Activation and Automaticity of Colonial Mentality

Ethical Challenges of Cross-Cultural Research - The Example of a Psychological Research Project in the Andean Context

Using the example of a psychological research project in the Andean context, this explorative interview study adds to the current debate about ethical challenges of psychological cross-cultural research projects by being one of the first to address those challenges empirically. Using a multilevel approach, we conducted interviews with three groups of experts (study participants, i.e., Kichwa mothers, research assistants and experts on research in Indigenous communities in Ecuador; N = 10). Overall, the thematic analysis identified that the establishment of horizontal research relationships allows the best adaption to context-specific values (e.g., balance between giving and receiving), norms and societal structures. On the grounds of the analysis, we derived reflective questions for addressing the complex ethical challenges in future cross-cultural projects.

Historical Representations and Psychological Distress Among Africans in Europe: The Mediation Role of Perceived Discrimination

Historical representations are central to individuals' psychological functioning. Empirical advances have demonstrated the link between historical memories and psychological distress. However, research on historical representations and their impact on the psychological functioning of the African people is limited. This study examined the relationship between internalised historical representations (e.g. colonialism and slavery) and psychological distress among Africans, and the mediational role of the perception of discrimination in this relationship. We hypothesised that historical representations relate to psychological distress and that the perception of discrimination mediates this effect. Consistent with our prediction, historical representations were associated with increased psychological distress. In part, the perception of ethnic discrimination explains the relationship between historical representations and psychological distress. This report highlights the effects of historical representations and ethnic discrimination on the psychological distress of Africans living in Europe.

Ethnic/racial discrimination and academic grades among adolescents: moderation by sleep regularity

This study investigates how sleep regularity moderates the association between ethnic/racial discrimination and academic grades among diverse adolescents. The study included a 14-day, daily diary and actigraphy study of ninth-grade adolescents in the United States (N = 265; mean [SD] age 15.26 [0.62] years, 41.51% Asian, 21.13% Black, 37.35% Latinx, 71.32% female) who completed measures of demographic information and ethnic/racial discrimination (Daily Life Experiences Racism and Bother subscale). Sleep data were collected for 14 consecutive days with wrist actigraphy, and sleep regularity was calculated using the Sleep Regularity Index (SRI). Academic grades were provided by the Department of Education. Discrimination frequency was associated with lower academic grades, and the SRI moderated this association. Compared to adolescents who had moderate and regular SRI profiles, adolescents with irregular SRI (i.e., lower sleep regularity) had stronger negative associations between discrimination and grades. On the other hand, for adolescents who had moderate to high sleep regularity, there was no significant association between discrimination and grades. This study underscores the importance of sleep regularity for adolescents' academic achievement.

Conceptualising mental illness among University students of African, Caribbean and similar ethnic heritage in the United Kingdom

OBJECTIVE

Students of African, Caribbean and similar ethnicity (ACE) encounter unique mental health challenges within the Western higher education system, such as feeling constrained in social spaces and perceiving greater stigma about mental health. Students of ACE are also resilient to mental health problems, such as depression, when enduring social inequality. This study aimed to conceptualise mental illness and help-seeking behaviours among university students in the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of their identity as ACE.

DESIGN

Six university students of ACE in the UK were interviewed about the meaning of mental illness, the influence of ACE culture on mental health and help-seeking by ACE students. Thematic analysis was applied from a socio-constructionist theoretical lens to interpret the interview transcripts.

RESULTS

Five main themes emerged, namely 'Perceived meanings and attitudes toward mental health problems', 'Beliefs about the non-existence of mental health problem and its spiritual attributions', 'Family dynamics and the 'silencing' of mental health problems', 'Help-seeking for mental health among people of ACE' and 'Stigma and discriminatory responses to mental health issues'. Participants expressed that mental health is an imported concept that people from ACE communities tend to shy away from. A reluctance to discuss mental health problems arose over fear of rejection from families and fear of not being understood by a mental health professional from a different cultural background.

CONCLUSION

University students of ACE and their families struggle to adopt the Western conceptualisation of mental health. Consequently, there is poor awareness of mental health issues and stigma of mental illness among university students of ACE which pose a barrier to help-seeking for mental health. The limited sample size constrains the ability to draw sound conclusions. Nonetheless, a culturally sensitive conceptualisation of mental health is needed to address poor help-seeking for mental health among people of ACE.

The Effects of System Justifying Beliefs on Skin-Tone Surveillance, Skin-Color Dissatisfaction, and Skin-Bleaching Behavior

In two studies with women living in India (Study 1, n = 177) and African American women in the United States (Study 2, n = 120), we investigated whether skin-tone surveillance, which theoretically is a manifestation of self-objectification, predicted greater skin-color dissatisfaction and greater skin-bleaching behavior. Given the existence of colorism in Indian and American societies, we expected that ideologies that rationalize and perpetuate the status quo would moderate the proposed relations. Results were consistent with objectification theory and system justification theory. The positive relation between skin-tone surveillance and skin-color dissatisfaction was weaker among women of color who more strongly (vs. weakly) endorsed system justifying ideologies, and the positive relation between skin-tone surveillance and skin-bleaching behavior was stronger among women of color who more strongly (vs. weakly) endorsed system justifying ideologies. Our results suggest that self-objectification theorists and researchers should consider culturally specific manifestations of self-objectification as well as protective and legitimating effects of system justifying ideologies. We encourage clinicians and policy makers to use public campaigns and individual-level interventions to target the norms and motivations underlying skin-bleaching. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index

Assessing the Psychological Consequences of Internalized Colonialism on the Psychological Well-Being of Young Adults in Ghana

This study examined the psychometric properties of a revised version of the Colonial Mentality Scale in a sample Ghanaian young adults (CMS-G; N = 431). In addition, the degree to which mental health and self- and group-concept was effected by internalized notions of colonial mentality was assessed. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the underlying factor structure of the CMS-G. The findings indicated that the CMS-G produced a four-factor orthogonal model as best representing the construct of colonial mentality among Ghanaian young adults. CMS-G scores correlated in the anticipated direction with self-esteem, collective self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Additional analyses indicated that Ghanaian young adults endorsed colonial mentality items associated with physical characteristics and colonial debt with a higher frequency than other CMS-G items. Men endorsed colonial debt items statistically significantly more than women. Implications for the study’s findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented.