Resilience and Coping as Moderators of Stress-Related Growth in Asians and AAPIs During COVID-19

This exploratory study examined the extent to which coping, resilience, experiences of subtle and blatant racism, and ethnic identity predicted stress-related growth in a national convenience sample of Asians and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs; N = 326) who experienced COVID-19–related racial discrimination. Our analysis indicated participants with higher levels of coping, resilience, experiences of subtle and blatant racism, and ethnic identity were significantly more likely to cultivate higher levels of stress-related growth. Coping strategies such as self-blame, religion, humor, venting, substance use, denial, and behavioral disengagement significantly moderated the relationship between experiences of racism and stress-related growth. Notably, participants in the study who used mental health services following COVID-19 reported significantly higher levels of racial discrimination, resilience, coping, and stress-related growth compared to Asians and AAPIs who did not use professional mental health services. Mental health professionals are called to utilize culturally sensitive treatment modalities and challenge traditional Western notions that frame coping responses from an individualistic worldview.

Prevalence and perceived importance of racial matching in the psychotherapeutic dyad: a national survey of addictions treatment clinical practices

Background Despite conflicting results in the literature concerning its efficacy in practice, racial matching has been identified as a component of culturally sensitive treatment. Methods This study examined the perceived importance and prevalence of racial matching by surveying a national sample of substance use disorder (SUD) centers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Results Using univariate statistical analysis, results for the prevalence of racial matching revealed that in 58% of the clinics, there was the potential to match a counselor with a racially similar client, while in 39% of the clinics, there was no potential to provide such a match. Among the agencies that displayed a potential for racial matching, 26% of the respondents indicated that they never racially matched clients and therapists, 71% reported that they sometimes practice racial matching, 15% indicated that they usually racially match, and only 7% purported to always racially match clients and therapists. Results for the perceived importance of racial matching revealed that in both situations where treatment centers had the potential for racial matching and did not have the potential for racial matching, supervisors reported that it was relatively important to provide culturally sensitive treatment but that it was not as important to match clients in SUD centers with racially/ethnically similar counselors. Conclusion The topic of racial matching can be very complex and has shown variation amongst SUD centers; however, this study emphasizes the importance of providing culturally sensitive treatment and an appreciation of differences among members within each racial group.

Prevalence and perceived importance of racial matching in the psychotherapeutic dyad: A national survey of addictions treatment clinical practices

Background: Despite conflicting results in the literature concerning its efficacy in practice, racial matching has been identified as a component of culturally sensitive treatment. Methods: This study examined the perceived importance and prevalence of racial matching by surveying a national sample of substance use disorder (SUD) centers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Results: Using univariate statistical analysis, results for the prevalence of racial matching revealed that in 58% of the clinics, there was the potential to match a counselor with a racially similar client, while in 39% of the clinics, there was no potential to provide such a match. Among the agencies that displayed a potential for racial matching, 26% of the respondents indicated that they never racially matched clients and therapists, 71% reported that they sometimes practice racial matching, 15% indicated that they usually racially match, and only 7% purported to always racially match clients and therapists. Results for the perceived importance of racial matching revealed that in both situations where treatment centers had the potential for racial matching and did not have the potential for racial matching, supervisors reported that it was relatively important to provide culturally sensitive treatment but that it was not as important to match clients in SUD centers with racially/ethnically similar counselors. Conclusion: The topic of racial matching can be very complex and has shown variation amongst SUD centers; however, this study emphasizes the importance of providing culturally sensitive treatment and an appreciation of differences among members within each racial group.

Prevalence and perceived importance of racial matching in the psychotherapeutic dyad: A national survey of addictions treatment clinical practices

Background: Despite conflicting results in the literature concerning its efficacy in practice, racial matching has been identified as a component of culturally sensitive treatment. Methods: This study examined the perceived importance and prevalence of racial matching by surveying a national sample of substance abuse treatment centers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Results: Using univariate statistical analysis, results for the prevalence of racial matching revealed that in 58% of the clinics, there was the potential to match a counselor with a racially similar client, while in 39% of the clinics, there was no potential to provide such a match. Among the agencies that displayed a potential for racial matching, 26% of the respondents indicated that they never racially matched clients and therapists, 71% reported that they sometimes practice racial matching, 15% indicated that they usually racially match, and only 7% purported to always racially match clients and therapists. Results for the perceived importance of racial matching revealed that in both situations where treatment centers had the potential for racial matching and did not have the potential for racial matching, supervisors reported that it was relatively important to provide culturally sensitive treatment but that it was not as important to match clients in substance abuse centers with racially/ethnically similar counselors. Conclusion: The topic of racial matching can be very complex and has shown variation amongst substance abuse centers; however, this study emphasizes the importance of providing culturally sensitive treatment and an appreciation of differences among members within each racial group. Keywords: culturally responsive counseling; cross-racial counseling; addictions treatment

The Impact of Gambling on Families in Hong Kong: The Role of Family Functioning

Despite substantial evidence that problem gambling is associated with a wide range of family difficulties, limited effort has been devoted to studying the negative impacts on family members as a result of problem gambling, particularly in Chinese communities. It was hypothesized that significant negative relationships would be found between family member impacts and family functioning; and significant positive relationship would be found between family functioning and health and psychological wellbeing. A total of 103 family members of problem gamblers who sought help from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Even Centre in Hong Kong were interviewed. Results showed that a majority of family members were partners or ex-partners of the gambler with low or no income. Family functioning was negatively correlated to gambling-related family impacts and psychological distress, and was positively correlated to health and psychological wellbeing. The results provide preliminary support for patterns of family functioning that could protect families from negative impacts of addictions. It is suggested that a culturally-sensitive treatment modality that focuses on enhancing family functioning will facilitate improvement in gambling related family impacts.

Latina/o Local Knowledge about Diabetes: Emotional Triggers, Plant Treatments, and Food Symbolism

Local knowledge and folk customs, in particular, play a significant role in shaping communal dietary practices and approaches to treating ailments and disease, sometimes in defiance of “official” medical knowledge and direction. In chapter 4, “Latino/a Local Knowledge About Diabetes: Emotional Triggers, Plant Treatments, and Food Symbolism,” Michael Owen Jones explores several areas of Latino/a local knowledge and belief about diabetes collected around Los Angeles, California. Here again, informant narratives powerfully reflect the critical intersection of folk culture and institutional authority. Charting explanatory models regarding causes and the course of illness or disease, the folk use of plants and botanicals to lower blood glucose levels, awareness of non-nutritional meanings and uses of food—rituals, symbols, and sources of identity—regularly ignored by dieticians, self-reported “barriers” to maintaining a recommended dietary regimen, and perceptions of the social and psychological dimensions of illness that all too rarely are considered by medical personnel, Jones sheds light into how clinical and public health officials must develop culturally sensitive treatment plans that more accurately recognize and respond to local exigencies and the preponderance of emotional and environmental stress in treating diabetes within Latino/a communities.

Adapting CBT for traumatized refugees and ethnic minority patients: Examples from culturally adapted CBT (CA-CBT)

In this article, we illustrate how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be adapted for the treatment of PTSD among traumatized refugees and ethnic minority populations, providing examples from our treatment, culturally adapted CBT, or CA-CBT. CA-CBT has a unique approach to exposure (typical exposure is poorly tolerated in these groups), emphasizes the treatment of somatic sensations (a particularly salient part of the presentation of PTSD in these groups), and addresses comorbid anxiety disorders and anger. To accomplish these treatment goals, CA-CBT emphasizes emotion exposure and emotion regulation techniques such as meditation and aims to promote emotional and psychological flexibility. We describe 12 key aspects of adapting CA-CBT that make it a culturally sensitive treatment of traumatized refugee and ethnic minority populations. We discuss three models that guide our treatment and that can be used to design culturally sensitive treatments: (a) the panic attack–PTSD model to illustrate the many processes that generate PTSD in these populations, highlighting the role of arousal and somatic symptoms; (b) the arousal triad to demonstrate how somatic symptoms are produced and the importance of targeting comorbid anxiety conditions and psychopathological processes; and (c) the multisystem network (MSN) model of emotional state to reveal how some of our therapeutic techniques (e.g., body-focused techniques: bodily stretching paired with self-statements) bring about psychological flexibility and improvement.