While evidence has shown that professional mental health services are highly effective with treatment and symptom management, not all who need those services utilize them. Furthermore, there is evidence that certain racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups are less likely to seek or access mental health care. The Arab Muslim minority living in the US have low rates of seeking mental health services compared to other populations. An exploratory, qualitative study was conducted to understand the help-seeking behaviors of the Arab Muslim minority in the greater Boston area. This study was conducted in order better understand help-seeking behaviors of Arab Muslims in the United States; to understand the perception they hold about mental illness, its causes, and its treatments; and to identify some of the potential hindrances and facilitators of seeking formal mental health treatment. Seventeen individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with Arab Muslim laypersons, mental health professionals, and imams living in the US. Utilizing a socio-ecological approach, the study results identified factors, such as stigma and social support, that influenced help-seeking behaviors of Muslim individuals at multiple levels including the individual, interpersonal, and community level, as well as the larger environment. In addition, the

No abstract

This study examined one type of adolescent meaning making (i.e., the development of beliefs about violence) and its association with reported mental health symptoms in a sample of youth exposed to community violence. Eighty‐seven adolescents (age 11–18; 64.4% female) from a metropolitan city in the Northeast were recruited through Craigslist and recreation center postings and data collection occurred from 2009 to 2013. Participants completed self‐reported measures of community violence exposure, attitudes toward violence, and psychological symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. Bivariate correlations, hierarchical linear regressions, and mediation analyses examined the associations between exposure, beliefs about violence, and mental health symptoms. Self‐reported pro‐violence attitudes were positively correlated with depression symptoms (r = 0.32, p < 0.01) and PTSD (r = 0.45, p < 0.01). Pro‐violence attitudes significantly mediated the relationship between community violence exposure and depression symptoms (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.003–0.061) and PTSD symptoms (95% CI = 0.046–0.260). Preliminary findings suggest that meaning making through the development of pro‐violence attitudes may not protect against symptoms of PTSD and depression among youth. Findings can inform the integration of meaning making processes into community mental health interventions for youth.

No abstract