American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry has contributed significantly to scholarly discourse on race and racism especially in its coverage of issues related to the development and well-being of Black boys (BB) and men. Although disparate rates of exclusionary discipline for BB have been widely recognized as a problem, efforts to reduce them have failed. Because exclusion has negative consequences and is ineffective in changing behavior, it should be used rarely or not at all. This article advocates strict limits or outright bans on exclusion up to Grade 6...

Poverty, a social determinant of health, disproportionately affects families with children. Public and private safety nets, or support networks available in times of need, can help address poverty and its consequences. Independently, strong safety nets (public or private) promote health and well-being, yet little is known about how private and public safety nets combine and evolve over time. Using latent class and latent transition analyses, this study examined public and private safety net configurations of mothers with low-income, sociodemographic characteristics associated with these configurations, and safety net changes over time...

This study investigated associations between chronic developmental/behavioral and physical health conditions and social connectedness of adolescents using rich population-based data from a national U.S. birth cohort study. Potentially disabling health conditions were reported by caregivers and categorized by our team as developmental/behavioral or physical. Social connectedness was assessed using a validated scale that measured adolescents' reports of positive social connectedness across relevant contexts (family, friends, school)...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and unfair treatment can negatively affect the health and well-being of many women, especially women of color. Few studies have investigated the mental health impact of both forms of victimization together. Unlike most research on Asian Indian women, which has used aggregated samples of women of various Asian Indian or South Asian descent, this study focused on a specific group of Asian Indians. Data were collected from a probability sample of Gujarati residents, aged 18-65 years, in a midwestern state of USA via computer-assisted telephone interviews...

This article introduces the multidimensional properties of social connectedness among sexual and gender minority (SGM) midlife and older adults and examines the relationship between these properties and general health. Data were analyzed from Aging With Pride: National, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study, including 2,450 SGM adults aged 50 and older in the United States. The structure, function, and quality of interpersonal relations as well as community-level activities and engagement were measured through a self-administered survey and an in-person interview...

Disparities in youth homelessness by racial/ethnic, sexual, and gender identities are well documented, though this literature lacks specificity regarding intersectional social identities of youth who are most likely to experience homelessness. Population-based cross-sectional data on youth from the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey ( N = 80,456) were used to examine the relationship between parent caring and intersections of minoritized identities that experience the highest prevalence of two distinct types of unaccompanied unstable housing with expanded categories of sexual and gender identities...

Culturally and contextually valid measurement of psychological distress is critical, given the increasing numbers of forcibly displaced people and transnational migration. This study replicates an inductive process that elicited culturally specific expressions, understandings, and idioms of distress among Afghans to develop culturally specific measures of distress for Great Lakes Africans and Iraqis and expands this methodology to include a focus on the contexts of refugees resettled in the United States. To create the measures, we adapted Miller et al...

Reports an error in "Alone in the shadow of terror: Coping strategies and internal resources of older adults living alone in a continuous traumatic situation" by Shirly Hadida-Naus, Gabriela Spector-Mersel and Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra ( American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , 2023, Vol 93[3], 188-197). In the article (https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000667), the title was corrected to "Alone in the Shadow of Terror: Coping Strategies and Internal Resources of Older Adults Living Alone in a Continuous Traumatic Situation" because the word "coping" was omitted during the composition of the article...

This study examined the mediating role of affiliation with delinquent peers (ADP) and the moderating role of closeness to parents in the relationship between impulsivity and perpetration of indirect aggression. Arab female adolescents in Israel (aged 12-21; N = 404) completed a self-report questionnaire. The mediation-moderation model was examined after controlling for intersectional factors related to the females' unique social locations in Arab society. The study found that 66.1% of the girls had perpetrated at least one indirect act of aggression at least once during the past month...

Asian American parents have experienced significant stressors associated with racial discrimination and anticipatory COVID-19-related discrimination fear during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may adversely impact their mental health. Emotion regulation strategies may attenuate the negative effects of discrimination experiences on mental health, but existing findings have been inconsistent regarding the associations between these factors, particularly among the Asian American population. One hundred ninety-three Asian American parents ( M age = 40...

A growing body of theory and research suggests that racial identity invalidation (RII)-the active denial of a person's racial identity and/or belonging to the racial group(s) they identify with-may play an important role in the mental health problems that biracial Black-White youth face. However, research has yet to explore this empirically. The purpose of this study was to address this gap by examining whether RII was associated with depressive symptoms among biracial Black-White adolescents and emerging adults ( N = 713; 61% male; M = 18...

Emotional abuse up to age 18 is associated with depressive symptoms in adulthood, yet few studies have examined these links in Black females. Despite research documenting the moderating role of sleep duration on early adversity and mental health, no studies have examined whether sleep duration during adolescence moderates the relations between emotional abuse up to age 18 and depressive symptoms in adulthood. We examined these relations in 690 Black females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)-Public Use...

The impact of COVID-19 on Black adults' social networks and their perceptions of the safety of social gatherings are intertwined. Yet, we know little about the role of this intersection and social determinants on Black adults' mental health. The goal of this study was to examine profiles of COVID-19 impact and safety for Black adults in the United States, their association with mental health, and the role of sociodemographic, health, and employment social determinants. We used latent class analysis and data from Black adults from the nationally representative survey of the Understanding Coronavirus in America Study (January-February 2021; N = 593) to construct profiles and test associations between profiles, social determinants, and mental health...

The rate of incarceration in the United States has increased at an alarming rate in the past 30 years and thus so has the number of children having a household member incarcerated (referred to as household incarceration ). Associations between experiencing household incarceration in childhood and later negative health and developmental outcomes are well-documented; however, the underlying mechanisms linking this childhood stressor and adult outcomes have been less well studied. Using state Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data ( N = 145,102), this study examines how experiencing household incarceration during childhood is associated with mental and physical health in adulthood and mediational pathways through suboptimal sleep (short or long sleep)...

Language barriers are among the most critical factors in health care disparities. Low language proficiency is consistently associated with a high prevalence and severity of mental health disorder symptoms. Despite the advantages of working with an interpreter, most practitioners report difficulties, especially with trust and the feeling of control. The main objective of this exploratory qualitative intervention research is to examine the impact of training when working with interpreters and their inclusion in follow-ups...

Gun violence is a serious public health problem that places surviving victims at increased risk for a variety of mental health problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Recognizing that many gunshot injury survivors lack access to mental health care in the early aftermath of a shooting, there has been growing interest in the use of early, preventive mental health interventions to help prevent long-term mental health complications like PTSD as part of routine care for survivors in acute medical settings, where initial outreach to survivors may be more successful...

This study focused on mothers and childless women in recovery from a gambling disorder (GD) in the context of risk society. Mothers with GD suffer from dual social stigma as gamblers and as women who put their children at risk. Mothers in "risk society" tend to recognize that their choices can affect their children's future. The recovery capital (RC) toolkit comprises internal and external resources and barriers enacted in recovery. This longitudinal study: (a) compared the RC toolkits of mothers versus childless women and their effects on these women's dropout and relapse rates; (b) explored the resources and barriers that predict dropout and relapse in each group...

Mental health literacy (MHL) predicts help-seeking attitudes. However, the relationship between components of MHL and help-seeking attitudes has not been thoroughly examined. This study aims to examine whether mental illness stigma, help-seeking efficacy, and maintenance of positive mental health mediated the relationship between recognition of mental disorders and help-seeking attitudes, using a meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) approach. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to gather relevant studies (111 articles with 118 independent samples), and their data ( k = 185) were analyzed using MASEM...

The present study was carried out based on the minority stress model. The purpose was to compare Italian and Spanish gay and lesbian youth on minority stressors and mental health outcomes and test the minority stress model in Italy and Spain. The sample consisted of 490 participants (307 Italians, M age = 25.30 and 183 Spanish, M age = 27.57). They completed an online questionnaire measuring everyday discrimination, coming out to family members, coming out to friends/one's social network, internalized sexual stigma, depression, and anxiety...

This study assessed the effectiveness of a psychosocial multicomponent program designed to empower individuals experiencing severe mental distress and their relatives throughout the recovery process. The program consisted of four consecutive interventions, including orientation, psychoeducation, empowerment, and mutual help. A randomized controlled implementation trial was conducted to investigate the program's impact on the recovery of individuals experiencing mental distress, as well as on the caregiving burden and perceived social support experienced by their relatives...