A variety of mental health problems in adulthood are related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). By age 16, twothirds of children in the African American community report experiencing at least one traumatic event. The research field of ACEs is relatively young and current research accounts for less than half of ACE exposure types and their individual role in the development of mental illnesses like psychosis. Even fewer bodies of research explore cultural factors between ACEs and attenuated/subclinical psychotic symptoms. The purpose of this research was to explore how ethnic identity amongst African American young adults impacted the presentation and severity of subclinical psychotic symptoms, by way of ACE exposure. A convenience sample of 304 African American college students participated in this study. The results revealed that materialism and individualism subscales of Cultural Misorientation (CM), a measure of ethnic identity, mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and subclinical psychotic symptoms in women. No association was found in men. The results suggest that clinicians and campus counselors should be aware of social cultural factors contributing to mental attenuate/subclinical psychotic symptoms.
BackgroundSchizophrenia spectrum diagnosis is more commonly assigned to African Americans. Failing to understand and appropriately manage cultural differences will have significant mental health consequences for varied racial/ethnic groups in particular (Betancourt, Green, & Carrillo, 2002). The purpose of the present study was to examine risk factors of attenuated psychosis syndrome in a sample of African American young adults, specifically to investigate whether lack of ethnic identity and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) put an individual at a higher risk of developing attenuated psychotic symptoms.Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) as Risk Factor of APS:The Comorbidity Survey (NCS) Part 2 data showed that the effects of neglect and sexual abuse, along with physical abuse similarly put a child at risk for psychosis. People who had suffered childhood adversity were 2.8 times more likely to develop psychosis than those who had not. Studies have also begun to look at gender differences in schizophrenia by way of ACEs.Lack of Ethnic Identity as Risk Factors of APS:The African worldview reflects psychological communal, spiritual, collective survival thrust as opposed to the European worldview of individualism and materialism. Cultural Misorientation (CM) represents that foreign psychological or psychopathological disposition in the African personality, which allows African Americans to unknowingly value and participate in European cultural indoctrination through the practice of European cultural values, rituals, and customs. The purpose of this study was to explore the roles that CM play on the overall presentation of attenuated psychotic symptoms, by way of ACE exposure.MethodsParticipants: Participants included 304 African American college students, 199 (65.46%) women and 105 (34.54%) men from a Historically Black College and University in the southeastern region of the United States. Participants were between 18 and 25 years of age.InstrumentsAdverse Childhood Experiences Scale measures the association of multiple types of abuse with different types of health outcomes. Prodromal Questionnaire- Brief (PQ-B) measures the presence of negative symptoms, perceptual abnormalities such as hallucinations, and unusual thought content like delusional ideas and paranoia. Cultural Misorientation - Short Form assesses the condition of cultural misorientation across 6 subscales-- materialism orientation, individualism orientation, alien-self orientation, anti-self orientation, self-destructive orientation, and integration orientation.ResultsThe Pearson correlation analysis indicated no significant relationship (r = -.073, p = .206) between ACE exposure and APS total scores on PQ-B. However, an unexpected negative significant relationship between childhood abuse exposures and symptom severity was observed (r = -.126*, p = .028), indicating that participants who reported more instances of childhood abuse tended to report less symptom severity. In addition, Cultural Misorientation (CM) was significantly positively c...
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