Attitudes Toward Suicide, Mental Health, and Help-Seeking Behavior Among African Immigrants: An Ecological Perspective

The population of Africans in the United States is growing, yet little is known about the impact of migration on the attitudes of African immigrants toward suicide, mental health, and helpseeking behavior. Migration entails movement from one cultural environment to another, and the process requires adaptation to the host country. According to Ecological Theory, interactions between the societal structures, values, and beliefs of the host country, cultural values from the country of origin, and individual-level characteristics may affect mental health-related attitudes and behaviors. As such, the current study used mixed methods, administered via online survey, to investigate socio-cultural predictors of attitudes toward suicide, mental health, and treatment seeking among African immigrants in the United States. In the current study the responses of 227 participants were used for qualitative analyses, and responses from 168 participants were used for quantitative analyses. Qualitative results indicated overall negative attitudes towards suicide and positive attitudes towards suicide prevention. Perceived culture-specific causes of suicide included acculturation difficulties, immigration stress, social causes such as home sickness discrimination, and racism, financial causes such as responsibility to kin in Africa, spiritual causes, and deportation risk. Results from quantitative analyses indicated that identification with African values and behaviors were related to lower levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and culture oriented psychological distress. Higher levels of spirituality and religiousness were associated with a negative attitude toward suicide. Implications for population based suicide prevention efforts for African immigrants and for mental health professionals working with African immigrants are discussed

The Interrelations Between Spiritual Well-Being, Pain Interference and Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Depressive symptoms are common in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), and are frequently exacerbated by pain; however, spiritual well-being may allow persons with MS to more effectively cope with pain-related deficits in physical and role functioning. We explored the associations between spiritual well-being, pain interference and depressive symptoms, assessing each as a potential mediator, in eighty-one patients being treated for MS, who completed self-report measures: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Pain Effects Scale, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised. At the bivariate level, spiritual well-being and its subscale of meaning and peace were negatively associated with depression and pain interference. In mediation models, depression was not related to pain interference via spiritual well-being, or to spiritual well-being via pain interference. Pain interference was related to depression via spiritual well-being and meaning/peace, and to spiritual well-being and meaning/peace via depressive symptoms. Finally, spiritual well-being and meaning/peace were related to depression via pain interference, and to pain interference via depressive symptoms. For patients with MS, a multi-faceted approach to treatment that includes pain reduction and promotion of spiritual well-being may be beneficial, although amelioration of depression remains a critical task

Combining work and child care: The experiences of mothers in Accra, Ghana

Work-family research has focused predominantly on Western women. Yet the forms of economic labour in which women are typically involved and the meaning of motherhood are context-specific. This paper aims to explore the experience of combining economic activity and child care of mothers with young children using urban Ghana as a case study. Semi-structured interviews (n=24) were conducted in three locations in the Accra Metropolitan Area. Transcripts were analysed using the general inductive approach. The results found women’s experience of role conflict to be bi-directional. With regard to role enhancement, economic activity allowed women to provide materially for their children. The combination of work and child care had negative consequences for women’s wellbeing. This research questions policy makers’ strategy of frequently targeting women in their roles either as generators of income, or as the primary care-takers of children by highlighting the reality of women’s simultaneous performance of these roles

Cross-cultural psychology : an Africentric perspective; final technical report

This report describes the project aims, contents and contributors in the production of a book focusing on Africentric approaches in research and scholarly work. The 22 chapters exemplify the uniqueness of psychological processes related to cognition, perception, emotion, religion, language, parenting, and health practices. The significance of cross-cultural psychology as a methodological approach is to explore diversity not deficits. Western knowledge systems and research approaches should serve as a guide, rather than a determinant of what and how research is conducted with Africans. African researchers, Graduate Students and Young Scholars face incredible challenges in the research and publication environments

Family-based activity settings of children in a low-income African context

Background: There has been an overwhelming call to improve the understanding of how children develop within an African context as Euro-American definitions of competence have been uncritically adopted as the norm for children in Africa. The activities that children engage in within the family setting are seen as important to understand how children develop within context. The use of activity settings is closely aligned with a strengths-based perspective of family-centred practice and contributes to improved sustainability of intervention. Objectives: This study that was conducted in Soweto, South Africa, aims to describe activity settings that typically developing young children in low-income African contexts participate in. Method: A descriptive design using structured interviews was utilised to obtain information about activity settings that children aged 3–5 years and 11 months engaged in. Structured interviews with 90 caregivers were conducted. Results: Findings show that children participate in a variety of activities with varied participation levels. The types of activities are dependent on the context and perceptions of caregivers. Conclusion: These findings draw attention to understanding activities that children engage in within the family context

‘If parents are punished for asking their children to feed goats’: supervisory neglect in sub-Saharan Africa

Summary: In the United States and the United Kingdom supervisory neglect of children is premised on a construction of childhood which characterises children as essentially vulnerable and in need of constant care and protection by parents. This Western conception has been transmitted to the countries of the sub-Sahara via the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, the socio-economic and cultural context of African countries differs significantly from those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The incorporation of a Western hegemonic idea of childhood into the national laws of African countries creates fundamental contradictions in the application of criteria for adjudging the adequacy of parental supervision in the sub-Sahara. Drawing on secondary data, this article explores these contradictions and proposes alternative considerations in the conceptualisation and assessment of supervisory neglect. Finding: The combined effects on households in the sub-Sahara of economic conditions, ascribed gender roles and the reciprocal duties held by children to assist their families, contest established indicators and thresholds for supervisory neglect. The concept of societal neglect together with the application of the Haddon Matrix provides a more apposite framework for reducing the risk of significant harm to children. Application: All African countries, excepting Somalia, have introduced the Convention on the Rights of the Child through domestic legislation. The findings of this study are pertinent to policy-makers and social workers in the sub-Sahara. They also invite Western scholars to critically engage with dominant notions of supervisory neglect and re-appraise its applicability in cross-national contexts