scholarly journals The Comparability of Perceived Physical and Mental Health Measures Across Immigrants and Natives in the United States

Demography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Maskileyson ◽  
Daniel Seddig ◽  
Eldad Davidov

Abstract The comparative study of perceived physical and mental health in general—and the comparative study of health between the native-born and immigrants, in particular—requires that the groups understand survey questions inquiring about their health in the same way and display similar response patterns. After all, observed differences in perceived health may not reflect true differences but rather cultural bias in the health measures. Research on cross-country measurement equivalence between immigrants and natives on self-reported health measures has received very limited attention to date, resulting in a growing demand for the validation of existing perceived health measures using samples of natives and immigrants and establishing measurement equivalence of health-related assessment tools. This study, therefore, aims to examine measurement equivalence of self-reported physical and mental health indicators between immigrants and natives in the United States. Using pooled data from the 2015–2017 IPUMS Health Surveys, we examine the cross-group measurement equivalence properties of five concepts that are measured by multiple indicators: (1) perceived limitations in activities of daily life; (2) self-reported disability; (3) perceived functional limitations; (4) perceived financial stress; and (5) nonspecific psychological distress. Furthermore, we examine the comparability of these data among respondents of different ethnoracial origins and from different regions of birth, who report few versus many years since migration, their age, gender, and the language used to respond to the interview (e.g., English vs. Spanish). We test for measurement equivalence using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results reveal that health scales are comparable across the examined groups. This finding allows drawing meaningful conclusions about similarities and differences among natives and immigrants on measures of perceived health in these data.

Author(s):  
Yo Jackson

Child maltreatment is acting or failure to act on the part of a caretaker in a manner that poses a threat to a child’s well-being, health, and safety. The present chapter reviews the prevalence and nature of child maltreatment in the United States. The types of abuse, qualities of perpetrators, and physical and mental health outcomes on youth victims are also presented. Assessment tools for identifying abuse and the effects of abuse are discussed along with evidence-based methods for intervention for families exposed to child maltreatment. Along with a case example, recommendations for improving the knowledge base on child maltreatment are presented along with suggestions for refining methods for assessing and treating child maltreatment. Implications for clinical practice are also examined.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii440-iii440
Author(s):  
Kathy Riley

Abstract In the United States, more than 28,000 children and teenagers live with the diagnosis of a primary brain tumor (Porter, McCarthy, Freels, Kim, & Davis, 2010). In 2017, an estimated 4,820 new cases of childhood primary brain and other central nervous system tumors were expected to be diagnosed in children ages 0 – 19 in the United States (Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, 2017). Survivors suffer from lifelong side effects caused by their illness or by various treatments. Commonly identified late effects of treatment include a decline in intellectual functioning and processing speed, performance IQ deficits, memory deficits, psychological difficulties, deficits in adaptive functioning (daily life skills), and an overall decrease in health-related quality of life (Castellino, Ullrich, Whelen, & Lange, 2014). To address the ongoing challenges these survivors and their families face, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) met extensively with working groups comprised of survivors and caregivers to develop the outline for a comprehensive Survivorship Resource Guidebook. In 2019, the PBTF published the guidebook which categorizes survivor and caregiver needs into three primary areas: physical and mental health, quality of life, and working the system. Expert authors included survivors and caregivers themselves in addition to medical and mental health professionals. Key outcomes discovered during the creation and production of this resource highlight how caregivers, survivors and professionals can collaborate to provide needed information and practical help to one segment of the pediatric cancer population who experience profound morbidities as a result of their diagnosis and treatment.


Author(s):  
Rachel K. Gibson

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in comparative perspective. It does so using survey data from Wave 4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) to measure the extent of digital voter contact occurring in eighteen countries (2011–2015). Based on the understanding that extensive voter mobilization is a key feature of a country’s entry into phase IV digital campaigning, the authors infer which nations have progressed more rapidly through the four phases, and are thus most advanced in their use of digital campaign tools. Using this measure, they find that the United States is the most advanced nation and Thailand the least. They investigate the rankings more systematically using multilevel modeling techniques, and find that presidential elections and higher internet penetration rates are most predictive of higher rates of digital campaign contact. The results are helpful in building expectations about the digital campaign performance of the four national case studies.


Author(s):  
Candy Gunther Brown

This chapter examines school-based meditation programs for children ages 4–17—including Transcendental Meditation, ashtanga yoga, and mindfulness-based stress reduction—popularized between the 1960s and 2010s in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and India. Practices entered mainstream education as promoters distanced meditation from religion, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, and framed meditative practices as scientifically validated techniques for cultivating virtues essential for academic performance, physical and mental health, and moral character. The chapter assesses meditation research and religious controversies. It recommends an opt-in model of informed consent as most conducive to transparency and voluntarism.


1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (01) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
David W. Brokensha

Previous listings of African Studies offered at American universities have appeared each year in the Bulletin, the last one being in March 1964. The Editors thank all those who kindly supplied the information on which this summary is based, and they welcome any suggestions for improving the usefulness of this annual presentation or of extending the coverage. Later numbers of the Bulletin will include summaries of African Studies in Canada, Africa, Western Europe, the USSR, and Asia. The summary divides institutions into two main classes. First, there are those with a formally constituted Program, Center, or Committee, where African Studies has some institutionalized existence. Second, there is a group of universities which, while having no formal African Studies Program, nevertheless offer, through their regular departments, courses dealing with Africa. The latter list does not pretend to be exhaustive; there are many other institutions which might have been included, but we have no information on them at the present time. Students who are deciding to which school they should apply might bear in mind such factors as caliber of faculty, availability of fellowships (though the closing date for most applications for 1965/66 is already past), library facilities, other institutions in the vicinity, and research opportunities. Most scholars now agree that the area studies approach cannot exist without the more theoretical comparative approach, so that the presence of certain other scholars becomes very significant: in political science, for example, it would be advantageous to have available faculty who specialize in the comparative study of processes of modernization, or of revolutions, as well as those who concentrate on Africa as an area. Therefore, this guide merely outlines some of the main features of African Study Programs in the United States.


Author(s):  
Lieselotte Anderwald

This chapter summarizes new approaches to the study of traditional dialects, in particular in Britain and the United States, and discusses how new methods, new results, and new topics of investigation may inform and enrich the study of World Englishes, too. Of particular importance may be the acknowledgement of widespread variability in the ‘homeland’ that is increasingly also historically attested and sociolinguistically described, the study of morphosyntactic variation as an area of language that seems to remain quite stable under settlement conditions, and the comparative study of present-day variability that indicates the breadth (and limits) of variability. In return, results from the comparative study of World Englishes also have the potential to enrich modern dialectology and sociolinguistics.


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