Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Conceptualizing Trauma and Resilience Across Diverse Contexts

Abstract This paper offers a multicultural understanding of trauma and resilience as experienced in the lives of individuals from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. The research and clinical literature on resilience has focused largely if not exclusively on individual personality traits and coping styles, and has neglected to explore all possible sources and expressions of resilience in individuals and groups. For many ethnic minorities, traditional notions of resilience, shaped largely by middle class European and North American values, may not capture culturally more familiar modes of positive adaptation to adverse and traumatic experience. This paper explores the concept of resilience as a multidetermined phenomenon, and considers the implications of this perspective for clinical research and intervention with ethnic minorities.

Perceived Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Immigrant-Origin Adolescents

Although discrimination has been found to contribute to psychological distress among immigrant populations, there are few studies that have examined the relationship between racial and ethnic discrimination in the school setting among foreign-born immigrant and U.S.-born immigrant-origin adolescents. This study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination by adults and peers in the school setting and depressive symptoms in a sample (N = 95) of racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents (13 to 19 years of age) attending an urban high school. We examined the relation between perceived discrimination and depressive symptomology across gender and nativity status (foreign born vs. U.S. born), and the potential moderating role of ethnic identity and social support. Consistent with previous research, girls reported higher levels of depressive symptomology than boys, although the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was significant for both boys and girls. Perceived discrimination by adults and by peers at school was positively related to depressive symptoms for U.S.-born adolescents. For U.S.-born adolescents, ethnic identity mitigated the negative effects of perceived adult discrimination on depressive symptoms. However, ethnic identity did not moderate the relationship between perceived peer discrimination and depressive symptoms. Social support did not moderate the relationship between adult and peer discrimination and depressive symptoms for either foreign-born or U.S.-born adolescents. The findings support previous research concerning the immigrant paradox and highlight the importance of context in the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.

Trauma and Resilience: A Case of Individual Psychotherapy in a Multicultural Context

Abstract The decision to seek professional help and the efficacy of such help are influenced by several factors, including individual and cultural definitions of trauma, access to services, and social support. This paper is focused on psychotherapy as one avenue of recovery for trauma survivors. A case of a biracial woman coping with a history of traumatic experience, working in the context of weekly individual psychotherapy is presented. The case is conceptualized from a culturally informed, ecological perspective that considers the relevance of individual, interpersonal, and cultural factors in determining the trajectory of trauma recovery. The psychotherapeutic relationship is seen as a significant force in helping the client to mobilize and make use of her resilient capacities.

Skin color and the therapeutic relationship.

Although issues pertinent to psychotherapy with ethnic minorities have been attended to increasingly over the past two decades, the issue of skin color has more or less been neglected in the psychotherapy literature. The idealization of light skin color in mainstream White and ethnic minority communities in the United States has impacted a wide range of societal and individual perceptions ranging from physical attractiveness to intellectual and social competence. The relevance of this impact in the psychotherapeutic relationship is explored in this article. Skin color is addressed within an historical context, and its influence on intrapsychic and interpersonal processes in the lives of clients and therapists are discussed. Clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the dynamics of skin color in the therapeutic relationship.

The multidimensional trauma recovery and resiliency instrument : Preliminary examination of an abridged version

Abstract This paper describes two studies leading to the construction of and psychometric support for the MTRR-99, a shortened version of the Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resiliency Scale (MTRR-135, formerly MTRR). In the first study, the original body of MTRR-135 data was reevaluated to remove psychometrically weak or theoretically unnecessary items. The remaining 99 items were then assessed for reliability, validity, and internal consistency. In the second study, the new MTRR-99 was applied to assess the recovery status of 164 incarcerated women prisoners with extensive abuse histories. Together, these two studies further document the utility of a multidimensional approach to assessing trauma impact, recovery, and resiliency; in addition, they provide preliminary evidence for the MTRR-99 as a viable measure for use with clinical and non-clinical populations.

Contemporary Impingements on Mothering

Mothering in contemporary Western society needs to be understood in the context of a rapidly changing social context. Increased geographic mobility, improved access to child-related information through the media, and scientific and technological progress have contributed to significant shifts in cultural views on mothering. Several contextual impingements on mothering, including changing family structure, economic pressures, decreased social support, cultural ideals of the perfect mother, and increased awareness of interpersonal and global trauma impact mothers’ internal worlds. These societal changes often reinforce mothers’ fear of losing their children and an idealization of intensive mothering, and evoke challenges in reorganizing their sense of personal identity. Implications for psychoanalytic theory and practice, and specifically the need to integrate individual and contextual forces related to experiences of mothers will be explored.

Psychotherapy with South Asian Women: Dilemmas of the Immigrant and First Generations

Immigration imposes changes in gender role expectations and sexual expression that can contribute to acculturative stress and intergenerational conflicts. This article focuses on how immigrant and first-generation South Asian women in the United States negotiate losses incurred in immigration and navigate multiple cultural contexts. Immigrant women, having been raised in the country of origin and migrating to the United States as adults, face unique acculturative stressors, such as language/communication barriers, separation from close friends and family, and adapting to new cultural norms. First-generation women face challenges related to navigating across South Asian and mainstream cultural values that may significantly vary between their parental homes and their lives outside of the home. Despite these challenges and related psychological distress, the mental health needs of South Asian women across generations tend to be overlooked. This paper addresses the unique ways in which South Asian women cope with psychological distress, and how psychotherapy that integrates feminist, multicultural and psychodynamic perspectives can provide a meaningful opportunity for healing. Case vignettes are presented to illustrate the similarities and differences in cultural adjustment and the negotiation of cultural identity for immigrant and first-generation South Asian women.

Perceptions of Race-Based Discrimination Among First-Generation Asian Indians in the United States

The current study examined how historical, social, and political contexts in their country of origin and their host country have influenced first-generation Asian Indians’ racialized experiences in the United States. We conducted nine separate focus groups with a total of 50 first-generation Asian Indian participants (20 men and 30 women). In a semistructured interview, participants were asked about the factors that influence their perceptions of and coping with race-based discrimination. The data were analyzed using grounded theory. A theoretical model was developed based on factors that influence Asian Indian individuals’ conceptualizations of race-based discrimination, the variables that influence their coping strategies, and the insights gained in coping with discrimination. Pre- and postimmigration experiences seem salient to race-based experiences of Asian Indians in the United States. Attempts at making meaning of Asian Indian race-based experiences were strongly influenced by the caste system, preimmigration colonial influence, and the model minority myth.

Sources and expression of resilience in trauma survivors: Ecological theory, multicultural perspectives.

Abstract There is growing recognition among trauma researchers, clinicians, and human rights activists of the need for greater understanding of the nature, impact, and mediators of traumatic exposure among trauma survivors from diverse cultures and contexts and a growing interest in the phenomenon of resiliency and the possibility of recovery in the aftermath of traumatic exposure. This introduction briefly describes the articles that comprise this volume, emphasizing their status both as individually unique and worthwhile contributions to this literature and as a collection of works that speak powerfully to the promise of multi-cultural research and practice and to the need for a theoretical framework able to account for wide variations in individual expressions of psychological trauma, trauma recovery, and resilience. For us as co-editors of this volume, that framework resides in the ecological perspective of community psychology and in the attention to culture and context inherent in ecological theory.

Ethnic identity, perceived support, and depressive symptoms among racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents.

Although racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents compose a rapidly growing sector of the U.S. population, few studies have examined the role of contextual factors in mental health among these youth. The present study examined the relationship between ethnic identity and depressive symptoms, the relationship between perceived social support and depressive symptoms, and the relationship between sociodemographic factors (ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status) and depressive symptoms, among a culturally diverse group of adolescents. In addition, the potential moderating role of nativity status (U.S. born vs. foreign born) was examined in these associations. Participants were 9th and 10th graders (N = 341; 141 foreign born and 200 U.S. born, from Asian, Latino(a), and Afro-Caribbean backgrounds), attending an urban high school. Consistent with previous research, ethnic identity was negatively associated with depressive symptomatology in the overall sample. Nativity status did not moderate the relationship between ethnic identity and depressive symptoms. Among the sociodemographic factors examined, only gender was associated with depressive symptoms, with girls reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms compared with boys. Contrary to expectations, there were no differences in the degree of depressive symptomatology between U.S.-born and foreign-born adolescents, and perceived social support was not associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The findings suggest the importance of gender and ethnic identity in mental health and, more broadly, the complexity of social location in mental health outcomes among U.S.-born and foreign-born immigrant-origin adolescents. Implications for research and interventions with immigrant-origin adolescents are discussed.