Multidisciplinary Mental Health Research Needs: Emotional Health in Interethnic Contexts

1. Multidisciplinary Mental Health Research Needs:Emotional Health in Interethnic Contexts David Rollock, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences Director of Clinical Training Purdue University

2. Brief Overview of Psychologists’ Roles as Health Care Professionals • High costs of mental health problems • Pain and suffering • Financial costs: lost wages, mistaken med dx, etc. • Distinctive roles of psychologists • Basic research • Assessment: cognitive, behavior analysis, diagnostic.. • Psychotherapy/behavior management (vs. meds) • Treatment/program evaluation • My interests: Minority mental health • ALL behavior takes place in cultural context

3. Ethnocultural Issues in Mental Health • Increase quality & years of life • Eliminate demographic group disparities: • Data: incidence/prevalence, service access, outcomes… • Special attention to ethnic minority mental health • DHHS Healthy People 2010 funding: • Globalization  impact of intercultural contact & transition? • Cultural-Ecological approach (cf. Ogbu, 1981, 1995) • Groups foster skills for members’ expected roles • Internal/external influences on behavior/outcomes, e.g.,

4. Implications of a Cultural-Ecological Approach to Minority Mental Health • Mental health status • Symptom experience & expression • Cultural contact/transition distress results from • match/mismatch of skills with new context • violations of expectations • Mental health services • Decision to seek help • Preferred help sources—and compliance

5. Implications of a Cultural-Ecological Approach to Minority Mental Health • Mental health research questions • Domains of culturally-developed skills & preferences that could be helpful/problematic, e.g., • Language • Values, beliefs • Goals of contact/transition • Situations well- or ill-matched to skill/behavioral repertoire • Within-group differences • Gender, religion, generational status • Confounded group distinctions (e.g., nationality vs “race”)

6. Research Program in Acculturation: Hispanics • Fastest-growing ethnic minority group in U.S. • Voluntary minority group (Ogbu), comprised of different groups across multiple generations • Language use & demographics as predictors of depressive affect • General vs. specific competence as predictors of depressive affect

7. Relationships among Acculturation, Competence, & Depression(Torres & Rollock, 2007) • What aspects of cultural transition contribute to depression? • Intercultural competence as best predictor of acculturative distress (> demographics, general coping, acculturation)(Torres & Rollock, 2004) • Participants: 96 adults • Predictors: coping,competence,accult. • Criterion: depressive symptoms • CONCLUSION: • General coping as crucial predictor! • Specific competence as key moderator • Need to consider domains, goals

8. Research Program in Acculturation:South Asians • Third largest/fastest-growing Asian group • Lack of research, despite group size • Perfect “laboratory” for acculturation research • Ethnically distinct from mainstream • English language skills • Broader SES variations • Investigations • Goals and expectations • Longitudinal research • Structure of standard depression measure

9. Culture Contact Goals as Predictors of Behavior Change & Depression(Rollock & Rahman, 2007) • Do goals predict adoption of US behaviors & depressive symptoms? • Plans to remain in US should be associated with greater US acculturation • Plans to leave US should be associated with greater traditional cultural retention • Plans to leave US should be associated with greater depressive symptoms • Method: • Participants: 149 SA male international students • Predictors: goals, ingroup & outgroup orientation vars • Criterion variables: traditional customs, depressive sx

10. Means (& SDs) and Mean Ranks of adjustment variables by cultural contact goal group (n=149)

11. Predicting Traditional Social Customs Acceptance from Goals & Ethnic Identity factors(n=149)

12. Predicting Depressive Symptoms from Goals & Ethnic Identity factors

13. Acculturation Research Conclusions So Far • Cultural skill development & retention reflect expected place in a given culture • Goals must be considered, as much as (simple) cultural exposure • Mismatch of goals and context leads to distress • Next steps • Identify specific preferred skills • Identify changes in goals (& skills) over time

14. Research Program in Interethnic Emotion: “Race”-Related Police Contact • Mental health implications of contact with law enforcement in communities of color • Safety & security vs oppression & disempowerment • Types of contact • Basic responses: prevention mechanism vs secondary traumatization • Implicit attitudes as action potentials • Transmission of attitudes to children, adults

15. Additional Opportunities for Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Clinical Psychology • Connecting researchers & practitioners • Aggregating data across practitioners on “what works” • Tracking service utilization • Improving assessment • Automated CPTs to assess attention (McClellan) • Technology to aid manipulation of materials • Evidence-Based Interventions • Symptom sampling in hard-to-reach groups • Monitoring dose-response