We are proud to introduce the second class of the AAPA Graduate Leadership Institute, a two-day intensive training program designed to expand the leadership pipeline for students in the Asian American Psychological Association. The second GLI in 2019 helps develop leadership among graduate students through their meaningful participation in AAPA, while receiving support and mentorship from AAPA leaders. The program this year takes place on 10/3 – 4 in San Diego, California.
August 5, 2019
As our nation repeatedly finds itself grieving the violent murders of innocent people, AAPA members join our fellow Americans in mourning. As a community of immigrants, refugees, and people of color, we also feel the violent and rising impact of hate and intolerance targeting us and our community. In 2018, the Southern Poverty Legal Center documented 1,020 organized hate groups in the United States and reported that incidents of hate crimes is on the rise nationwide.
As mental health professionals, we know the data demonstrates that these mass killings are not due to mental illness.
We are thankful to APA President Dr. Rosie Phillips Davis for her statement emphasizing the unfounded and stigmatizing impact of blaming mass shooting on those with mental illness.
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/08/statement-shootings
We also know the data and research does not support video games as causation for mass violence.
Today marked the 7th anniversary of the cowardly hate attack upon the Oak Creek Sikh Gurdwara, which the community has chosen to commemorate in a spirit of chardi kala, relentless optimism in the face of hardship. Despite the dangers and painful losses of recent mass shootings and hate crimes againts innocente, we must join in the Sikh example to continue efforts to strengthen community despite hate.
http://sikhtempleofwisconsin.com/
We are in this together, and every voice and contribution adds to our strength as a united nation and as mental health professionals dedicated to the care and safety of all.
What can you do? It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the pace at which alarming and hateful events have been occurring.
Please take the time to seek support within your communities and take any small action which is feasible for your given situation. This is by no means an exhaustive list of organizations and resources, and we encourage you to share additional ideas and links with all AAPA members.
Contact your local elected officials. Ask them to vote in support of the Olsen and Beyer NO HATE Act, which aims at improving reporting of hate crimes and increasing assistance to victims.
https://olson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/olson-and-beyer-introduce-bipartisan-no-hate-act
Donate to reputable organizations that work to combat hate organizations and to support victims or address gun safety
https://www.giftofourwounds.com/donate
https://www.nctsn.org/resources/parent-guidelines-helping-youth-after-recent-shooting
Donate directly to communities impacted by gun violence
https://onepulsefoundation.org/
https://www.daytonfoundation.org/dayton_oregon_district_tragedy_fund.html
Write an op-ed article for your local media outlets
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/write-op-ed
Share resources for coping with your communities:
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/10/mass-shootings
We are also asking for AAPA members with multi-lingual abilities to let us know of their willingness to volunteer in assisting with translation or creation of coping resources or documents to disseminate to our community members in ethnic enclaves who may benefit from such information in their first languages.
Please respond to your AAPA Executive Committee if you would like to contribute your skills to this endeavor.
http://aapaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2018-Annual-EC-report-_12.19.18_Full-FINAL.pdf
Special thanks to Secretary-Historian, Gloria Wong-Padoongpatt, Dieu Truong, and Vicky Ho for compiling the Annual Report!
The mission of AAPA is to advance the mental health and well-being of Asian American communities. In response to community and world events, AAPA has found it necessary to ally with other communities, as it is impossible to function as an ethical body if we speak solely about issues of health and policy that directly impact Asian Americans or behavioral and mental health professionals. AAPA is committed to the promotion of health and equity for the benefit of all, particularly those most vulnerable. As an organization whose members are comprised of immigrants and descendants of immigrants, we are particularly pained by the events witnessed at the southern U.S. border, which reveals breaches in international standards for children’s rights (https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx).
Decades of psychological research on child and caregiver attachment unequivocally demonstrate the crucial role of attachment in child health and well-being. In particular, disrupted caregiver attachment for children under age 5 contributes to lifelong negative developmental consequences. The psychological impact of family separation policies as well as inhumane detention conditions is causing needless and irreparable harm to migrant children. Prolonged exposure to the stressors of such conditions can cause both short and long term health consequences (https://www.srcd.org/policy-media/statements-evidence/separating-families).
AAPA is a non-partisan organization that promotes mental health; this includes the welfare of children. We advocate for a world that supports health and ethical practices. This mission is even more urgent when those enduring harm are children who are unable to care for themselves—children who are separated from their adult caregivers and without the supervision of qualified pediatric and psychological experts. We stand firmly with other professional organizations (such as the American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Social Workers) against family separation as a matter of policy within the asylum process. In addition to the negative impact upon individual children and families, current policies threaten overall public health as explained by the American Public Health Association.
As a member organization of the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans, AAPA recommends the rejection of an enforcement-only approach to immigration. Such an approach only results in anti-immigrant initiatives, scapegoating of refugees, harmful family separations, and increased vulnerability of survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and other crimes.
What can we do to help?
Speak Up.
Write an op-ed in your local paper, or send an email to your member of Congress about your concerns.
You can call your representatives as well- 202-224-3121 and the switchboard will connect you to your local representatives.
Ask to end the zero tolerance inhumane policies punishing families for seeking asylum.
Call upon the Federal Government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Demand the appropriate use and maintenance of data to facilitate reunification of separated children and caretakers.
Share behavioral health facts and concerns within your personal and professional circles.
Act locally.
Volunteers are not allowed in detainment centers, but you can find out about your local refugee resettlement agencies and what they need here:
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/state-programs-annual-overview
Support Civil Rights
ACLU’s national site: https://www.aclu.org/action
We call upon AAPA members to share their regional resources and allied programs as well.
Asian American Journal of Psychology | June 2019 Issue
Feature Article & Table of Contents
FEATURE ARTICLE:
Racist Experiences, Openness to Discussing Racism, and Attitudes toward Ethnic Heritage Activities: Adoptee-Parent Discrepancies
by Langrehr, Kimberly J.; Morgan, Sydney K.; Ross, Jessica; Oh, Monica; and Chong, Wen Wen.
AAPA would like to congratulate the authors for being chosen as the Feature Article of the June 2019 issue. Below is a brief biography of the lead author, Dr. Kimberly Langrehr, and some reflections on this research experience. We hope that the readers of AAJP will find this Feature and the rest of the issue’s articles to be informative and of benefit to their work. The Feature Article may be downloaded for free here, and the June issue’s Table of Contents is at the end of this post.
Brief Biography of Dr. Kimberly Langrehr
Kimberly Langrehr is an Associate Professor in the Division of Counseling and Educational Psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago and her undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Langrehr’s research focuses on the context of socialization for post-modern families, implications of transnational adoption throughout the lifespan, and consciousness transformation. At UMKC, Dr. Langrehr also serves as the Director of Training for the Doctoral Program in Counseling Psychology and teaches courses in Pluralistic Counseling, Counseling Methods, and Prevention and Consultation in Community Settings.
Reflections from the Lead Author
This project represents several firsts for me, which mostly center on collecting dyadic data and using hierarchical linear modeling as the primary data analysis. In particular, collecting data from both adoptees as well as from their parents was certainly time consuming and at times, quite complicated. In addition, up until this project, I hadn’t been involved in research on teens (minors) since I was in graduate school. Ultimately, I am fortunate for the assistance that I received from the family organizations that took part of this project. The success of this study reflects the importance of maintaining collaborative and working relationships with the communities that are at the center of our research.
AAJP VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 | TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Articles available on APA PsycNET]
FEATURE ARTICLE: Racist experiences, openness to discussing racism, and attitudes toward ethnic heritage activities: Adoptee–parent discrepancies.
Langrehr, Kimberly J.; Morgan, Sydney K.; Ross, Jessica; Oh, Monica; Chong, Wen Wen.
Internalized racial oppression as a moderator of the relationship between experiences of racial discrimination and mental distress among Asians and Pacific Islanders.
Garcia, Gabriel M.; David, E. J. R.; Mapaye, Joy C.
Feeling good—and feeling bad—Affect social problem solving: A test of the broaden-and-build model in Asian Americans.
Wu, Kaidi; Chang, Edward C.
Acculturation and patriarchal beliefs among Asian American young adults: A preliminary investigation.
Yoon, Eunju; Cabirou, Latifat; Bhang, Cecile; Galvin, Sarah.
Peer victimization and the perpetual foreigner stereotype on Sikh American adolescents’ mental health outcomes: The moderating effects of coping and behavioral enculturation.
Do, Kieu Anh; Wang, Cixin; Atwal, Kavita.
“I’m not White, I have to be pretty and skinny”: A qualitative exploration of body image and eating disorders among Asian American women.
Javier, Sarah J.; Belgrave, Faye Z.
Mental illness stigmas in South Asian Americans: A cross-cultural investigation.
Chaudhry, Tahani; Chen, Stephen H.
School-based mental health for Asian American immigrant youth: Perceptions and recommendations.
Arora, Prerna G.; Algios, Alexa.
Context diversity predicts the extent to which the American identity is implicitly associated with Asian Americans and European Americans.
Devos, Thierry; Sadler, Melody.
#YouToo?
Hall, Christine C. Iijima.
For more information on AAJP: http://aapaonline.org/publications/asian-american-journal-of-psychology/.
Contact: Chu Y. Kim-Prieto, Ph.D., Incoming Editor, AAJP kim@tcnj.edu