Social exclusion, mental health, and social well-being among African immigrants in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282096342
Author(s):  
Sherinah Saasa ◽  
David Okech ◽  
Yoon Joon Choi ◽  
Larry Nackerud ◽  
Tenesha Littleton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
African Immigrants ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Economic Exclusion ◽  
Social Work Interventions

This study examined the effects of social exclusion (socio-cultural and structural-economic exclusion) on the mental health and social well-being of African immigrants in the United States ( N = 409). We found that social exclusion increased depression and anxiety symptoms, decreased societal trust, increased subjective isolation, and increased worries about one’s safety among African immigrants. The results further indicated strong negative effects of discrimination on mental health and social well-being. The findings highlight the need for social work interventions that target discrimination and structural exclusionary mechanisms in efforts to improve the mental health and social well-being of African immigrants in the United States.

Hard Time

Affilia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel C. Casey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Hard Time ◽  
Personal Accounts

As the number of women incarcerated in the United States continues to rise and their complex needs become more apparent, social workers must fortify their historical commitment to criminal justice reform. However, crafting more effective and compassionate responses to the needs of justice-involved women may very well require a more nuanced understanding of the holistic impact of incarceration on women’s well-being than the current literature offers. Utilizing the framework of feminist standpoint epistemology, the researcher engaged in qualitative content analysis to examine published personal accounts from 43 women to better understand their experiences in prisons and jails in the United States. Two overarching themes emerged from the analysis. First, the personal accounts illustrated that women experience prisons and jails as environments of denial insofar as these carceral environments deny women’s basic needs, their sense of humanity, and their personal power. The second overarching theme pertains to the holistic impact of the carceral environment upon women’s lives, meaning it has expansive effects on women’s biopsychosocial–spiritual functioning. Social workers should dedicate efforts to dramatically reducing the number of women behind bars and engaging in holistic intervention approaches that might counteract the negative effects of incarceration across domains of well-being.

scholarly journals Individual-Level Determinants of Employee Shirking

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Judge ◽  
Timothy D. Chandler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Organization Level

Employee shirking, where workers give less than full effort on the job, has typically been investigated as a construct subject to organization-level influences. Neglected are individual differences that could explain why employees in the same organization or work-group might shirk. Using a sample of workers from the health care profession in the United States, the present study sought to address these limitations by investigating subjective well-being (a dispositional construct), job satisfaction, as well as other indiuidual-level determinants of shirking. Results indicate that whites shirk significantly more than nonwhites, and that subjective well-being, job satisfaction, and age have significant, negative effects on shirking. The implications of these results are discussed.

What Went Wrong with the American Dream?

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Maxine Eichner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
American Children ◽  
Deaths Of Despair

This chapter considers a number of indicators relating to the well-being of American children and adults in order to examine the extent to which the American Dream is fulfilling its promise. For children, it considers levels of happiness, academic achievement, mental health, and economic mobility. For adults, it considers happiness, mental health, and life expectancy (including the rise of “deaths of despair”). All these indicators show that the United States is failing radically with respect to both children’s and adults’ well-being. These results are not surprising, the last section of the chapter shows, when we take into account the health of the nation’s families. Neither adults nor children can thrive without sound family ties. Yet indicators show that American families are in bad shape, and in considerably worse shape than families in other countries.

scholarly journals Optimal Well-Being After Major Depression

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Rottenberg ◽  
Andrew R. Devendorf ◽  
Vanessa Panaite ◽  
David J. Disabato ◽  
Todd B. Kashdan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Burden ◽  
Leverage Points ◽  
Midlife Development

Can people achieve optimal well-being and thrive after major depression? Contemporary epidemiology dismisses this possibility, viewing depression as a recurrent, burdensome condition with a bleak prognosis. To estimate the prevalence of thriving after depression in United States adults, we used data from the Midlife Development in the United States study. To count as thriving after depression, a person had to exhibit no evidence of major depression and had to exceed cutoffs across nine facets of psychological well-being that characterize the top 25% of U.S. nondepressed adults. Overall, nearly 10% of adults with study-documented depression were thriving 10 years later. The phenomenon of thriving after depression has implications for how the prognosis of depression is conceptualized and for how mental health professionals communicate with patients. Knowing what makes thriving outcomes possible offers new leverage points to help reduce the global burden of depression.

scholarly journals Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changwon Son ◽  
Sudeep Hegde ◽  
Alec Smith ◽  
Xiaomei Wang ◽  
Farzan Sasangohar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
College Students ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Positive Coping ◽  
Negative Impacts

BACKGROUND Student mental health in higher education has been an increasing concern. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has brought this vulnerable population into renewed focus. OBJECTIVE Our study aims to conduct a timely assessment of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students. METHODS We conducted interview surveys with 195 students at a large public university in the United States to understand the effects of the pandemic on their mental health and well-being. The data were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. RESULTS Of the 195 students, 138 (71%) indicated increased stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Multiple stressors were identified that contributed to the increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depressive thoughts among students. These included fear and worry about their own health and of their loved ones (177/195, 91% reported negative impacts of the pandemic), difficulty in concentrating (173/195, 89%), disruptions to sleeping patterns (168/195, 86%), decreased social interactions due to physical distancing (167/195, 86%), and increased concerns on academic performance (159/195, 82%). To cope with stress and anxiety, participants have sought support from others and helped themselves by adopting either negative or positive coping mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS Due to the long-lasting pandemic situation and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on higher education. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the mental health of college students.

scholarly journals E Pluribus… Unum?: Multiculturalism, Well-being, and Social Cohesion among Whites and Hispanics in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sara Morgan Watters
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Majority Groups

<p>Multiculturalism has been proclaimed as a failure in several European countries and has been said to divide solidarity in the United States. As many Western nations become increasingly pluralistic, multiculturalism has become one of the most socially and politically divisive issues that has been debated among citizens, scholars, and political leaders, many of which suggest multiculturalism undermines social cohesion. However, a review of the literature suggests that inconsistent findings may be due in part to differences in the conceptualisation of the term multiculturalism. As we argue in the current study, not only is multiculturalism a multi-faceted phenomenon relating to diversity of a population, policy to manage diversity, and ideologies of whether diversity is positive or negative, but also it may have different consequences for minority and majority groups. In the current study we seek to examine how these different conceptualisations of multiculturalism, are related to well-being and social cohesion using a new construct called Subjective Multiculturalism. This measure investigates participants’ perceptions of how multicultural they perceive the United States to be in terms of diversity, policy that promotes equity, and ideology. Results indicate that Whites have higher levels of well-being than Hispanics and are more embedded in society. Results also indicate that perceptions that diversity is positively viewed by Americans predict social cohesion for Hispanics but not for Whites. Overall, findings suggest that multiculturalism does not exert negative effects on well-being or social cohesion, and indeed, in some cases it predicts positive outcomes, particularly for Hispanics.</p>

Clarifying the Relationship Between Parenthood and Depression

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranae J. Evenson ◽  
Robin W. Simon
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Role Involvement ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Status Differences

Unlike other major adult social roles in the United States, parenthood does not appear to confer a mental health advantage for individuals. However, while research has examined parental status differences in emotional well-being, relatively little is known about variations in emotional distress among parents. In this article, we clarify the relationship between parenthood and current symptoms of depression using data from the National Survey of Families and Households. The analyses provide support for our first hypothesis: Parenthood is not associated with enhanced mental health since there is no type of parent who reports less depression than nonparents. We also find support for our second hypothesis: Certain types of parenthood are associated with more depression than others. Additionally, although we find marital status differences in symptoms among parents, there are no gender differences in the association between parenthood and depression. We discuss the implications of our findings for ongoing theoretical debates about the advantages of social role involvement for mental health as well as the meaning of contemporary parenthood in the United States.

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