Piloting an Augmented Reality Life Review Experience to Promote Mental Health Outcomes in Aging Asian American Women

Asian-American older women report the highest prevalence of suicidal ideations and rates of completed suicide compared to other racial groups. Ironically, Asian-American communities report disproportionately low rates of formal mental health utilization—this may be attributed to the lack of culturally-relevant services and negatively ingrained perceptions of mental health aid. One potential solution that has not been widely investigated is the use of technology to help older Asian-American women engage in mental health interventions. This study leverages innovations in augmented reality (AR) technology (i.e., overlaying of digital holograms onto the real world) to create a life review intervention aimed at promoting mental health well-being. The application, Tell-Being, is a personalized holographic life review experience that facilitates older adults to foster a sense of coherence and wholeness within their lives. Pilot data collection was amassed from four aging Asian-American female participants averaging 51.3 (SD=8.61) years of age. Initial pre/post analyses showcased mean differences that trend towards a higher presence of emotion regulation from pre-test (M=4.88, SD=1.08) to post-test (M=5.21, SD=1.17). Although data collection was prematurely halted due to COVID-19, results trended in promising directions. The technological innovations and findings from this study may lead to promising novel avenues to address barriers for older Asian-American women in seeking mental health assessment and treatment in a “new normal” world.

In the End, There Is No Such Thing as Unconscious Racism: CRT/Asian American Crit Counterstories by Undergraduate Students During the Pandemic

This article emerged from undergraduate students in an Honors College class on critical race theory at the University of Utah during the spring semester 2020 during the pandemic. The counterstories evolve around critical race theory/Asian American Crit and the historical and current violence against the Asian American community in the United States. Given the recent anti-Asian American backlash which has emerged through the COVID-19 crisis, to the March 2021 murders of the Asian American women and others in Atlanta, we present these counterstories with the imperative of their importance for critical social justice to combat White supremacy.

Using the Multi-Theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change to Explain the Correlates of Mammography Screening among Asian American Women

Globally, breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women. The incidence of breast cancer has been growing among Asian American women. Mammography is a screening procedure that provides early diagnosis for the timely treatment to reduce premature mortality due to breast cancer. However, there are no national data available that summarize the rates of mammography screening among Asian American women. Some small-scale studies have reported low rates of mammography uptake among Asian American women. This cross-sectional study utilized the fourth-generation, multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to explain the correlates of mammography screening among Asian American women between the ages of 45–54 years. A 44-item instrument was evaluated for face, content, and construct validity (using structural equation modeling) and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and administered electronically to a nationally representative sample of Asian American women (n = 374). The study found that Asian American women who have had received mammograms in the past 12 months as per recommendations, all three constructs of MTM, namely, participatory dialogue (β = 0.156, p < 0.05), behavioral confidence (β = 0.236, p < 0.001), and changes in the physical environment (β = 0.426, p < 0.001) were statistically significant and crucial in their decision to initiate getting a mammogram, accounting for a substantial 49.9% of the variance in the decision to seek mammography. The study also found that the MTM constructs of emotional transformation (β = 0.437, p < 0.001) and practice for change (β = 0.303, p < 0.001) were significant for maintaining the repeated behavior of getting annual mammograms and were responsible for 53.9% of the variance. This evidence-based study validates the use of MTM in designing and evaluating mammography screening promotion programs among Asian American women aged 45–54 years.

Introduction

Chapter 1 begins by presenting an overview of the vicissitudes of descriptive representation in state legislatures for women and men from the four largest racial groups in the United States, from 1996 to 2015. The chapter then previews the book’s main finding: factors related to representation and candidate emergence, such as the relationship between district populations and descriptive representatives or political ambition, are shaped by race and gender simultaneously. To account for the persistence of underrepresentation among women and minorities, Chapter 1 then advances the intersectional model of electoral opportunity. The model accounts for external and internal, multilevel pressures that constrain and facilitate the realistic candidacy opportunities for white women, white men, men of color, and women of color. The chapter closes by discussing the necessity of studying Asian American women and men, and Latinas and Latinos, in order to better understand representation in a nation shaped by immigration and immigrant communities.

Empirical Strategies for Intersectional Research

Chapter 2 specifies how the book’s research design operationalizes intersectionality theory through its multi-method and multilevel data collection and analysis. This includes an expanded discussion of how using this framework to analyze Asian American women and men, and Latina and Latino candidates, facilitates new understandings of the relationship between race-gendered political processes and electoral opportunity within those communities, and more generally across other groups. The chapter then details the data collection processes for the book’s original datasets. The first is the Gender Race and Communities in Elections dataset, encompassing candidate and district demographic data for every state legislative general election from 1996 to 2015 in 49 states. Next, the American Leadership Survey of state legislators fielded in 2015 is described. And finally, the design for a multi-method case study of Asian American and Latina/o candidate emergence in Los Angeles County is presented.