305 p., Examines how social inequalities, in combination with identified social risk factors, contribute to disparities in the incidence of schizophrenia among individuals of African-Caribbean descent in England. It addresses the psychiatric epidemiological puzzle that indicates African-Caribbbeans in England have significantly greater rates of schizophrenia than the general British population. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, their relatives, and community members in North London, the researcher argued that specific social changes and historical forces interlink to create a toxic environment characterized by negative expressed emotions and social defeat to affect African-Caribbeans' mental health.
129 p., As the numbers of Black second generation immigrants (SGIs) in the United States increase because of increased numbers of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, more research is needed to explain how varying Black ethnic groups perceive and interpret illness to address health disparities (Ayalon & Young, 2005). General health locus of control (HLOC) helps to explain how people attribute the sources of control over their health (Masters & Wallston, 2005) and engage in help-seeking behaviors. HLOC has not been examined in SGIs because of a failure to examine group identity to account for within group differences among Black populations and a lack of culturally sensitive measurements of HLOC. The purpose of this study was to utilize a HLOC measure that included conventional and supernatural dimensions to examine the relationship between group identity, HLOC, and help-seeking in a sample of Black African and Caribbean SGIs. 157 second generation Black immigrants (72 West African and 85 Caribbean) were recruited for this study.
74 p., The purpose of this study was to validate the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) on a sample of Afro-Caribbean college students. Participants were drawn from a larger national study on culture and identity collected at 26 universities from across the United States. Students included in this sample were either born in a Caribbean country, or had one or both parents from a Caribbean country. The students completed various measures of culture and identity.
