), and adults with limited social interaction (aPR, 1.40, 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.95) were more likely to report at least one mental health–related symptom in the last 7 days (3-7 days/week). CONCLUSION: Cancer survivors are reporting mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly young adults, adults without a high school degree, women, and survivors with limited social support.

scholarly journals Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders are Associated with Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas C. Jacobson ◽  
Damien Lekkas ◽  
George Price ◽  
Michael V. Heinz ◽  
Minkeun Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

Background: COVID-19 has led to dramatic changes globally in persons’ everyday lives. To combat the pandemic, many governments have implemented social distancing, quarantine, and stay-at-home orders. There is limited research on the impact of such extreme measures on mental health. Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine whether stay-at-home orders produced differential changes in mental health symptoms using internet search queries at a national scale. Methods: In the United States, individual states vary in their adoption of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19; as of March 23, 2020, eleven of the fifty states had issued stay-at-home orders. The staggered rollout of stay-at-home measures across the U.S. allows us to investigate whether these measures impact mental health by exploring variations in mental health search queries across the states. The current manuscript examines the changes in mental health search queries on Google between March 16-23, 2020 across each state and Washington D.C. Specifically, the current manuscript examines differential change in mental health searches based on patterns of search activity following issuance of stay-at-home orders in these states compared to all other states. Participants included all persons who searched mental health terms in Google between March 16-23. Between March 16-23, eleven states underwent stay-at-home orders to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Outcomes included search terms measuring anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, negative thoughts, irritability, fatigue, anhedonia, concentration, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. Results: Analyzing over 10 million search queries using generalized additive mixed models, the results suggested that the implementation of stay-at-home orders are associated with a significant flattening of the curve for searches for suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances with the most prominent flattening associated with suicidal ideation and anxiety. Conclusions: These results suggest that, despite decreased social contact, mental health search queries increased rapidly prior to the issuance of stay-at-home orders, and these changes dissipated following the announcement and enactment of these orders. Although more research is needed to examine sustained effects, these results suggest mental health symptoms were associated with an immediately leveling off following the issuance of stay-at-home orders.

scholarly journals Association of Exposure to Police Violence With Prevalence of Mental Health Symptoms Among Urban Residents in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. e184945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E. DeVylder ◽  
Hyun-Jin Jun ◽  
Lisa Fedina ◽  
Daniel Coleman ◽  
Deidre Anglin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Health Symptoms

scholarly journals Is Fear of COVID-19 Contagious? The Effects of Emotion Contagion and Social Media Use on Anxiety in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Wheaton ◽  
Alena Prikhidko ◽  
Gabrielle R. Messner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Pandemic Threat ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Emotion Contagion

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic, causing substantial anxiety. One potential factor in the spread of anxiety in response to a pandemic threat is emotion contagion, the finding that emotional experiences can be socially spread through conscious and unconscious pathways. Some individuals are more susceptible to social contagion effects and may be more likely to experience anxiety and other mental health symptoms in response to a pandemic threat. Therefore, we studied the relationship between emotion contagion and mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We administered the Emotion Contagion Scale (ESC) along with a measure of anxiety in response to COVID-19 (modified from a previous scale designed to quantify fear of the Swine Flu outbreak) and secondary outcome measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. These measures were completed by a large (n = 603) student sample in the United States. Data were collected in the months of April and May of 2020 when the fear of COVID-19 was widespread. Results revealed that greater susceptibility to emotion contagion was associated with greater concern about the spread of COVID-19, more depression, anxiety, stress, and OCD symptoms. Consumption of media about COVID-19 also predicted anxiety about COVID-19, though results were not moderated by emotion contagion. However, emotion contagion did moderate the relationship between COVID-19-related media consumption and elevated OCD symptoms. Although limited by a cross-sectional design that precludes causal inferences, the present results highlight the need for study of how illness fears may be transmitted socially during a pandemic.

Camouflaging in non-autistic adults is associated with poorer mental health

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Somerville ◽  
Sarah E. MacPherson ◽  
Sue Fletcher-Watson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
The Relationship

Camouflaging is a frequently reported behaviour in autistic people, which entails the use of strategies to compensate for and mask autistic traits in social situations. Camouflaging is associated with poor mental health in autistic people. This study examined the manifestation of camouflaging in a non-autistic sample, examining the relationship between autistic traits, camouflaging, and mental health. In addition, the role of executive functions as a mechanism underpinning camouflaging was explored. Sixty-three non-autistic adults completed standardised self-report questionnaires which measured: autistic traits, mental health symptoms, and camouflaging behaviours. In addition, a subset (n=51) completed three tests of executive function measuring inhibition, working memory, and set-shifting. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyse data. Results indicated that autistic traits are not associated with mental health symptoms when controlling for camouflaging, and camouflaging predicted increased mental health symptoms. Camouflaging did not correlate with any measure of executive function. These findings have implications for understanding the relationship between autistic traits and mental health in non-autistic people and add to the growing development of theory and knowledge about the mechanism and effects of camouflaging.

14. Political Democracy and State Repression

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Davenport
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Democracy ◽  
State Repression ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the relationship between political democracy and state repression. Afer providing an overview of the democracy–repression link, it considers what research has been conducted on the topic and also what has been ignored. It uses the United States and its treatment of African Americans as an example of how existing research in this field should change, as well as to emphasize the importance of disaggregation (regarding institutions, actors, and actions). The chapter concludes by suggesting directions for future research. It argues that researchers need to improve the way in which they think about the relationship between democracy and repression, and that they need to modify how they gather information about democracy and repression.

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