Perceived Need for a Faith-Based Trauma-Focused Treatment in a Sample of Forcibly Displaced Muslims.

Forcibly displaced Muslims, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers who have fled their homes to escape violence, conflict, and persecution, often have inequitable access to quality mental health services, despite substantial trauma exposure and high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Understanding factors associated with domains of perceived need (i.e., community, individual, friends/family) for culturally-responsive, trauma-focused mental health interventions among forcibly displaced Muslims may provide insight into those most likely to seek psychological treatment. A sample of 108 forcibly displaced Muslims endorsed moderate to high perceived need across all three domains for a trauma healing group tailored for Muslim refugees. PTSD severity related to perceived individual need, regardless of locus of displacement. Among participants with minimal PTSD symptoms, those who were externally displaced had higher perceived community and friends or family need than those who were internally displaced. Findings highlight a need for culturally responsive, trauma-focused mental health services to facilitate access to mental health care for forcibly displaced Muslims.

Moral injury appraisals and dissociation: Associations in a sample of trauma-exposed community members.

Appraisal of trauma is a critical factor in the development of impairing post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as dissociation. Individuals may appraise trauma as morally injurious (i.e., moral injury exposure [MIE]) and experience subsequent moral distress related to this exposure (i.e., moral injury distress [MID]). To date, however, investigation into the relations between moral injury appraisals and dissociation has been limited, particularly within community populations. This study investigated MIE and MID in relation to six facets of dissociation (disengagement, depersonalization, derealization, memory disturbances, emotional constriction, identity dissociation) in a sample of trauma-exposed community members (n = 177, 58.2% Black, 89.3% female) recruited from a public hospital and/or community advertisements. Participants completed measures assessing trauma exposure, MIE, MID, dissociation, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Partial correlation analyses revealed that after controlling for PTSD symptoms, MIE was correlated with disengagement, r = .23, p ≤ .025, and depersonalization, r = .25, p ≤ .001, and MID was correlated with depersonalization, r = .19, p ≤ .025. Sex moderated each association, with stronger associations observed for female participants. Findings suggest that moral injury appraisals are linked to more severe dissociative symptoms among female civilians, and as such, may need to be specifically targeted in empirically supported treatments.

Approaching Mental Health Equity in Neuroscience for Black Women Across the Lifespan: Biological Embedding of Racism From Black Feminist Conceptual Frameworks.

Black women in the United States are faced with unrelenting chronic stressors that are often driven by racism and oppression and that result in mental health inequities. Similar to common U.S. societal views of Black women, ideological values about Black women's lives also permeate psychiatry and neuroscience research to prevent likely impactful research that fully examines the role of social power structures in the biological embedding of racism. This article's overall aim is to highlight the most urgent areas to address in mental health inequities utilizing a Black feminist lens that include 1) culturally grounded and contextually relevant considerations for the biological embedding of racism on mental health outcomes for Black women across the lifespan and 2) intersectional frameworks that address mental health inequities ingrained in multiple marginalization. We conclude with a call to action informed by Black feminist thought for the field of neuroscience to make a concerted effort to address mental health inequities among Black women and other disenfranchised groups from a frame of compassion, cultural humility, and a continuous pursuit of social justice.

The role of social connectedness in buffering the effects of discrimination on post-trauma cognitions in forcibly displaced Muslims.

INTRODUCTION: Among trauma-exposed, forcibly displaced Muslims, very little is known about how social connectedness, or perceived interpersonal connection and belonging, may alter the relationship between discrimination and negative posttraumatic cognitions. Discrimination may aggravate trauma psychopathology (Helms et al., 2010); however, social connectedness may buffer its negative effects (Juang & Alvarez, 2010). OBJECTIVE: We examined whether higher religious and racial/ethnic discrimination would be associated with stronger negative posttraumatic cognitions and whether stronger social connectedness may adaptively buffer this relationship. METHOD: Trauma exposed individuals (N = 99) who identified as Muslim and as a refugee, asylum seeker, or internally displaced person participated in the study. Measures of discrimination, social connection, and posttraumatic cognitions were completed. RESULTS: Higher discrimination was moderately associated with stronger negative trauma-related cognitions (r = .40, p < .001) and with lower social connectedness (r = -.32, p = .001). Social connectedness moderated the relationship between discrimination and posttraumatic cognitions, such that at lower levels of social connectedness there was a stronger relationship between discrimination and posttraumatic cognitions (-2SD: b = .32, -1SD: b = .23, M: b = .14), this was not present at higher levels of social connectedness. CONCLUSIONS: Connectedness to one's minority group may be an important protective factor by modulating the effects of discrimination on posttrauma adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Religious coping, perceived discrimination, and posttraumatic growth in an international sample of forcibly displaced Muslims.

Displaced persons are exposed to trauma and experience posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS). Many displaced Muslims come from communities that rely on religious practices to cope with traumatic experiences, and religious coping has been identified as predictive of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Discrimination may contribute to increased PTS and promote in-group identification. In this study, we hypothesized that perceived discrimination would enhance the relationship between religious coping and PTG. Results indicated that religious coping predicted PTG, but the overall interaction with discrimination was not significant. However, probing moderating effects at discrete levels of discrimination yielded enhanced relationship between religious coping and PTG at its mean and above until reaching the highest values of discrimination. For individuals who experience moderate to high levels of discrimination, religious coping increased PTG. These findings highlight the essential role of religious coping in promoting growth for many Muslims exposed to forced migration and elevated levels of discrimination.

Differences in Posttraumatic and Psychosocial Outcomes Among Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Internally Displaced Persons.

Refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons differ in their experiences, potentially affecting posttraumatic outcomes such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions, and posttraumatic growth (PTG), as well as psychosocial outcomes such as social connection, discrimination, and well-being. We explored these differences in a sample of N = 112 Muslim displaced persons. Results from planned contrasts indicated that refugees reported more PTSD symptoms (t[46.63] = 3.04, p = 0.004, d = 0.77) and more PTG (t[94] = 2.71, p = 0.008, d = 0.61) than asylum seekers. Higher posttraumatic cognitions predicted less social connections across displacement immigration category. The strength of this relationship was more pronounced for asylum seekers than refugees (b = -0.43, p = 0.014). Refugees may focus more on direct threats from others, resulting in more PTSD symptoms, whereas asylum seekers' uncertainty may pose a greater threat, exacerbating posttraumatic beliefs that drive social disconnection.

School-based mindfulness intervention for stress reduction in adolescents: Design and methodology of an open-label, parallel group, randomized controlled trial.

Adolescents are in a high-risk period developmentally, in terms of susceptibility to stress. A mindfulness intervention represents a potentially useful strategy for developing cognitive and emotion regulation skills associated with successful stress coping. Mindfulness strategies have been used successfully for emotional coping in adults, but are not as well studied in youth. This article details a novel proposal for the design of an 8-week randomized study to evaluate a high school-based mindfulness curriculum delivered as part of a two semester health class. A wellness education intervention is proposed as an active control, along with a waitlist control condition. All students enrolled in a sophomore (10th grade) health class at a private suburban high school will be invited to participate (n = 300). Pre-test assessments will be obtained by youth report, parent ratings, and on-site behavioral testing. The assessments will evaluate baseline stress, mood, emotional coping, controlled attention, and working memory. Participants, divided into 13 classrooms, will be randomized into one of three conditions, by classroom: A mindfulness intervention, an active control (wellness education), and a passive control (waitlist). Waitlisted participants will receive one of the interventions in the following term. Intervention groups will meet weekly for 8 weeks during regularly scheduled health classes. Immediate post-tests will be conducted, followed by a 60-day post-test. It is hypothesized that the mindfulness intervention will outperform the other conditions with regard to the adolescents' mood, attention and response to stress.