Where Our Bright Star Is Cast: Religiosity, Spirituality, and Positive Black Development in Urban Landscapes

Social science research offers a particular, narrow view of the lived experiences of Black urban-residing people. When the religious and spiritual lives of Black urban residents are viewed through this narrow lens, the diversity of religious and spiritual experiences and the connections between everyday life and positive outcomes, such as compassion, hope, liberation, joy, etc., become flattened, doing a disservice to the very people whose experiences we aim to understand. We contend that understanding the link between religiosity, spirituality, and positive development among Black urban-residing people requires us to pay attention to the ways that faith helps Black people to navigate the sequelae of five distinct sociopolitical features of urban life. We propose a conceptual framework that links these sociopolitical factors to religiosity, spirituality, and positive development among Black youth and adults residing in urban spaces. We conclude with recommendations applicable to the study of Black urban religiosity and spirituality.

Parenting African American Children With Autism: The Influence of Respect and Faith in Mother, Father, Single-, and Two-Parent Care

PURPOSE

Parents are the most significant contributor to care of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and as such research on African American parenting in ASD is conspicuously absent. Findings relevant to parenting are discussed from a study with urban African American families caring for children with ASD.

DESIGN

An ethnonursing study was conducted with 24 African American family members of children with ASD and 28 professionals. Data were analyzed and reported as themes.

FINDINGS

Two universal themes of were found of respect and faith in God and family that influenced parental care. Two diverse themes of mother's watchful care and father's protective care, along with differences in feelings of isolation and dependence on supports were found among single- and two-parent families. Discussion and Practice Implications: When health care professionals increase their knowledge and understanding of cultural practices in the parental care of children with ASD, they provide health care that is culturally congruent.

African American families on autism diagnosis and treatment: the influence of culture

Cultural factors such as health care access and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptom interpretations have been proposed as impacting delayed diagnosis and treatment for African American children with ASD. A qualitative study of urban African American families caring for their child with autism was conducted with 24 family members and 28 ASD professionals. Cultural caring meant families protected their child from harm including potential or actual distrustful encounters, and took action for their child and community to optimize their child's health and address the knowledge deficits of ASD within their community. Families and professionals believed cultural influences delayed families' receiving and seeking appropriate health care for the African American child with ASD affecting timely autism diagnosis and treatment.

Discovery of the Meanings, Expressions, and Practices Related to Malaria Care Among the Maasai

Purpose: Although malaria is preventable and treatable, morbidity and mortality from this disease continue among the Maasai of Southern Kenya. Prior to this study, the Maasai’s generic and professional malaria care/cure practices were largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to discover, describe, and systematically analyze meanings, expressions, and practices that promote culturally congruent malaria care among this population. Design: The qualitative, ethnonursing research method was used to conduct in-depth examination of the Maasai ethnohistory and culture relevant to malaria care and analyze data from 48 interviews conducted in Maasailand. Findings: Guided by the “culture care theory,” four themes were discovered related to Maasai community, traditional, spiritual, and professional care/cure practices. These significant findings filled a research gap and contribute to nursing knowledge and caring practice. Practice Implications: These study findings have implications for culturally congruent malaria care education, practice, research, policy, and partnership with traditional and professional caregivers.

Opportunities and challenges to the development of healthy children and youth living in diverse communities

The field of developmental psychopathology has seen growth in research focusing on interdisciplinarity and normative developmental processes, including context-linked coping and adaptations. However, there continues to be an uncomfortable and unarticulated perspective to view others as having culture and “the self” as representing the standard. A call for explicit cultural considerations in research is needed to augment the impact of these new and other significant conceptual contributions noted. Sociopolitical influences on social contexts relevant to the different trajectories associated with youths' opportunities and challenges are presented. We focus on macrolevel factors that frame contexts in which individual development occurs. A federal and educational policy is used to illustrate how unexamined cultural traditions and patterns embedded in research and policy impact development. These examples provide insight in presenting issues of vulnerability, particularly for youth, and afford opportunities to present advances and challenges paralleled in the developmental psychopathology field.

Exploring faculty health and wellbeing: creating a caring scholarly community

BACKGROUND

Nursing educators worldwide are challenged to integrate the care of culturally diverse people into coursework to prepare a nursing workforce to deliver culturally congruent care (CCC). Care that recipients consider safe, satisfying, and beneficial is the essence of CCC. To effectively teach and role model such care for students, it is important for faculty to experience it at work. While substantive literature exists on promoting health, wellbeing, and a healthy work environment for nurses in practice, there is a limited focus on these topics for nursing faculty.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to discover care practices that helped faculty teach students to provide CCC. This article reports' findings related to the theme that care is essential for the health and wellbeing of general nursing faculty who prepare students to provide CCC.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHOD

This qualitative ethnonursing research study, guided by the culture care theory, used open-ended interviews to discover care practices that enhanced faculty's ability to teach students to provide CCC. The study was conducted in two public university baccalaureate nursing programs in urban and rural settings in the Southeastern United States. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 27 tenured, tenured-track, and clinical nursing faculty. Interview data were analyzed using Leininger's four phases of ethnonursing data analysis. Qualitative criteria were used to ensure rigor and included participant confirmation of patterns and themes.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Faculty health and wellbeing were described as embracing each other's cultural similarities and differences, caring for self, caring for others, offering respect, and engaging in mentoring/co-mentoring. Evidence-based recommendations to promote faculty health and wellbeing are presented. Creating a caring scholarly community that supports nursing faculty health and wellbeing provided essential support for faculty who prepared students, often through role modeling, to provide CCC.

Cultural competence in correctional mental health

Cultural competence is an essential aspect of competence as a mental health professional. In this article, the framework of cultural competence developed in general psychiatry-acquiring knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand the interaction between culture and the individual-is applied to the prison setting. Race and ethnicity, extremes of age, gender, and religion are highlighted and examined as elements of the overall culture of prisons. The model of the cultural formulation from the DSM-IV is then adapted for use by clinicians in the correctional setting, with particular emphasis on the interaction between the inmate's culture of origin and the unique culture of the prison environment.