Screening and Assessing Immigrant and Refugee Youth in School-Based Mental Health Programs

According to the 2000 Census, 1 of every 5 children in the United States is a child of immigrants – either a child who is an immigrant or has at least one immigrant parent. While most children who experience mental health problems have limited access to help, children who have migrated to this country, especially under difficult circumstances, face particular challenges. Providers may be unfamiliar with their culture or the way that their culture understands mental health issues; children and their caregivers may not speak English, and the tools developed to identify and treat children with mental health needs may not have been tested for effectiveness with all populations. Dina Birman, PhD, and graduate student Wing Yi Chan begin our series of papers that will address what is known about best practice in providing school-based mental health services to children of immigrants and refugees. More information on this series and related resources is found at www.healthinschools.or

Screening and Assessing Immigrant and Refugee Youth in School-Based Mental Health Programs

According to the 2000 Census, 1 of every 5 children in the United States is a child of immigrants – either a child who is an immigrant or has at least one immigrant parent. While most children who experience mental health problems have limited access to help, children who have migrated to this country, especially under difficult circumstances, face particular challenges. Providers may be unfamiliar with their culture or the way that their culture understands mental health issues; children and their caregivers may not speak English, and the tools developed to identify and treat children with mental health needs may not have been tested for effectiveness with all populations. Dina Birman, PhD, and graduate student Wing Yi Chan begin our series of papers that will address what is known about best practice in providing school-based mental health services to children of immigrants and refugees. More information on this series and related resources is found at www.healthinschools.or

“WE TEACH THEM THE WAYS WE CAN…”: educational practices for immigrant children in elementary schools in Russia

AbstractThe aim of this research was to identify the educational practices that elementary school teachers use in working with immigrant children for linguistic and academic support purposes. Empirical data were collected through interviews with twenty elementary school teachers. The interviews were analyzed using inductive and deductive content analysis methods. The measures to create a favorable atmosphere in the classroom and the psychological comfort of the child include practices to promote respect for different ethnicities, developing intercultural communication skills. In the absence of institutionalized structures, teachers take the initiative to adapt their teaching and instructional methods when working with immigrant children. The inclusion of parents in the educational process can be used in all directions of the practices of teachers with immigrant children. In the context of Tatarstan, the teaching of Russian as a foreign language is possible through the Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkish language family. The native languages of most immigrants arriving in Tatarstan also belong to the Turkish language family.Keywords: teachers’ educational practices, immigrant children, language support, academic support, promotion of a favorable climate“NÓS OS ENSINAMOS COMO PODEMOS ...” Práticas educacionais para crianças imigrantes em escolas primárias na RússiaResumo: O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi identificar as práticas educativas que os professores do ensino fundamental utilizam no trabalho com crianças imigrantes para fins linguísticos e de apoio acadêmico. Os dados empíricos foram coletados por meio de entrevistas com vinte professores do ensino fundamental. As entrevistas foram analisadas por meio de métodos de análise de conteúdo indutiva e dedutiva.  As medidas para a criação de um clima favorável na sala de aula e o conforto psicológico da criança incluem práticas de promoção do respeito às diferentes etnias, desenvolvendo habilidades de comunicação intercultural. Na ausência de estruturas institucionalizadas, os professores tomam a iniciativa de adaptar seus métodos de ensino e instrução ao trabalhar com crianças imigrantes. A inclusão dos pais no processo educacional pode ser usada em todas as direções das práticas dos professores com crianças imigrantes. No contexto do Tartaristão, o ensino do russo como língua estrangeira é possível por meio da língua tártara, que pertence à família das línguas turcas. As línguas nativas da maioria dos imigrantes que chegam ao Tartaristão também pertencem à família das línguas turcas.Palavras-chave:práticas educacionais de professores, filhos imigrantes, apoio linguístico, apoio acadêmico, promoção de um clima favorável“LES ENSEÑAMOS CÓMO PODEMOS ...” Prácticas educativas para niños inmigrantes en escuelas primarias de RusiaResumenEl objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar las prácticas educativas que utilizan los maestros de primaria en el trabajo con niños inmigrantes con fines de apoyo lingüístico y académico. Los datos empíricos se recopilaron a través de entrevistas con veinte maestros de escuela primaria. Las entrevistas se analizaron utilizando métodos de análisis de contenido inductivos y deductivos. Las medidas para crear un ambiente favorable en el aula y el confort psicológico del niño incluyen prácticas para promover el respeto a las diferentes etnias, desarrollando habilidades de comunicación intercultural. En ausencia de estructuras institucionalizadas, los maestros toman la iniciativa de adaptar sus métodos de enseñanza e instrucción cuando trabajan con niños inmigrantes. La inclusión de los padres en el proceso educativo se puede utilizar en todas las direcciones de las prácticas de los profesores con niños inmigrantes. En el contexto de Tartaristán, la enseñanza del ruso como lengua extranjera es posible a través del idioma tártaro, que pertenece a la familia del idioma turco. Las lenguas nativas de la mayoría de los inmigrantes que llegan a Tartaristán también pertenecen a la familia de las lenguas turcas.Palabras claves: prácticas educativas de los profesores, niños inmigrantes, apoyo lingüístico, apoyo académico, promoción de un clima favorableAbstractThe aim of this research was to identify the educational practices that elementary school teachers use in working with immigrant children for linguistic and academic support purposes. Empirical data were collected through interviews with twenty elementary school teachers. The interviews were analyzed using inductive and deductive content analysis methods. The measures to create a favorable atmosphere in the classroom and the psychological comfort of the child include practices to promote respect for different ethnicities, developing intercultural communication skills. In the absence of institutionalized structures, teachers take the initiative to adapt their teaching and instructional methods when working with immigrant children. The inclusion of parents in the educational process can be used in all directions of the practices of teachers with immigrant children. In the context of Tatarstan, the teaching of Russian as a foreign language is possible through the Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkish language family. The native languages of most immigrants arriving in Tatarstan also belong to the Turkish language family.Keywords: teachers’ educational practices, immigrant children, language support, academic support, promotion of a favorable climate“NÓS OS ENSINAMOS COMO PODEMOS ...” Práticas educacionais para crianças imigrantes em escolas primárias na RússiaResumo: O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi identificar as práticas educativas que os professores do ensino fundamental utilizam no trabalho com crianças imigrantes para fins linguísticos e de apoio acadêmico. Os dados empíricos foram coletados por meio de entrevistas com vinte professores do ensino fundamental. As entrevistas foram analisadas por meio de métodos de análise de conteúdo indutiva e dedutiva.  As medidas para a criação de um clima favorável na sala de aula e o conforto psicológico da criança incluem práticas de promoção do respeito às diferentes etnias, desenvolvendo habilidades de comunicação intercultural. Na ausência de estruturas institucionalizadas, os professores tomam a iniciativa de adaptar seus métodos de ensino e instrução ao trabalhar com crianças imigrantes. A inclusão dos pais no processo educacional pode ser usada em todas as direções das práticas dos professores com crianças imigrantes. No contexto do Tartaristão, o ensino do russo como língua estrangeira é possível por meio da língua tártara, que pertence à família das línguas turcas. As línguas nativas da maioria dos imigrantes que chegam ao Tartaristão também pertencem à família das línguas turcas.Palavras-chave:práticas educacionais de professores, filhos imigrantes, apoio linguístico, apoio acadêmico, promoção de um clima favorável“LES ENSEÑAMOS CÓMO PODEMOS ...” Prácticas educativas para niños inmigrantes en escuelas primarias de RusiaResumenEl objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar las prácticas educativas que utilizan los maestros de primaria en el trabajo con niños inmigrantes con fines de apoyo lingüístico y académico. Los datos empíricos se recopilaron a través de entrevistas con veinte maestros de escuela primaria. Las entrevistas se analizaron utilizando métodos de análisis de contenido inductivos y deductivos. Las medidas para crear un ambiente favorable en el aula y el confort psicológico del niño incluyen prácticas para promover el respeto a las diferentes etnias, desarrollando habilidades de comunicación intercultural. En ausencia de estructuras institucionalizadas, los maestros toman la iniciativa de adaptar sus métodos de enseñanza e instrucción cuando trabajan con niños inmigrantes. La inclusión de los padres en el proceso educativo se puede utilizar en todas las direcciones de las prácticas de los profesores con niños inmigrantes. En el contexto de Tartaristán, la enseñanza del ruso como lengua extranjera es posible a través del idioma tártaro, que pertenece a la familia del idioma turco. Las lenguas nativas de la mayoría de los inmigrantes que llegan a Tartaristán también pertenecen a la familia de las lenguas turcas.Palabras claves: prácticas educativas de los profesores, niños inmigrantes, apoyo lingüístico, apoyo académico, promoción de un clima favorable

Is a Theory of the Problem Sufficient for a Theory of the Solution? Negotiating Tensions among Research, Practice, Advocacy and Activism in Serving Immigrant Communities

The lives of members of immigrant communities are inevitably shaped by U.S. laws, rapidly-shifting immigration policy, institutional policies and practices (e.g., in schools), and how immigrants are welcomed (or not) by members of host communities (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). These and other aspects of the context of reception have important implications for immigrant integration, education and employment, and mental health. Accordingly, there have been significant calls for psychologists to take active roles in advocacy and activism, which resonates deeply with many of us. Roundtable organizers are community psychologists working with immigrant communities and seeking to negotiate the tensions that can arise at the intersections of research, practice, advocacy and activism. For example: • APA’s Toolkit for Local Advocacy defines advocacy as sharing information within a system with the assumption that the information will help the system respond effectively; activism, on the other hand, is more likely to indict systems perceived as unjust, perhaps from the outside. How does one choose between--or balance--advocacy and activism? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each for trying to solve specific problems in different contexts? • How does one balance social science and research goals that presumably could provide valuable information in working with immigrant communities with advocacy and activism goals? Can we have one without the other, and if so, should we? • If we integrate these roles, do we run the risk of being perceived as less objective on one hand and less invested in communities (or complicit in injustice) on the other? • Is a theory of the problem sufficient for a theory of the solution? Is it possible to move from problems to solutions without the insight and influence that insiders can provide? Participants will share the (imperfect) ways they have balanced research, practice, advocacy and activism in their work

Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Version of GOHAI among Community-Dwelling Elderly People

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Migration and Well-being: Beyond the Macrosystem

This commentary reviews the contributions of the 6 papers to the emerging focus on migration within community psychology. This collection of articles on migration and community represents a growing interest in the field in immigration issues in general, and a community psychology focus on these issues in particular. The papers span a range of issues raised by migration in a variety of different contexts. The papers reflect principles of community psychology by articulating a perspective on migration and its outcomes within national and global contexts. Taken together, these articles demonstrate the increasing mutual enrichment of immigration and community research. The articles suggest the need to continue to articulate psychological constructs as transactional and contextual across multiple levels of analysis

Minority students' psychological adjustment in the school context: An integrative review of qualitative research on acculturation

The present study aims at systematically analyzing the fi ndings reported in qualitative research on acculturation and psychological adjustment in the school context. Content analysis was conducted using the deductively developed and inductively enriched system of categories. The results of the study provide insights into youths ' acculturation and their psychological adjustment in the school context as well as schools ' mechanisms and strategies for responding to minority youths ' needs in the process of the cultural transition

Cultural transition and academic achievement of students from ethnic minority backgrounds: A content analysis of empirical research on acculturation

Background: The achievement gap between immigrant and non-immigrant students that has been identi fi ed in most OECD countries and the considerable educational dropout rate among students from ethnic minority backgrounds in some countries have become serious challenges for national educational systems. The educational underachievement of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds is embedded in the process of their acculturation. In the tradition of cross-cultural psychology, acculturation describes individual or ethno-cultural group changes in behaviour and attitudes in the situation of intercultural contact. Such cultural changes are central to the experience of ethnic minority students including newly arriving immigrants, chil- dren of immigrants and members of marginalised ethnic and racial groups. Acculturation has been described as a stressful process, and acculturation orientations adopted by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds have been shown to have an impact on their adjustment. Purpose: The school context has been recognised to be the crucial context for acculturation of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The academic achievement of these students is thus embedded in the acculturation process, which involves cultural identity development, psychological adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The study is aimed at analysing and systematising the fi ndings of empiri- cal research on acculturation in the school context with a focus on the academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds. Design and methods: For this study, 29 peer-reviewed articles from a total of 348 articles that matched the search criteria in the database of the Education Resources Information Centre were selected according to inclusion criteria. The selected articles addressed academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds in rela- tion to at least one of the issues of acculturation such as cultural identity, psychologi- cal adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The articles were analysed by applying the method of qualitative content analysis, using MAXQDA software. The fi ndings presented in the selected articles were analysed and integrated according to a deduc- tively developed and inductively enriched category system. Conclusions: Overall, the results of our analysis offer insight into issues of accultura- tion in relation to academic achievement. Moreover, our fi ndings reveal the complex- ity of the relationship between cultural transition and school adjustment for young people. As shown in our review, although a bi-cultural orientation was predominantly positively related to school adjustment of minority students, some studies also identi fi ed assimilative attitudes as advantageous for students ' academic achievement as well as for their psychological and behavioural adjustment. Moreover, our study has also shown that young people ' s acculturative attitudes may have a different impact on their school adjustment relative to acculturative behaviours

Immigrant students’ psychological adjustment in the school context: A meta-synthesis of qualitative research on acculturation

This contribution focuses on the characteristics of the school context and their impact on immigrant students’ acculturation and adjustment at school. Research suggests that the ways immigrants acculturate is related to their well being (e.g. Phinney, et al., 2001; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 1999), although findings have been contradictory across methods and studies (e.g. Rogler, 1991; Escobar & Vega, 2001). Debates in acculturation research currently center on issues of acculturation measurement (e.g. Berry, 2009; Rudmin, 2009), as most research is conducted in the quantitative tradition. In addition, some have suggested (Birman, 2011) that research on acculturation in the tradition of cross-cultural psychology adopts an overly individualistic perspective, and lacks attention to the specific contexts of acculturation. Alternatively, the contextual approach proposes that the relationship between acculturation and adjustment is shaped by the surrounding context (Birman & Simon, 2013). For immigrant children, schools are the setting where the process of acculturation unfolds, and an important context in which to study their adjustment and well being (Birman, et al., 2007; Makarova & Herzog, 2011). Though rarely used in this tradition of acculturation research (Chirkov, 2009), qualitative methods are uniquely suited to gain insight to facilitate theory development, as well as appreciate the contextual nature of the acculturation process. Yet we are not aware of efforts to synthesize the empirical qualitative literature on this topic. Applying the methodology of meta-synthesis for qualitatieve research (Walsh & Downe, 2005) our contribution attempts to integrate results from qualitative studies on impact of acculturation on immigrant students’ psychological adjustment in the school context. For this purpose 84 articles which matched the inclusion criteria were selected. Overall, the results of our study show that within the school context a number of structural as well as process characteristics can be identified as crucial for immigrant youth psychological adjustment. Moreover, our findings indicate that immigrant youths’ psychological adjustment is related to other individual outcomes of acculturation in the school context such as behavioral adjustment, peer-relationships, academic achievement and identity development of immigrant youth