Butting in vs. being a friend: cultural differences and similarities in the evaluation of imposed social support

Acculturative Stress, Perceived Social Support, and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Negative Emotions Associated with Discrimination

The role of perceived social support in the acculturation process of immigrants remains unclear. In this study, we jointly evaluated the associations between acculturative stress and negative emotions associated with discrimination as antecedents of anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms in 283 immigrants living in Chile. Three competing models were tested via structural equation modelling to assess (1) the association among these variables and mental health symptoms and (2) to clarify the role of perceived social support. The third model was theoretically more adequate, showed a better fit, and explained 42.7% of the variance of mental health symptoms. In this model, perceived social support was associated with acculturative stress by reducing mental health symptomatology. Moreover, a direct relationship and an indirect relationship were found between acculturative stress (through negative emotions associated with discrimination) and mental health symptomatology. These results contribute to the understanding of the acculturation process experienced by immigrants in Chile and provide empirical evidence to be used to improve migration policies.

Do Migration and Acculturation Impact Somatization? A Scoping Review

Somatization is a phenomenon in which the individual experiences physical symptoms attributable to mental projections. It is a widely used term in common parlance to figuratively describe a stressful situation. Syndromes directly related to the mind have been described; pathologies are influenced by somatization. However, the extent of somatization is also related to social and cultural factors. In fact, each culture expresses varying levels of somatization characteristic of the country of origin. A disease can even manifest with different symptoms in different ethnic groups. The migration process arises from the need for change on the part of those who undertake it and culminates in the integration of the person in the host country. This process induces changes in the person of a psychological nature, which also affects somatization. In fact, the most integrated subjects show levels of somatization comparable to those of the host country. These considerations support the thesis that psychological changes are an integral part of health and can affect the development of organic and somatized pathologies.

Standardization and adaptability for dissemination of telephone peer support for high-risk groups: general evaluation and lessons learned

Beyond demonstrated effectiveness, research needs to identify how peer support can be implemented in real-world settings. Telephone peer support offers one approach to this. The purpose of this study is to evaluate telephone peer support provided by trained peer staff for high-risk groups, implemented according to key tasks or functions of the Reciprocal Peer Support model (RPS) providing both standardization and adaptability. The methods used in the study include the review of contact data for years 2015-2016 from telephone peer support services of Rutgers Health University Behavioral Health Care, serving veterans, police, mothers of children with special needs, and child protection workers; structured interviews with peer supporters and clients; and audit of case notes. Across 2015-2016, peer supporters made 64,786 contacts with a total of 5,616 callers. Adaptability was apparent in 22% of callers' relationships lasting ≤1 month and 43% ≥1 year, voicemails valued as communicating presence, 92% of callers receiving support with psychosocial issues, 65% with concrete problems, such as medical or other services, 88% receiving social support, and 88% either resolving an issue (e.g., finding employment) or making documented progress (e.g., getting professional treatment, insurance, or children's services). With the balance of standardization and adaptability provided by the RPS, telephone peer support can address diverse needs and provide diverse contact patterns, assistance, support, and benefits.

Nonprofessional Peer Support to Improve Mental Health: Randomized Trial of a Scalable Web-Based Peer Counseling Course

BACKGROUND

Millions of people worldwide are underserved by the mental health care system. Indeed, most mental health problems go untreated, often because of resource constraints (eg, limited provider availability and cost) or lack of interest or faith in professional help. Furthermore, subclinical symptoms and chronic stress in the absence of a mental illness diagnosis often go unaddressed, despite their substantial health impact. Innovative and scalable treatment delivery methods are needed to supplement traditional therapies to fill these gaps in the mental health care system.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to investigate whether a self-guided web-based course can teach pairs of nonprofessional peers to deliver psychological support to each other.

METHODS

In this experimental study, a community sample of 30 dyads (60 participants, mostly friends), many of whom presented with mild to moderate psychological distress, were recruited to complete a web-based counseling skills course. Dyads were randomized to either immediate or delayed access to training. Before and after training, dyads were recorded taking turns discussing stressors. Participants' skills in the helper role were assessed before and after taking the course: the first author and a team of trained research assistants coded recordings for the presence of specific counseling behaviors. When in the client role, participants rated the session on helpfulness in resolving their stressors and supportiveness of their peers. We hypothesized that participants would increase the use of skills taught by the course and decrease the use of skills discouraged by the course, would increase their overall adherence to the guidelines taught in the course, and would perceive posttraining counseling sessions as more helpful and their peers as more supportive.

RESULTS

The course had large effects on most helper-role speech behaviors: helpers decreased total speaking time, used more restatements, made fewer efforts to influence the speaker, and decreased self-focused and off-topic utterances (ds=0.8-1.6). When rating the portion of the session in which they served as clients, participants indicated that they made more progress in addressing their stressors during posttraining counseling sessions compared with pretraining sessions (d=1.1), but they did not report substantive changes in feelings of closeness and supportiveness of their peers (d=0.3).

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide proof of concept that nonprofessionals can learn basic counseling skills from a scalable web-based course. The course serves as a promising model for the development of web-based counseling skills training, which could provide accessible mental health support to some of those underserved by traditional psychotherapy.

Social Capital, Social Cost, and Relational Culture in Three Societies

Does who you know in the status hierarchy satisfy or dissatisfy your life? Does that effect vary by culture and society? To addresses these two questions, this study applies four theories and analyzes the association between accessed status (network members’ status) and life satisfaction using nationally representative retrospective data from three societies (the United States, urban China, and Taiwan). Social capital theory expects absolute and relative higher accessed status (network members’ higher status relative to individuals’) to improve life satisfaction and relative lower accessed status to diminish life satisfaction. Social cost theory asserts the opposite. The collectivistic advantage explanation anticipates social capital theory to apply more to urban China and Taiwan than social cost theory and social cost theory to apply more to the United States than social capital theory. The collectivistic disadvantage explanation predicts the opposite. This study measures nine indicators of absolute and relative accessed status on the occupational dimension and six domain-specific satisfactions. Results support both social capital theory and social cost theory in all three societies. There is tentative evidence for the collectivistic disadvantage explanation across the three societies. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Differences in beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States

BACKGROUND

Cross-cultural studies find that culture shapes people's understanding of mental illnesses, particularly Depression and Schizophrenia.

AIMS

To compare individuals' beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States.

METHOD

Participants (N=607) were presented with vignettes of two diagnostically unlabeled psychiatric case histories and then answered questions regarding mental health literacy (MHL) and attitudes toward the person and the illness.

RESULTS

Our findings indicate that Depression was most often attributed to psychosocial stress while Schizophrenia was thought to be caused by biological factors. People from both countries considered those suffering from Schizophrenia to be unpredictable and dangerous. US participants were more likely to endorse lay and professional help for both disorders than their Russian counterparts. Russian participants reported being less likely to turn to someone they trust and more likely to deal with problems on their own. Russian participants were also more likely to view those with Depression as 'weak-willed' and leading an 'immoral lifestyle'.

CONCLUSION

Our findings further inform cultural understandings of these mental illnesses in an often neglected national group. Patterns suggest that both groups may benefit from exposure to corrective information about Depression and Schizophrenia.

Does whom you know in the status hierarchy prevent or trigger health limitation? Institutional embeddedness of social capital and social cost theories in three societies

Does whom you know in the status hierarchy prevent or trigger health limitation (life disruption due to health problems)? Does that effect vary by society? To addresses these two questions, this study applies five theories and analyzes nationally representative data from three societies (the United States, urban China, and Taiwan). Social capital theory expects accessed status (network members' status) to prevent health limitation, while social cost theory as proposed here asserts the opposite. The collectivistic advantage explanation anticipates social capital theory to apply more to urban China and Taiwan but social cost theory to apply more to the United States, while the collectivistic disadvantage explanation predicts the opposite. The inequality structure explanation expects social capital theory to apply more to Taiwan and social cost theory to apply more to the United States and urban China. This study measures accessed status on the occupational dimension. Results support social capital theory in Taiwan, social cost theory in the other two societies, and the inequality structure explanation across the three societies.

Does Receiving Unsolicited Support Help or Hurt? Receipt of Unsolicited Job Leads and Depression

Does receiving unsolicited support protect or hurt health? This study focuses on the receipt of unsolicited job leads and examines opposite hypotheses on its main and interaction effects with economic strain (lack of full-time employment and the duration of lack of full-time employment) and financial dissatisfaction on depression using nationally representative data of working-age adults in the United States. The distress-reducing perspective expects its main effect to be negative, but the distress-inducing perspective predicts the opposite. Furthermore, the need contingency argument anticipates the two competing perspectives-distress reducing and distress inducing-to have stronger explanatory power for adults with more economic strain and financial dissatisfaction and those with less economic strain and financial dissatisfaction, respectively. Results are consistent with the distress-inducing perspective and the need contingency argument. The findings indicate that the receipt of unsolicited job leads often plays a deleterious role for mental health but that the role varies according to the need for job leads.

Peer support in health care and prevention: cultural, organizational, and dissemination issues

As reviewed in the article by Perry and colleagues (2014) in this volume, ample evidence has documented the contributions of peer support (PS) to health, health care, and prevention. Building on that foundation, this article discusses characteristics, contexts, and dissemination of PS, including (a) fundamental aspects of the social support that is often central to it; (b) cultural influences and ways PS can be tailored to specific groups; (c) key features of PS and the importance of ongoing support and backup of peer supporters and other factors related to its success; (d) directions in which PS can be expanded beyond prevention and chronic disease management, such as in mental health or interventions to prevent rehospitalization; (e) other opportunities through the US Affordable Care Act, such as through patient-centered medical homes and chronic health homes; and (f) organizational and policy issues that will govern its dissemination. All these demonstrate the extent to which PS needs to reflect its contexts--intended audience, health problems, organizational and cultural settings--and, thus, the importance of dissemination policies that lead to flexible response to contexts rather than constraint by overly prescriptive guidelines.