Carla T. Hilario

Acculturation, gender, and mental health of Southeast Asian immigrant youth in Canada.

The relationships between mental health, protective factors and acculturation among Southeast Asian youth were examined in this study using a gender-based analysis. Population-based data from the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey were used to examine differences in extreme stress and despair by acculturation. Associations between emotional distress and hypothesized protective factors were examined using logistic regression. Stratified analyses were performed to assess gender-related differences. Recent immigrant youth reported higher odds of emotional distress. Family connectedness and school connectedness were linked to lower odds of extreme stress and despair among girls. Family connectedness was associated with lower odds of extreme stress and despair among boys. Higher cultural connectedness was associated with lower odds of despair among boys but with higher odds of extreme stress among girls. Findings are discussed in relation to acculturation and gender-based patterns in protective factors for mental health among Southeast Asian immigrant youth.

Migration and young people's mental health in Canada: A scoping review.

Abstract Background: Young people’s mental health is a public health priority. Given the influences of migration and resettlement on mental health, synthesis of current research with young people from migrant backgrounds can help inform mental health promotion initiatives that account for and are responsive to their needs. Aims: This article distils the results of a review of published literature on the mental health of adolescent immigrants (ages 10–19) living in Canada. Method: Scoping review methods were used to define inclusion and exclusion criteria; inform the search strategies; and extract and synthesize key findings. Results: Fourteen articles met criteria for inclusion. Analysis of the studies indicate diversity in mental health indicators, e.g., mental distress, emotional problems and behavioral problems, as well as a wide range of influences on mental health from age at migration and length of stay to place of residence, income and discrimination. Conclusions: Findings support the need to account for the array of influences on young people’s mental health in relation to migration and to augment initiatives beyond the level of individual intervention.

The influence of democratic racism in nursing inquiry

Neoliberal ideology and exclusionary policies based on racialized identities characterize the current contexts in North America and Western Europe. Nursing knowledge cannot be abstracted from social, political and historical contexts; the task of examining the influence of race and racial ideologies on disciplinary knowledge and inquiry therefore remains an important task. Contemporary analyses of the role and responsibility of the discipline in addressing race-based health and social inequities as a focus of nursing inquiry remain underdeveloped. In this article, we examine nursings engagement with ideas about race and racism and explore the ways in which nursing knowledge and inquiry have been influenced by race-based ideological discourses. Drawing on Henry and Tators framework of democratic racism, we consider how strategic discursive responses-the discourses of individualism, multiculturalism, colour-blindness, political correctness and denial-have been deployed within nursing knowledge and inquiry to reinforce the belief in an essentially fair and just society while avoiding the need to acknowledge the persistence of racist discourses and ideologies. Greater theoretical, conceptual and methodological clarity regarding race, racialization and related concepts in nursing inquiry is needed to address health and social inequities.

“Just as Canadian as Anyone Else”? Experiences of Second-Class Citizenship and the Mental Health of Young Immigrant and Refugee Men in Canada:

In recent years, the experiences of immigrant and refugee young men have drawn attention worldwide. Human-induced environmental disasters, local and global conflicts, and increasingly inequitable distributions of wealth have shaped transnational migration patterns. Canada is home to a large immigrant and refugee population, particularly in its urban areas, and supporting the mental health and well-being of these communities is of critical importance. The aim of this article is to report findings from a qualitative study on the social context of mental health among immigrant and refugee young men, with a focus on their migration and resettlement experiences. Informed by the conceptual lens of social context, a thematic narrative analysis approach was used to examine qualitative data from individual and group interviews with 33 young men (age 15 to 22 years) self-identified as immigrants or refugees and were living in Greater Vancouver, western Canada. Three thematic narratives were identified: a better life, living the (immigrant) dream, and starting again from way below. The narratives characterized the social context for immigrant and refugee young men and were connected by a central theme of negotiating second-class citizenship. Implications include the need for mental health frameworks that address marginalization and take into account the contexts and discourses that shape the mental health of immigrant and refugee populations in Canada and worldwide.

Understanding Adolescent Narratives About “Bullying” Through an Intersectional Lens: Implications for Youth Mental Health Interventions:

This article is based on findings from a qualitative study with 27 adolescents in northern British Columbia, Canada. Our aim was to explore youths’ perspectives on the sources of emotional distress in their lives and how these are connected to peer-based aggression and victimization within their community. Our analysis of narrative findings suggests that youths’ narratives about bullying reflect intersecting and socially embedded configurations of “race,” neocolonialism, and place. We argue that mainstream approaches to addressing bullying as a relationship-based problem must be re-oriented to account for the role of the social or structural contexts of youths’ lives. By applying an intersectional lens, we make the case for a widening of the focus of interventions away from individual victims and perpetrators, toward a contextual approach that addresses how adolescents experience bullying as a site of health and social inequities in their community.

“I tend to forget bad things”: Immigrant and refugee young men’s narratives of distress:

Distress among young immigrant and refugee men has drawn increasing research attention in recent years. Nuanced understandings of distress are needed to inform mental health and public health programming. The purpose of this research was to examine distress from the perspectives of young immigrant and refugee men living in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Thirty-three young men (aged 15–22 years) from diverse immigrant and refugee backgrounds participated in interviews, which were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Data were examined using narrative analysis and theories of masculinities. Three narratives were identified—norming distress, acknowledging distress as ongoing, and situating distress. The findings reveal that the narratives offer different frames through which distress was rendered a norm, or acknowledged and situated in relation to the participants’ relationships and to masculine discourses that shaped their expressions of distress. The findings can inform initiatives aimed at providing spaces for diverse young men to acknowledge their distress and to receive support for mental health challenges.

Complementary Medicine (CAM) decision support coaching for cancer patient and families : a nurse-led intervention

Nurse-led Intervention Tracy Truanta, RN., MSN; Lynda Balneavesb, RN, PhD; Brenda Rossc, RN; Margurite Wongd, RN, MSN; Carla Hilarioe, RN, MSN; Marja Verhoeff, PhD; Antony Porcinog, PhD. aDoctoral Student, UBC School of Nursing; CAMEO Co-Investigator bAssociate Professor, UBC School of Nursing; CAMEO Principal Investigator cBC Cancer Agency; CAMEO Research Nurse Coordinator dClinical Educator, Vancouver Coastal Health eDoctoral Student, UBC School of Nursing; CAMEO Research Assistant fProfessor, University of Calgary, Department of Community Health Services g CAMEO Project Director

Social Connectedness and the Mental Health of Southeast Asian Youth: Results from a Population-based Survey in British Columbia

Background : In recent years adolescent mental health has received increasing attention in Canada and worldwide. The prevalence of mental health problems in a culturally and ethnically diverse population has created an urgent need for current research in British Columbia on protective factors that may mitigate experiences of emotional distress among minority groups such as Southeast Asian youth. Purpose : Our goal was to examine the relationships between theorized protective factors and youth’s experiences of emotional distress. Methods : We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the 2008 population-based British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey and included Southeast Asian from the sample in our analysis (weighted n=14,283). Protective factors were theorized as school connectedness, family connectedness, and ethnic identity connectedness. Mental health measures included recent stress and despair, self-esteem, self-harm and suicide behavior. Multivariate models conducted by gender tested for associations between social connectedness and emotional distress controlling for age and immigrant status. Findings : Compared to boys, Southeast Asian girls reported significantly greater rates of self-harm and suicidal activity as well as higher levels of stress and despair. Multivariate analyses showed that higher levels of family connectedness were related to lower odds of extreme stress and despair among boys and girls. Lower odds of stress and despair were also related to greater school connectedness but only among girls. Ethnic identity connectedness was associated with significantly lower odds of despair among boys, but with higher odds of stress among girls. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for adolescent health providers, researchers and policy-makers in BC and in Canada.