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Suicide among American Muslims is understudied, despite recent research highlighting increased suicide attempts among this population. While suicide is forbidden in Islam, formal guidelines for addressing and responding to suicide within Muslim communities did not exist until recently. The Stanford Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab has responded to a number of suicides in Muslim communities across North America and implemented an original model for suicide response and community healing. This approach incorporates Islamic principles and values to create a culturally and religiously congruent response to suicide that can support loss survivors and steer impacted communities toward healing. The Muslim Postvention Community Healing session described in this paper aims to provide a safe space for individuals impacted by suicide to come together and process their emotions, while also using Islamic teachings to guide the healing process. This unique model has the potential to serve as a valuable resource for Muslim communities across North America, and beyond, in addressing and responding to suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perinatal period involves major developmental transitions which can be conceptualized through a biopsychosocial (BPS; Engel in Science 196:129–136, 1977, 10.1126/science.847460, in The American Journal of Psychiatry 137:535–544, 1980, 10.1176/ajp.137.5.535), systemic (von Bertalanffy, General system theory: Foundations, development, applications, George Braziller, New York, 1968) framework. Thus, no one domain of health in the perinatal period can be understood without exploring how the other domains are both impacted by and impacting the others. As a result of COVID-19, popular media is paying special attention to the biomedical domain of women in the perinatal period as it relates to health outcomes and changes in perinatal healthcare policies; however, considerably less attention is being paid to the other BPS health domains and systemic impacts. This paper will outline U.S. changes in healthcare as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals, couples, and families within the perinatal period (i.e., family planning and conception, prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum) and explore the unique psychosocial, systemic impacts. Recommendations for care, including telehealth and virtual support options, and future directions for research will be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant progress in research on the treatment and prevention of psychological, behavioral, and health problems, the translation of this knowledge into population-wide benefit remains limited. This paper reviews the state of America's children and families, highlighting the influence of stressful contextual and social conditions on child and family well-being and the concentration of disadvantage in numerous neighborhoods and communities throughout the nation. It then briefly reviews the progress that has been made in pinpointing policies that can reduce stressful contextual conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and the marketing of unhealthful foods and substances. It also describes numerous family and school interventions that have proven benefit in preventing psychological and behavioral problems as diverse as tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; depression; antisocial behavior; academic failure; obesity prevention; and early childbearing. We argue that progress in translating existing knowledge into widespread benefit will require a nationwide effort to intervene comprehensively in neighborhoods and communities of concentrated disadvantage. We present a strategic plan for how such an effort could be organized. The first step in this organizing would be the creation of a broad and diverse coalition of organizations concerned with advancing public health and well-being. Such a coalition could increase public support both for the policies needed to focus on these disadvantaged areas and the research needed to incrementally improve our ability to help these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 20 years since her last published new work, Sandra Lipsitz Bem's ideas continue to inspire and influence many contemporary researchers-as reflected in the many excellent papers appearing in the two special issues of Sex Roles. In my review, I highlight how Sandra Bem was repeatedly at the vanguard of the intellectual zeitgeist that shaped the psychology of gender over the last four decades. Notably, Bem was at the forefront of second-wave feminist psychology in the 1970s. In this regard, she challenged androcentric ways of thinking about gender and sexuality. Moreover, she helped to expand our notion of gender and gender identities beyond bipolar or dichotomous models. By extension, her androgyny and gender schema theories pushed people to consider the multifaceted features of gender and sexuality. Bem heralded the benefits of greater flexibility and gender equality for children as well as adults. In addition, she was one of the first psychologists to study how language and gender divisions are intertwined. Finally, she was on the forefront of researchers addressing heterosexism and genderism. The papers appearing in the two special issues are used to illustrate each of these important contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Foster parents experience multiple challenges; however, managing problematic child behaviors can be especially difficult. Given the ecological nature of challenges associated with fostering, it is imperative that researchers identify means for combatting foster parent stress and factors that may contribute to placement disruption. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of social support for foster parents, in regards to confidence and satisfaction, as well as perceived challenges with fostering. Additionally, social support was evaluated as a moderator between reported child behaviors and foster parents' confidence and satisfaction with fostering. Method: This study included 155 licensed foster caregivers across the United States. Participants completed standardized measures (i.e., child behaviors, satisfaction and challenges as a foster parent, social support) through an online survey after being recruited via social media. Variables were analyzed through simple and hierarchal linear regressions. Results: Findings indicate that social support significantly predicted confidence and satisfaction as a foster parent; intensity of child behaviors is negatively associated with confidence as a foster parent and positively associated with an overall perception of challenges related to fostering; and social support moderates the relationship between perceived problem with child behaviors and perceived challenging aspects of fostering. Conclusion: This study indicates social support may be a protective factor for foster parents in regards to child behaviors and challenges associated with fostering. Social support is linked to variables that directly influence placement stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the World Health Organization, female genital cutting affects millions of girls and women worldwide, particularly on the African continent and in the Middle East. This paper presents a plausible, albeit hypothetical, clinical vignette and then explores the legal landscape as well as the ethical landscape physicians should use to evaluate the adult patient who requests re-infibulation. The principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, justice, and autonomy are considered for guidance, and physician conscientious objection to this procedure is discussed as well. Analyses of law and predominant principles of bioethics fail to yield a clear answer regarding performing female genital cutting or re-infibulation on an adult in the United States. Physicians should consider the patient's physical, mental, and social health when thinking about female genital cutting and should understand the deep-rooted cultural significance of the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perinatal mental health problems, experienced by 15-20% of women, are a significant public health issue associated with adverse effects among childbearing women; yet only 20-25% receive adequate treatment. There has been a recent proliferation of intensive perinatal day treatment programs in the United States. To meet this need in the greater Philadelphia area, we introduce Mother Baby Connections (MBC), an innovative interdisciplinary, attachment-focused, intensive, outpatient perinatal mental health program recently launched at Drexel University. The purpose of this paper is to (1) present an overview of MBC, its theoretical framework for services, and its evidence-based components, highlighting the unique factors that differentiate this program from traditional outpatient treatment, and (2) present clinical outcome data utilizing scores from reliable and valid scales, including enrollment to discharge outcomes from 20 months of MBC operation. In sum, outcomes for 20 predominantly minority women with complete measures showed significant improvements in maternal depression symptom severity, maternal functioning, birth trauma symptoms, perceived stress, parenting stress, and emotional regulation. Effect sizes were medium to large (i.e., 0.42-2.00). We conclude that MBC is a viable model for tailored intensive outpatient treatment to foster maternal mental health and functioning during the perinatal period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentalization-based interventions show promise in improving mental health outcomes for children and parents through increasing a family's reflective functioning, or ability to mentalize. Mentalizing involves the ability to understand behavior in relation to mental states, such as thoughts and feelings, and typically develops within the context of secure attachment relationships. One area not given much consideration when training foster parents is their capacity to mentalize. This study evaluated Family Minds, a newly developed psychoeducational intervention for foster parents, designed to increase their ability to mentalize. The current paper reports on the development and preliminary empirical evaluation of Family Minds in a quasi-experimental study where 102 foster parents received either Family Minds or a typical foster parenting class, which served as a control group. Results indicate that parents who received Family Minds significantly increased their levels of reflective functioning as assessed with the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire and a new Five-Minute Speech Sample procedure coded using the Reflective Functioning Scale, and revealed a tendency to show decreased levels of parenting stress on the Parenting Stress Index, while the control group showed no such improvements. These findings support the hypothesis that a short-term psychoeducational intervention may improve foster parents' ability to mentalize themselves and their children. These skills are very beneficial for foster parents, as they frequently deal with children who come into their home with challenging behaviors, attachment issues, and negative internal working models of relationships. This type of intervention has the potential to lower placement breakdowns and improve the mental health of foster children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the effects on parenting and on children's mental health problems and competencies from a randomized trial of a parenting program for divorced and separated fathers. The program, New Beginnings Program-Dads (NBP-Dads), includes ten group sessions (plus two phone sessions) which promote parenting skills to increase positive interactions with children, improve father-child communication, use of effective discipline strategies, and skills to protect children from exposure to interparental conflict. The program was adapted from the New Beginnings Program, which has been tested in two randomized trials with divorced mothers and shown to strengthen mothers' parenting and improve long-term outcomes for children (Wolchik et al. 2007). Fathers were randomly assigned to receive either NBP-Dads or a 2-session active comparison program. The sample consisted of 384 fathers (201 NBP-Dads, 183 comparisons) and their children. Assessments using father, youth, and teacher reports were conducted at pretest, posttest, and 10-month follow-up. Results indicated positive effects of NBP-Dads to strengthen parenting as reported by fathers and youth at posttest and 10-month follow-up. Program effects to reduce child internalizing problems and increase social competence were found at 10 months. Many of the program effects were moderated by baseline level of the variable, child age, gender, and father ethnicity. This is the first randomized trial to find significant effects to strengthen father parenting following divorce. In view of recent changes in family courts to allot fathers increasing amounts of parenting time following divorce, the results have significant implications for improving outcomes for children from divorced families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent crisis in the Middle East has prompted the exodus of millions of refugees from the region who are at present seeking shelter across Europe and in the United States. Among the most immediate needs of refugees upon arrival in a host country is health care, and it is one of the most sustained interactions they experience. Home visits are a common form of primary care for refugees. The authors review the literature to identify themes related to challenges and strategies for providing home based primary care to refugees. The literature review was performed by searching cross-disciplinary databases utilizing Onesearch, but focusing primarily on results produced through CINAHL, EBSCOHOST, and Pub Med databases. To maximize the number of studies included, there was no time frame placed upon publication dates of articles within the search. A total of 55 articles were included in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reflects on the life and career of Janet Spence (1923-2015) by situating her experiences within the history of women and gender in American psychology. This history has revealed the structural factors that have affected women's participation in psychology, the shared themes in women's interpersonal and professional experiences, and the specific strategies that women have used to navigate an androcentric, and at times overtly sexist, discipline. In spanning the second half of the twentieth century, Spence's career provides an interesting case study of how these decades of institutional and political change affected a specific woman scientist and her science. I argue that her biography can offer rich insights into the complexly intertwined, and even reflexive, relationships among psychologists, their psychologies, and their contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to examine geographic variation in unmet need for mental health care among racially/ethnically diverse adults with psychiatric disorders in the US.Methods: Drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES; 2001-2003), adults with any past year psychiatric disorder diagnosis (n = 3211) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds were selected for analyses. Using weighted data, descriptive analyses and logistic regression analyses were conducted.Results: Two-thirds of the total sample had unmet mental health care need, which differed significantly by race/ethnicity (p < .001). Logistic regression analyses show regional variation of the effect of race/ethnicity in unmet need: after adjusting for covariates, Latinos in the South, Blacks and Latinos in the Midwest, and Latinos and Asians in the West had higher unmet need than non-Hispanic Whites, whereas no significant racial/ethnic effects were found in the Northeast.Conclusions: Findings suggest that geographic region plays an important role in the sufficient use of mental health services among racial/ethnic minorities. Further research should elucidate reasons for geographic disparities in mental health care among racial/ethnic minority adults to reduce disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of research on how mental health diagnoses are delivered and explained to children and the effectiveness of these strategies. This qualitative study examines how emerging adults recall the delivery of mental health diagnoses in childhood and how they suggest these diagnoses should be delivered to children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 42 emerging adults (aged 18-22) who were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depressive disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and/or bipolar disorder in childhood. Findings reveal that parents, rather than mental health professionals, often inform children of their diagnoses. The data suggest that parents often act as translators of diagnostic information, acting as liaisons between mental health professionals and their children. The paper explores ways in which parents and mental health professionals withhold diagnoses from children, and how this affects children's experiences. Drawing on their own experiences, participants offer suggestions regarding the best ways to deliver diagnoses to children. Findings suggest that adults should share mental health diagnoses openly with children. Implications for social workers and other allied health professionals who support families when children are diagnosed are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper evaluated the impact of cleft-related surgery on the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of youth with cleft over time.Methods: Data were derived from a 5-year, multi-center, prospective, longitudinal study of 1196 youth with cleft lip and/or palate and their caregivers. Eligible youth were between 7.5 and 18.5 years old, spoke English or Spanish, and were non-syndromic. During each observational period, which included baseline, and 1- and 2-year post-baseline follow-up visits, youths and their caregivers completed the Child Oral Health Impact Profile, a validated measure of OHRQoL. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to analyze the effects of receipt of craniofacial surgery on OHRQoL over time.Results: During the course of this study a total of 516 patients (43 %) received at least one surgery. Youth in the surgery recommendation group had lower self- (β = -2.18, p < 0.05) and proxy-rated (β = -2.92, p < 0.02) OHRQoL when compared to non-surgical self- and proxy-rated OHRQoL at baseline. Both surgical and non-surgical youth (β = 3.73, p < 0.001) and caregiver (β = 1.91, p < 0.05) ratings of OHRQoL improved over time. There was significant incremental improvement (time × surgery interaction) in self-reported OHRQoL for youth postsurgery (β = 1.04, p < 0.05), but this postsurgery increment was not seen in the caregiver proxy ratings.Conclusions: Surgical intervention impacts OHRQoL among youth with cleft. Youth who were surgical candidates had lower baseline self- and caregiver-rated OHRQoL when compared to non-surgical youth. Youth who underwent cleft-related surgery had significant incremental improvements in self-rated but not caregiver (proxy)-rated OHRQoL after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the ways in which citizens emotionally react to and cognitively process campaign advertisements that contain group-based appeals. Specifically, we focus on the emotional, cognitive, and persuasive effects of three campaign ads aired during the 2012 election campaign that contained explicit appeals to women voters. We analyze differences across women and men in their emotional responses to the ads, in their reports of the memorability of the ads, in their cognitive engagement with the ads, and in how persuasive the ads were for vote choice. In so doing, we add nuance to studies of gender and campaigns and contribute to the expanding literature on the impact of strategic campaign communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that parental knowledge contributes to adolescents' well-being and school success and scholars have noted that parents and adolescents report different levels of knowledge. Discrepancies in parental knowledge have implications for adolescent outcomes such as risk behaviors, but little is known about the implications of knowledge discrepancies for adolescents' school outcomes. The present study examined discrepancies in parent and adolescent reports of parental knowledge and investigated the extent to which knowledge discrepancies were linked to school engagement. Participants were early adolescents ( N = 174; 53 % female) and their parents (90 % mothers). Adolescents (57 % African American/Black, 18 % multiracial, 17 % White/Caucasian, 7 % Hispanic/Latino and 1 % Asian American) attended a Midwestern, Title 1, urban, public middle school. Adolescents completed surveys in their homerooms and parents completed paper-pencil surveys at home or surveys via telephone. Results showed that parents reported more knowledge of adolescents' activities and whereabouts compared to adolescents' reports. Knowledge discrepancies were associated with school bonding and school self-esteem such that dyads in which adolescents reported more knowledge than their parents reported had significantly higher levels of school bonding and school self-esteem compared to dyads in which parents reported much more knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content analyses of popular media have consistently documented the narrow and stereotypical ways in which women and men are frequently depicted. Despite growing evidence that these media images impact viewers' attitudes towards women and gender relations, less is known about how specifically media impact men's beliefs about masculinity. Thus, the purpose of our paper was to explore the association between media use and beliefs about manhood among a sample of undergraduate men from a U.S. Midwestern university. In Study 1 ( N = 488), we examine the relation between young men's media consumption and their beliefs about the male role using the Adolescent Masculinity in Relationships Scale (AMIRS; Chu et al. ). As hypothesized, men's media use was associated with more traditional beliefs about the male role, with reality TV and movie viewing emerging as significant predictors. Study 2 ( N = 449) addresses the contribution of male-oriented media (e.g., sports programming, video games, men's magazines) to men's personal adherence to masculinity ideology as measured by the Conformity to Masculine Norm Inventory-46 (Parent and Moradi ). Here, sports TV viewing, reality TV viewing, and reading men's magazines were predictive of stronger adherence to masculinity ideology. These findings suggest that media may contribute not only to beliefs about women and gender relations, but also to young men's beliefs about manhood and personal enactment of masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has demonstrated that interpersonal weight-related pressures and criticisms are related to body dissatisfaction among college women. Further, research has suggested that romantic partners, in comparison to family and peers, play an increasingly important role in college women's body dissatisfaction. However, research has been inconsistent on the roles that these sources of interpersonal weight-related pressure and criticism play in college women's body dissatisfaction. The influence of romantic partners on college women's body dissatisfaction is important to examine given that college women are developmentally at a time in their lives where issues related to romantic relationships become more salient. Even more, understanding of the influences on college women's body dissatisfaction and resultant disordered eating is critical so that effective prevention and intervention efforts can be developed. Thus, this study examined the influence of family, peer, romantic partner, media weight-related pressures and criticisms on body dissatisfaction and resultant disordered eating (i.e., dieting and bulimic behaviors) among college women. Participants included undergraduate college women ( N = 246) recruited from introductory psychology courses from a mid-sized U.S. Midwestern university. Women completed paper and pencil surveys for course credit. Path analytic results demonstrated that partner and media pressures were related to internalization of the thin ideal, and that family, peer, and media pressures along with internalization of the thin ideal were related to body dissatisfaction. Moreover, body dissatisfaction was related to maladaptive dieting and bulimic behaviors. Prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing the impact of various forms of weight-related pressure, especially the media, appear crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is arguably one of the greatest of American Presidents. His encounter with the polio that crippled him at an early age and its transformative impact upon him are here discussed with particular reference to his relationship with his physician, Dr. George Draper. This transformation liberated energy in Roosevelt to lead and to show empathy for others in ways that both challenged the political and social status quo in the USA as well as helped save the world from the threat of Fascism in World War II. This essay seeks to demonstrate how an investigation of the life and struggles of this famous patient is one avenue for relating the study of the humanities to medical education. An earlier version of this paper was presented as the Heberden Lecture in the History of Medicine at the New York Academy of Medicine in 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]