No abstract

Poverty is the single largest social determinant of health and a major precipitator of emotional distress and mental illness. Deep poverty, which designates those living in the bottom half of the poverty level, produces disproportionately adverse effects on education, work opportunities, physical and mental health, social support, and overall success and well-being, such that the cycle of deep poverty is frequently perpetuated through intergenerational susceptibility. Because of the highly complex, multifaceted nature of deep poverty, the most optimal way to address deep poverty-related issues is to use an integrated approach across multiple levels of interventions. We provide a review of current deep poverty literature and present evidence-based approaches for clinicians to consider integrating into their practices across psychobehavioral, psychosocial, psychobiological, psycho-environmental, and psycho-societal levels. In addition, given the cyclical relationship between deep poverty and mental health, the benefits of broadening the current diagnostic nomenclature to differentiate between psychological and social situational triggers in maladaptive functioning are briefly discussed.

Cultural humility, as part of a therapist’s multicultural orientation, can help facilitate a strong working alliance with clients across diverse cultural backgrounds. Given that little research has attended to how the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and religion/spirituality (R/S) influence counseling dyads, we tested the factor structure and provided evidence for the reliability and construct validity of the Cultural Humility Scale (CHS) with a sample of R/S diverse women of color ( N = 288). To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the factor structure of the CHS with such a sample. We utilized a confirmatory factor analysis that revealed the original theoretical model and two-factor structure of the CHS yielded acceptable fit to the data and all items significantly loaded on their respective factors. Moreover, CHS scores had strong positive associations with client perceptions of therapists’ multicultural competencies and feminist orientation. No mean differences in perceptions of therapist cultural humility were found by R/S or racial/ethnic identity. Implications for research, theory, and clinical practice are discussed.

This article addresses important aspects of and strategies for social justice advocacy in mental health care across consumer, community, educational, and policy domains. Social justice advocacy is intentional and sustained action intended to influence public policy outcomes, with and/or on behalf of a vulnerable individual, group, community, or the public at large. The paper presents a series of policy and advocacy levels of change, which may be used to promote social justice among individuals with mental health disorders with an emphasis on how psychologists can be valuable in these efforts. These social justice advocacy approaches are presented in a 3-level bio/socioecological framework at the micro, meso, and macro levels based on Bronfenbrenner's theoretical model.

Though findings are mixed, collective action engagement has been shown to be positively associated with greater academic success, social support, political efficacy, and well-being with racially marginalized individuals. Despite these findings, however, investigations of collective action engagement with Black American adult women within psychological science are scarce. Consistent with Black feminist thought, the construct of resistance may provide a necessary expansion to include all the ways that Black women actively work to transform their communities toward justice, beyond collective action. To ascertain the breadth and scope of psychological research related to Black women’s resistance (i.e., collective action engagement) to interpersonal discrimination and structural oppression, in this systematic review and content analysis we sought to identify participants’ and scholars’ definitions of resistance, as well as thematic dimensions and specific strategies of resistance. Additionally, we sought to determine the outcomes of resistance that have been assessed and the degree to which psychological health and well-being have been examined as an outcome of resistance within the literature. Findings from the analysis suggest the need for future examinations of the specific influence of Black American women’s collective action engagement and resistance to oppression on their well-being. Additionally, the findings of this review may have important implications for Black women’s well-being and as such, we discuss resistance work as a therapeutic intervention that can be encouraged by therapists, healers, community leaders, and educators.