Chicana And Chicano Mental Health

Chicana and Chicano Mental Health offers a model to understand and to address the mental health challenges and service disparities affecting Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans/Chicanos. Yvette G. Flores, who has more than thirty years of experience as a clinical psychologist, provides in-depth analysis of the major mental health challenges facing these groups: depression, anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and intimate partner violence.

Spirit, mind, and heart—in traditional Mexican health beliefs all three are inherent to maintaining psychological balance. For Mexican Americans, who are both the oldest Latina/o group in the United States as well as some of the most recent arrivals, perceptions of health and illness often reflect a dual belief system that has not always been incorporated in mental health treatments. Chicana and Chicano Mental Health offers a model to understand and to address the mental health challenges and service disparities affecting Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans/Chicanos. Yvette G. Flores, who has more than thirty years of experience as a clinical psychologist, provides in-depth analysis of the major mental health challenges facing these groups: depression; anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder; substance abuse; and intimate partner violence. Using a life-cycle perspective that incorporates indigenous health beliefs, Flores examines the mental health issues affecting children and adolescents, adult men and women, and elderly Mexican Americans. Through case studies, Flores examines the importance of understanding cultural values, class position, and the gender and sexual roles and expectations Chicanas/os negotiate, as well as the legacies of migration, transculturation, and multiculturality. Chicana and Chicano Mental Health is the first book of its kind to embrace both Western and Indigenous perspectives. Ideally suited for students in psychology, social welfare, ethnic studies, and sociology, the book also provides valuable information for mental health professionals who desire a deeper understanding of the needs and strengths of the largest ethnic minority and Hispanic population group in the United States.

Mexican-Americans now constitute two thirds of what has become the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, Hispanics. They have distinct cultural patterns and values that those who seek to serve them competently as clinicians and educators, and those who attempt to study them, need to understand. This is the first comprehensive overview of the psychology of the Chicana/o experience since 1984. Solidly grounded in the latest theory and research, much of which is relevant to other Latina/o groups as well, The Handbook of Chicana/o Psychology and Mental Health is an indispensable source of up-to-date information and guidance for mental health and education professionals, their trainees and students; and for social and behavioral scientists interested in the impact of cultural differences in multicultural settings.

Chicano Psychology, Second Edition consists of five parts, separating a total of 19 chapters, beginning with a brief overview of the history of psychology, first in Spain, and then in pre-Columbian Mexico. This overview is followed by a few summary statements of the transportation of psychology from Spain to Mexico, and the eventual development of psychology as an academic discipline in modern Mexico. This edition tackles the developments within Chicano psychology. Subsequent chapters focus on foundations for a Chicano psychology, sociocultural variability, psychological disorder among Chicanos, and social psychology. Last three chapters examine bilingualism from the standpoint of several issues involving Chicanos. This book will be of interest to both scientist and student working in the areas of cross-cultural psychology, race relations, psychological anthropology, Chicano studies, and bilingual education.

Essential reading for health and mental health administrators, community agencies, and policy makers as well as students and general interest readers, this book details the state of the physical and mental health of many Latina/o American groups. While Latina/o Americans originate from more than 25 countries, most health or mental health texts largely focus on Mexican Americans and often fail to address other Latina/o groups, such as South Americans, Central Americans, Puerto Ricans, and others. Moreover, most works address either health or mental health, but not both together. In contrast, Latina/o American Health and Mental Health addresses both the health and mental health of diverse Latina/o heritage groups. An interdisciplinary approach enables readers to identify both similar and divergent areas that affect the health and mental health of Latina/o Americans. Strengths-based and social justice perspectives, rather than a deficit perspective, guide the work in its assessment of disparities among treatment for different groups. This text is ideal for graduate students, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in public health, community health, family studies, psychology, counseling, social work, and Latina/o studies who are interested in understanding Latina/o health and mental health in the United States and providing culturally responsive services.

Chicanas/os are part of the youngest, largest, and fastest growing racial/ethnic 'minority' population in the United States, yet at every schooling level, they suffer the lowest educational outcomes of any racial/ethnic group. Using a 'counterstorytelling' methodology, Tara Yosso debunks racialized myths that blame the victims for these unequal educational outcomes and redirects our focus toward historical patterns of institutional neglect. She artfully interweaves empirical data and theoretical arguments with engaging narratives that expose and analyse racism as it functions to limit access and opportunity for Chicana/o students. By humanising the need to transform our educational system, Yosso offers an accessible tool for teaching and learning about the problems and possibilities present along the Chicano/a educational pipeline.

Based on interview data, life testimonios, and Chicana feminist theories, The Chicana/o/x Dream profiles first-generation, Mexican-descent college students who have overcome adversity by utilizing various forms of cultural capital to power their academic success. While college enrollment rates for Chicana/o/x students have steadily increased over the last decade, this cohort still faces significant barriers to academic achievement, including minimal information about college and limited access to the kind of preparation and advising that will help them get there. As a result, Chicana/o/x students maintain stubbornly low four-year completion rates. Against this backdrop, Gilberto Q. Conchas and Nancy Acevedo address the mechanisms that shape the achievement, aspirations, and expectations of Chicana/o/x students who grew up in marginalized communities and unequal school contexts and share success stories about this growing population of students. Conchas and Acevedo elevate the voices of students at a research university and in the community college sector to reveal important issues and factors impacting and shaping the students' academic journeys. The college-age men and women in the narratives evince hope, resistance, and empowerment in the face of marginalization, anti-immigration sentiment, poverty, and an education system that too often reinforces deficit-minded stereotypes. The authors critique the educational policies and practices that systematically fail to champion Chicana/o/x success and examine the use of community cultural wealth that supports US-born and US immigrant students of Mexican descent to make their achievement possible. In so doing, the authors look toward the future by highlighting the actions that Chicana/o/x students take in creating bridges between K-12 to college and between their communities and higher education. The Chicana/o/x Dream helps define the heart and soul of tomorrow's America and elucidates how Chicana/o/x college students maintain hope, enact resistance, and succeed against injustice. The book offers a call to action to K-20 educators and administrators to develop better supports to foster the success of Mexican-descent students.