From Serendip

MENTAL HEALTH Materials provided here are neither intended nor suitable for individuals needing practical assistance with specific mental health problems of their own or of friends/family/colleagues. For such situations, people should contact local mental health agencies, doctors, or other health care professionals. Some access points are provided here.

Center for Science in Society

There is a important and complicated relationship between "mental health" as a biological and/or medical attribute of individuals, on the one hand, and, on the other, cultural expectations, definitions, and influences on individual behavior. Cultural factors are important in defining "mental health" and may play a role in altering the "mental health" status of individuals. In addition, changes in culture may affect the environment around individuals in a way that influences whether they are or are not seen as "healthy". The references provided here are intended to allow readers to explore all of these complex interplays between individual behavior and the social/cultural context within which it occurs and is evaluated.

• Attitudes Towards Depression Vary With Culture, January 2002
  For the first time researchers have made a systematic study of the ways in which attitudes towards depression are rooted in culture.

• Science and Society Divide European Culture, December 7, 2001
  Half of Europe is totally uninterested in science and two out of three Europeans say they are poorly informed about scientific issues, according to a survey of 16,000 individuals from the 15 nations of the European Union.

• Meeting the Needs of Ethnic Minority Children
  This paper discusses the impact of living in multicultural context on mental health and considerations that need to be made in treatment.

• The Cultural Context of Psychological Approaches to Alcoholism
  This article discusses the need for social-psychological examination of our culture's drinking dispositions at the same time that psychologists must maneuver within the reality of this cultural context in dealing with alcoholism.

• Culture and Psychopathology
  This article disucsses how cultural traditions determine, in part, how individuals view their mental and physical health. Although psychiatric disordes appear in all cultures, their form and expression may vary often in a way that is linked to cultural belief systems.

• Traditional Medical Systems and Cultural Conceptions of Psychopathology
  Asian cultures and their experience of psychopathology are examined, where indigenous medical systems' approach to psychopathology have a different orientation than the western biomedical model.

• Cultural Psychopathology: Uncovering the Social World of Mental Illness
  This article reviews cultural psychopathology research since Kleinman's (1988) important review with the goals of updating past reviews, evaluating current conceptualizations and methods, and identifying emerging substantive trends.

• Teaching the Culture of Mental Illness
  A teacher's report from his experiences teaching a class he entitled, "American Psychos and the Culture of Mental Illness."

• Medical Sociology and the Study of Severe Mental Illness: Reflections on Past Accomplishments and Directions for Future Research, 1995
  Article abstract that presents medical sociologists as having the theoretical and analytical perspective essential for developing a more complete understanding of the current conditions impacting the lives of people with severe mental disorders.

• Mental Illness Chinese Style
  This article examines the specific factors which lead to the social stigma towards mental illness in the Chinese community at large.

• The Prevalence and Cross-Cultural Validity of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  This study provides prevalence findings in different countries and cultural groups as well as information about the cross-cultural generalizability and validity of ADHD based on the results of studies carried out in widely disparate cultural settings.

• Myth, Stereotype, and Cross-Gender Identity in the DSM-IV
  The diagnostic categories of transvestic fetishism and gender identity Disorder are examined from a historical and social perspective.

• Culture-Bound Syndromes
  This thesis discusses anorexia nervosa and ADHD as culture-bound syndromes (CBS).

• Soliloquy or Psychosis? A Cultural Look at Schizophrenia
  This paper purports schizophrenia to manifest itself in a given society as a cultural category and in the persons so categorized as a condition relating to their fundamental divergence from certain kinds of "normal" cultural understandings.

• Somatisation and Somatic Neurosis: Cross Cultural Variations
  This paper supports the hypothesis that somatisation and the contextual meanings of somatic presentations are largely shaped by factors, which are specific to individual cultures.

• Sociocultural Differences in the Developmental Consequences of the use of Physical Discipline During Childhood for African Americans
  This abstract, from Culture Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2000, discusses how diverse cultures can shape parenting behavior.

• Diagnostic Issues in Cross-Cultural Settings
  This article advocates for mental health providers to view pathology and treatment from a variety of cultural perspectives as a result of the increasing numbers of ethnic groups in this country. Suggestions are made for more training and expertise in cross-cultural and multicultural issues.

• Extrordinary Claims in a Cross-Cultural Context
  This article discusses the ways in which different cultures report exceptional experiences ranging from mystical experiences, to extraordinary cognitive abilities, to paranormal functioning.

• The Uneasy Fit of the Precocious and the Average Child, March 13, 2002
  History suggests that the lives of children with prodigious intellects or extraordinary talents are rarely easy; indeed, in a world where such children stand out like Gulliver among the Lilliputians, they are often filled with difficulty.

• Health and Behavior: The Interplay of Biological, Behavioral and Societal Influences
  From NIMH,this report, the examines how behavior affects health, the current understanding of the relationships between behavior and health and of interventions to change health behaviors, and what needs to be done to further understanding of these issues.

• Pressure to Smoke Varies by Ethnicity, June 14, 2001
  A new study shows that white teenagers are more likely to take up smoking because of peer pressure. On the other hand, Hispanic and African-American adolescents may be more readily influenced by family members or societal standards.

• Stress and the Developing Brain
  From NIMH, this paper discusses how early influences act on the brain to promote or challenge the developmental process.

• APA Press release: Post-College Drinking Study
  A new study shows that while fraternity and sorority members drink a lot during their college years, their behavior doesn't necessarily foreshadow alcohol problems later in life. Behavior was impacted by socially accepted norms.

• American Society Can Cause Mental Illness, 1998
  This newspaper report discusses a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, conducted by William Vega the professor of public health at the University of California-Berkeley. The study maintains that mental health problems have a social etiology.

• Past Trauma/Invalidation as an Antecedent
  This literature review discusses the hypothesis that people who are self injurious originate from invalidating environments.

• Mental Illness and Pathways into Homelessness: Findings and Implications, 1998
  Notes from a conference called to give people an opportunity to hear about the Mental Illness and Pathways into Homelessness Project and its results, which stated that the results of homelessness is primarily a social problem, but that there are also individual factors.

• Cross-Cultural Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Review
  This paper discusses the thrust toward the development of comprehensive mental health services throughout the world to integrate the services already there, indigenous and available, with those of the imported variety.

• Socio-economic Changes and Mental Health: Setting a New Agenda for Prevention Strategies in Hong Kong
  The socio-cultural factor of the recent economic crisis in Hong Kong and its subsequent effects was determined to account for the substantial increase in percentages of depressed moods, interpersonal relationship problems and vocational difficulties found among callers of a mental health telephone counseling service.

• Causes of Eating Disorders
  Presents sociocultural factors as one of three causes of eating disorders.

• Eating Disorders and Exposure to Television
  This article summary assessed the relationship between (1) exposure to television and symptoms of eating disorders; (2) the influence of television on the choice of purchases; (3) television and the stereotype of the ideal body image.

• Anorexia Nervosa: Cause
  Discusses the various causes of anorexia nervosa and provides a link to detailed information about cultural and social factors as causes.

• Transcultural Psychiatry, Quo Vadis?
  This article discusses sociocultural factors and mental illness, with specific attention paid to schizophrenia.

• Cultural Roles and Eating Disorders
  This article discusses eating disorders among Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American sufferers, citing cultural influences as the cause.

• Children and Eating Disorders
  This page discusses several causes of eating disorders, including sociocultural and famililial factors (eating disordered mothers and their children and family context of eating disorders).

• Comparison of Features in the Evaluation of Symptomatology and Social Adjustment between Mothers and Other Family Members of Schizophrenic Patients in Japan
  This study suggests the importance of the relationship between the basic mechanism of schizophrenia and socio-cultural factors in determining patients' social outcome, and also suggests a path for therapeutic participation.

• The Role of Parental "Expressed Emotion" in Relapse of Schizophrenia
  This article disucssed the cultural transfer of the assessment factor of expressed emotion in the families of individuals with schizophrenia.

• Environmental Factors in the Etiology of Anxiety
  This chapter presents research on environmental influences in the development of anxiety and anxiety disorders is described and major models of anxiety, emphasizing exogenous factors in the etiology and maintenance of these affective states, are considered.

• Cocaine and the Concept of Addiction: Environmental Factors in Drug Compulsions
  This article advocates for the use environmental circumstances when assessing compulsive drug use.

• Parental Alcoholism as a Determinant of Drinking Styles in Their Adult Children: A Review
  This paper examines the possible biological basis and environmental factors for the familial transmission of alcoholism.

• America's Melting Pot and Treatment of ADHD
  Diagnosis and treatment of ADHD taking in to consideration cultural differences.

• Sociology of Mental Illness - Book Assignment: Nobody Nowhere
  A book review of a woman with autism and some current theories explaining autism and the sociological model of mental illness.

• Research: Social Rank is Risk Factor for Drug Use, January 26, 2002
  A new study found that social standing plays a role in determining whether a person is at risk for drug use.

• Rural Mental Health Research at the National Institute of Mental Health
  This paper discusses the special mental health needs of people in rural ares, including how poverty, geographic isolation and cultural differences hinder the amount and quality of mental health care available to people in rural areas.

• Socioeconomic Status and Depression in Life Course Perspective
  This article examines the changing influence of educational attainment and household income on depression throughout the entire adult life course.

• Contribution of Psychosocial Factors to Socioeconomic Differences in Health
  This study provides a potential menu of factors that may be playing a role in generating socioeconomic differences in health and asks where appropriate intervention points might be.

• Time Trends in Schizophrenia: Changes in Obstetric Risk Factors with Industrialization
  This article discusses the theory that the occurrence of schizophrenia may be influenced by the transition from poverty to affluence.

• Socioeconomic Status and Health:Disparities May Be Deadly
  This article discusses the evolution of research linking low socioeconomic status and poor health and suggests methods to alleviate this disparity.

• Economic Outcomes & Mental Health
  This paper discusses the relationship between economic factors and societal well-being for the United States over the post World War II period.

• Poverty Kills - In More Ways Than You Think
  Each step down the socioeconomic ladder, health is poorer on average and people die younger. Policy decisions are also significant in impacting health.

• The Clustering of Mental and Social Health Problems: Importance for Policies and Programs
  Advocates for future research to determine patterns in the common clusters of socioeconomic status and how this impacts mental illness.

• Low Socioeconomic Status and Mental Disorders
  A longitudinal study of selection and causation during young adulthood.

• Ethnicity, Social Status, and Psychiatric Disorder in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey
  This article presents the results of study assessing the relationship of race and SES to specific psychiatric disorders using data from the NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Project (ECA).

• Social, Cultural, and Clinical Dimensions of Traumatic Experiences of Primary Care Patients
  This article discusses the link between socioeconomic status and trauma-related psychiatric disorders.

• Environmental and Genetic Factors Influence Development of Psychiatric Disorders
  The research article suggests possible mediating factors in the link between low socioeconomic status and the occurrence of psychiatric disorders.

• Health and Socioeconomic Status
  This article discusses the relationship between socioeconomic status and various health and mental health issues.

• Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health
  The mission of the Network is to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms by which socioeconomic factors affect the health of individuals and their communities Program on Human and Community Development.

• Discipline Responses Influences of Parents' Socioeconomic Status, Ethnicity, Beliefs About Parenting, Stress, and Cognitive-Emotional Processes
  This research article discusses mediating factors between a family's socioeconomic status and parents' harsh discipline.

• Society for Cross-Cultural Research
  Devoted to pursuing cross-cultural research from a multidisciplinary perspective. The society includes psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, other social scientists, and members of other disciplines such as communications, business, and education.

• International Association for Cross Cultural Psychology
  IACCP facilitates communication among persons interested in a diverse range of issues involving the intersection of culture and psychology. Links to associated journals, bulletins, web sites, graduate programs and publications.

• The Center for Cross-Cultural Research
  CCCR advocates for the expansion psychology beyond the narrow cultural basis that continues to characterize much of psychology in the Western world. Activities of the center include contributions to the curriculum, research and scholarship, and publications.

• Journal of Health and Social Behavior
  From the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, this page provides links to abstracts dealing with sociological research and mental illness.

Back to Mental Health Project.

These resource lists are being maintained by Debbie Plotnick, working with Paul Grobstein, Department of Biology, and James Martin, School of Social Work and Social Research, at Bryn Mawr College. Suggestions for additions to the list are welcome, as are more general thoughts about how to most effectively make available information, and promote conversation, about issues of mental health. Contact dplotnic@brynmawr.edu - pgrobste@brynmawr.edu - jmartin@brynmawr.edu.


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