Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences... more Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences in the present moment. Extensive research in the fields of psychology, medicine, and counseling has explored the use and benefits of mindfulness-based practice in general. Such research has determined that mindfulness enhances skill development and counselor preparation within the human service professions. Therapeutic and educational settings have thus increasingly embraced mindfulness practices. This exploratory paper posits that the study and practice of mindfulness can be beneficial for both faculty and graduate students in the fields of Mental Health, School Counseling, and School Psychology. The aims of this paper are threefold: 1. Review the literature on mindfulness-based practices across these disciplines; 2. Assess the benefits of mindfulness and how it aligns with the professional missions; and 3. Outline the contours of a curriculum designed and implemented by the co-authors...
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework has contributed to advances in developmental s... more The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework has contributed to advances in developmental science by examining the interdependent and cumulative nature of adverse childhood environmental exposures on life trajectories. Missing from the ACEs framework, however, is the role of pervasive and systematic oppression that afflicts certain racialized groups and that leads to persistent threat and deprivation. In the case of children from immigrant parents, the consequence of a limited ACEs framework is that clinicians and researchers fail to address the psychological violence inflicted on children from increasingly restrictive immigration policies, ramped up immigration enforcement, and national anti-immigration rhetoric. Drawing on the literature with Latinx children, the objective of this conceptual article is to integrate the ecological model with the dimensional model of childhood adversity and psychopathology to highlight how direct experience of detention and deportation, threat of detention and deportation, and exposure to systemic marginalization and deprivation are adverse experiences for many Latinx children in immigrant families. This article highlights that to reduce bias and improve developmental science and practice with immigrants and with U.S.-born children of immigrants, there must be an inclusion of immigration-related threat and deprivation into the ACEs framework. We conclude with a practical and ethical discussion of screening and assessing ACEs in clinical and research settings, using an expanded ecological framework that includes immigration-related threat and deprivation.
PURPOSE Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psycholo... more PURPOSE Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psychological well-being of Latinx youth in immigrant families, particularly those who are most vulnerable because of their own or their loved ones' legal status. According to the Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies among Minority Children, discrimination may be one pathway to explain how vulnerability to restrictive immigration policies affects Latinx youth mental health. METHODS We collected data from 306 Latinx high school students from immigrant families in Harris County, Texas, and Rhode Island to (1) determine the direct effect of immigration enforcement fear (a proxy for the social position of vulnerable legal status) on adolescents' anxiety; (2) explore the effect of immigration enforcement fear on anxiety through the pathway of perceived discrimination; and (3) test whether the different enforcement climates in the two study sites moderate these pathways. Total anxiety and subscales measuring separation, social, school, generalized, and somatic anxiety subtypes were analyzed. RESULTS Immigration enforcement fear was related to increased somatic and separation anxiety in both first- and second-generation Latinx adolescents. Perceived discrimination partially mediated the association between immigration enforcement fear and separation and somatic anxiety; data collection site did not moderate these effects. CONCLUSIONS Immigration policies and rhetoric have psychological consequences. Although the adolescents in our study face multiple stressors, immigration enforcement fear may heighten their perception of discrimination, in turn, likely elevating their physiological and family separation anxiety.
Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology
An interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) project was designed in collaboration wi... more An interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) project was designed in collaboration with local immigrant organizations to document the impact of deportation policy on Central American immigrant families living in the northeastern U.S. This paper reports on selected methodological challenges of university-based co-researchers in this community-university PAR process which is currently concluding its fourth year. The paper discusses the iterative action-reflection processes focusing on: (1) an overview of the PAR project and its multiple phases within the U.S. and in Guatemala; (2) select challenges and contributions of the PAR approach for participating immigrant families “living in the shadows” and, (3) methodological concerns from the three coauthors, who include a graduate student who joined the early stages of partnership-building; an assistant professor in the early stages of her career; and a senior scholar with many years of experience in activist scholarship. We co...
Three groups of children from Mexico and Central America are vulnerable to effects of U.S. immigr... more Three groups of children from Mexico and Central America are vulnerable to effects of U.S. immigration policies: (1) foreign-born children who entered the United States with undocumented immigrant parents; (2) unaccompanied children who entered the United States alone; and (3) U.S.-born citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. Despite the recent demographic growth of these youth, scholarship on their strengths and challenges is under-theorized and isolated within specific disciplines. Hence, service providers, researchers, and policymakers have insufficient research to inform their efforts to support the children’s well-being. A group of scholars and service providers with expertise in immigrant children convened to establish consensus areas and identify gaps in knowledge of undocumented, unaccompanied, and citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. The primary goal was to establish a research agenda that increases interdisciplinary collaborations, informs clinic...
Immigrants constitute a significant percentage of the total population living in the United State... more Immigrants constitute a significant percentage of the total population living in the United States; however, there is a paucity of research unique to suicidality among immigrants. The present paper examines the applicability of the three variables of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior - acquired capability for suicide, sense of thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness - to conceptualize, assess, and treat suicidality among immigrants. Risk and protective factors and mechanisms are discussed in the context of two case studies and immigrant paradox. Clinical implications include assessment and treatment of immigrant-specific experiences. Obstacles to treatment and future research directions are presented.
ABSTRACT The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status an... more ABSTRACT The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status and academic performance among U.S.-born children, ages 7–10. Building on previous research and a social ecological framework, the study further explored how social service use moderates the relationship between parent legal status and academic performance. Participants included 178 low-income, urban parent/child dyads; all parents were immigrants from Mexico, Central America, or the Dominican Republic and all children were U.S.-born citizens. Using a standardized academic assessment as the outcome, parent legal vulnerability was a significant negative predictor of children's academic performance on reading, spelling, and math subtests. Additionally, parent use of social services significantly and positively moderated the relationship between parent legal vulnerability and children's word reading and spelling skills, indicating that social service use can serve as a protective buffer against the negative associations between parental unauthorized status and child achievement.
In the aftermath of 1996 welfare and immigration reforms, service utilization is particularly cha... more In the aftermath of 1996 welfare and immigration reforms, service utilization is particularly challenging for mixed-status families in which U.S.-born children live with undocumented parents. This study used both qualitative interview data and quantitative survey data to document Latino immigrant parents' service utilization for their U.S.-born children and the perceived impact of the existence of detention and deportation on their service utilization. Results indicate that Latino families headed by undocumented parents accessed services for their citizen children at a level similar to that of Latino families headed by documented parents. Although undocumented participants reported that detention and deportation affected their service utilization, their social networks embodied in Latino/a relationships helped them to navigate systems, increased their efficacy, counteracted their fears, and contributed to their family resiliency. Hospitals and schools, in particular, served as the entry points for Latino immigrant families to access a broad range of services. Implications for research and practice are discussed. KEY WORDS: immigration and welfare systems; Latino; mixed-status immigrant family; service utilization; undocumented immigrant ********** Scholars who explore immigrants' welfare participation and service use in Western countries frequently ask similar questions (Barrett & McCarthy, 2008): Are immigrants eligible to receive social services and welfare benefits? If they are eligible, what are the barriers that complicate immigrants' ability to participate in programs or access services? In this article, we address the question: How have recent changes in welfare and immigration policy--and the upsurge in raids, detentions, and deportations--affected undocumented Latino immigrants' parents' service utilization for their U.S.-born citizen children? The literature on international migration has examined multiple factors to explain immigrants' behavior with regard to accessing welfare benefits and social services; scholars have underscored the importance of immigration-related factors in understanding service utilization among immigrant groups. Some have argued that service utilization may be shaped by cultural values that immigrants bring from their countries and cultures of origins. For example, Asian immigrants, in general, have demonstrated low rates of any type of mental health-related service use even after other individual and structural factors were controlled (Abe-Kim et al., 2007; Leduc & Proulx, 2004); among Latino immigrants, Mexicans and Latino men were less likely to use mental health services, which may reflect culturally specific gender expectations (Fortuna, Porche, & Alegria, 2008). Scholars have also argued that immigrants face different economic and social opportunities and challenges because of level of education, English proficiency at the time of migration, areas of initial resettlement, family members' legal status, and available resources, all of which contribute to different access to service programs (Berk, Schur, Chavez, & Frankel, 2000; Bowden, Rhodes, Wilkin, & Jolly, 2006; Jacobs, Shepard, Suaya, & Stone, 2004). Legal status is a key factor affecting immigrants' service use behavior; for example, Alegria et al. (2007) indicated that rates of mental health service use were higher among Puerto Ricans and U.S.-born Latinos than among foreign-born Latinos (non-Puerto Ricans). For mixed-status immigrant families in the United States--that is, families in which one or more parents is a noncitizen and one or more children is a citizen, members within the same family have differing eligibility for and access to social services. Scholars have indicated that both children's and parents' legal status affect the service utilization for the child; U.S.-born children with noncitizen parents were at a disadvantage when compared with children with citizen parents (Huang, Yu, & Ledsky, 2006). …
Women’s responses to partner abuse are shaped by their particular sociocultural contexts. In this... more Women’s responses to partner abuse are shaped by their particular sociocultural contexts. In this study, quantitative data were collected from 75 Mexican-origin women who survived intimate partner abuse, to identify variables associated with help-seeking to survive relationship abuse. Help-seeking was defined as use of formal (e.g., shelter) and informal (e.g., family) sources. Variables included two cultural variables: machismo (i.e., adherence to traditional gender roles) and familismo (i.e., valuing family cohesion and reciprocity), and four sociostructural variables: income, education, English proficiency, and immigrant status. Results indicated participants with higher levels of familismo sought informal help more frequently than those with lower levels. Women with grade school education, no English proficiency, and undocumented status sought formal help less frequently than those not constrained by these barriers.
Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences... more Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences in the present moment. Extensive research in the fields of psychology, medicine, and counseling has explored the use and benefits of mindfulness-based practice in general. Such research has determined that mindfulness enhances skill development and counselor preparation within the human service professions. Therapeutic and educational settings have thus increasingly embraced mindfulness practices. This exploratory paper posits that the study and practice of mindfulness can be beneficial for both faculty and graduate students in the fields of Mental Health, School Counseling, and School Psychology. The aims of this paper are threefold: 1. Review the literature on mindfulness-based practices across these disciplines; 2. Assess the benefits of mindfulness and how it aligns with the professional missions; and 3. Outline the contours of a curriculum designed and implemented by the co-authors...
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework has contributed to advances in developmental s... more The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework has contributed to advances in developmental science by examining the interdependent and cumulative nature of adverse childhood environmental exposures on life trajectories. Missing from the ACEs framework, however, is the role of pervasive and systematic oppression that afflicts certain racialized groups and that leads to persistent threat and deprivation. In the case of children from immigrant parents, the consequence of a limited ACEs framework is that clinicians and researchers fail to address the psychological violence inflicted on children from increasingly restrictive immigration policies, ramped up immigration enforcement, and national anti-immigration rhetoric. Drawing on the literature with Latinx children, the objective of this conceptual article is to integrate the ecological model with the dimensional model of childhood adversity and psychopathology to highlight how direct experience of detention and deportation, threat of detention and deportation, and exposure to systemic marginalization and deprivation are adverse experiences for many Latinx children in immigrant families. This article highlights that to reduce bias and improve developmental science and practice with immigrants and with U.S.-born children of immigrants, there must be an inclusion of immigration-related threat and deprivation into the ACEs framework. We conclude with a practical and ethical discussion of screening and assessing ACEs in clinical and research settings, using an expanded ecological framework that includes immigration-related threat and deprivation.
PURPOSE Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psycholo... more PURPOSE Immigration enforcement policies and negative rhetoric about immigrants harm the psychological well-being of Latinx youth in immigrant families, particularly those who are most vulnerable because of their own or their loved ones' legal status. According to the Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies among Minority Children, discrimination may be one pathway to explain how vulnerability to restrictive immigration policies affects Latinx youth mental health. METHODS We collected data from 306 Latinx high school students from immigrant families in Harris County, Texas, and Rhode Island to (1) determine the direct effect of immigration enforcement fear (a proxy for the social position of vulnerable legal status) on adolescents' anxiety; (2) explore the effect of immigration enforcement fear on anxiety through the pathway of perceived discrimination; and (3) test whether the different enforcement climates in the two study sites moderate these pathways. Total anxiety and subscales measuring separation, social, school, generalized, and somatic anxiety subtypes were analyzed. RESULTS Immigration enforcement fear was related to increased somatic and separation anxiety in both first- and second-generation Latinx adolescents. Perceived discrimination partially mediated the association between immigration enforcement fear and separation and somatic anxiety; data collection site did not moderate these effects. CONCLUSIONS Immigration policies and rhetoric have psychological consequences. Although the adolescents in our study face multiple stressors, immigration enforcement fear may heighten their perception of discrimination, in turn, likely elevating their physiological and family separation anxiety.
Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology
An interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) project was designed in collaboration wi... more An interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) project was designed in collaboration with local immigrant organizations to document the impact of deportation policy on Central American immigrant families living in the northeastern U.S. This paper reports on selected methodological challenges of university-based co-researchers in this community-university PAR process which is currently concluding its fourth year. The paper discusses the iterative action-reflection processes focusing on: (1) an overview of the PAR project and its multiple phases within the U.S. and in Guatemala; (2) select challenges and contributions of the PAR approach for participating immigrant families “living in the shadows” and, (3) methodological concerns from the three coauthors, who include a graduate student who joined the early stages of partnership-building; an assistant professor in the early stages of her career; and a senior scholar with many years of experience in activist scholarship. We co...
Three groups of children from Mexico and Central America are vulnerable to effects of U.S. immigr... more Three groups of children from Mexico and Central America are vulnerable to effects of U.S. immigration policies: (1) foreign-born children who entered the United States with undocumented immigrant parents; (2) unaccompanied children who entered the United States alone; and (3) U.S.-born citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. Despite the recent demographic growth of these youth, scholarship on their strengths and challenges is under-theorized and isolated within specific disciplines. Hence, service providers, researchers, and policymakers have insufficient research to inform their efforts to support the children’s well-being. A group of scholars and service providers with expertise in immigrant children convened to establish consensus areas and identify gaps in knowledge of undocumented, unaccompanied, and citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. The primary goal was to establish a research agenda that increases interdisciplinary collaborations, informs clinic...
Immigrants constitute a significant percentage of the total population living in the United State... more Immigrants constitute a significant percentage of the total population living in the United States; however, there is a paucity of research unique to suicidality among immigrants. The present paper examines the applicability of the three variables of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior - acquired capability for suicide, sense of thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness - to conceptualize, assess, and treat suicidality among immigrants. Risk and protective factors and mechanisms are discussed in the context of two case studies and immigrant paradox. Clinical implications include assessment and treatment of immigrant-specific experiences. Obstacles to treatment and future research directions are presented.
ABSTRACT The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status an... more ABSTRACT The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status and academic performance among U.S.-born children, ages 7–10. Building on previous research and a social ecological framework, the study further explored how social service use moderates the relationship between parent legal status and academic performance. Participants included 178 low-income, urban parent/child dyads; all parents were immigrants from Mexico, Central America, or the Dominican Republic and all children were U.S.-born citizens. Using a standardized academic assessment as the outcome, parent legal vulnerability was a significant negative predictor of children's academic performance on reading, spelling, and math subtests. Additionally, parent use of social services significantly and positively moderated the relationship between parent legal vulnerability and children's word reading and spelling skills, indicating that social service use can serve as a protective buffer against the negative associations between parental unauthorized status and child achievement.
In the aftermath of 1996 welfare and immigration reforms, service utilization is particularly cha... more In the aftermath of 1996 welfare and immigration reforms, service utilization is particularly challenging for mixed-status families in which U.S.-born children live with undocumented parents. This study used both qualitative interview data and quantitative survey data to document Latino immigrant parents' service utilization for their U.S.-born children and the perceived impact of the existence of detention and deportation on their service utilization. Results indicate that Latino families headed by undocumented parents accessed services for their citizen children at a level similar to that of Latino families headed by documented parents. Although undocumented participants reported that detention and deportation affected their service utilization, their social networks embodied in Latino/a relationships helped them to navigate systems, increased their efficacy, counteracted their fears, and contributed to their family resiliency. Hospitals and schools, in particular, served as the entry points for Latino immigrant families to access a broad range of services. Implications for research and practice are discussed. KEY WORDS: immigration and welfare systems; Latino; mixed-status immigrant family; service utilization; undocumented immigrant ********** Scholars who explore immigrants' welfare participation and service use in Western countries frequently ask similar questions (Barrett & McCarthy, 2008): Are immigrants eligible to receive social services and welfare benefits? If they are eligible, what are the barriers that complicate immigrants' ability to participate in programs or access services? In this article, we address the question: How have recent changes in welfare and immigration policy--and the upsurge in raids, detentions, and deportations--affected undocumented Latino immigrants' parents' service utilization for their U.S.-born citizen children? The literature on international migration has examined multiple factors to explain immigrants' behavior with regard to accessing welfare benefits and social services; scholars have underscored the importance of immigration-related factors in understanding service utilization among immigrant groups. Some have argued that service utilization may be shaped by cultural values that immigrants bring from their countries and cultures of origins. For example, Asian immigrants, in general, have demonstrated low rates of any type of mental health-related service use even after other individual and structural factors were controlled (Abe-Kim et al., 2007; Leduc & Proulx, 2004); among Latino immigrants, Mexicans and Latino men were less likely to use mental health services, which may reflect culturally specific gender expectations (Fortuna, Porche, & Alegria, 2008). Scholars have also argued that immigrants face different economic and social opportunities and challenges because of level of education, English proficiency at the time of migration, areas of initial resettlement, family members' legal status, and available resources, all of which contribute to different access to service programs (Berk, Schur, Chavez, & Frankel, 2000; Bowden, Rhodes, Wilkin, & Jolly, 2006; Jacobs, Shepard, Suaya, & Stone, 2004). Legal status is a key factor affecting immigrants' service use behavior; for example, Alegria et al. (2007) indicated that rates of mental health service use were higher among Puerto Ricans and U.S.-born Latinos than among foreign-born Latinos (non-Puerto Ricans). For mixed-status immigrant families in the United States--that is, families in which one or more parents is a noncitizen and one or more children is a citizen, members within the same family have differing eligibility for and access to social services. Scholars have indicated that both children's and parents' legal status affect the service utilization for the child; U.S.-born children with noncitizen parents were at a disadvantage when compared with children with citizen parents (Huang, Yu, & Ledsky, 2006). …
Women’s responses to partner abuse are shaped by their particular sociocultural contexts. In this... more Women’s responses to partner abuse are shaped by their particular sociocultural contexts. In this study, quantitative data were collected from 75 Mexican-origin women who survived intimate partner abuse, to identify variables associated with help-seeking to survive relationship abuse. Help-seeking was defined as use of formal (e.g., shelter) and informal (e.g., family) sources. Variables included two cultural variables: machismo (i.e., adherence to traditional gender roles) and familismo (i.e., valuing family cohesion and reciprocity), and four sociostructural variables: income, education, English proficiency, and immigrant status. Results indicated participants with higher levels of familismo sought informal help more frequently than those with lower levels. Women with grade school education, no English proficiency, and undocumented status sought formal help less frequently than those not constrained by these barriers.
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Papers by Kalina Brabeck