Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Research has shown that members of racial and ethnic minority groups experience greater cumulative stress burden. Because a high cumulative stress burden increases the likelihood of mental health disorders, community health coaches trained in techniques to help community members manage stress more effectively could be an important step toward improving mental health in minority populations. As a pilot project, we invited individuals from organizations representing five minority populations to receive training in Mind–Body Bridging (MBB), a mindfulness approach that teaches skills to calm the mind and relax the body. Participants included community health coaches, organizational leaders, and community members. Surveys of quality of life and self-efficacy were conducted at the beginning and completion of training, and at 9 months following completion. A focus group was also held at training completion to solicit perceptions of the usefulness of MBB among the participants’ respective communities. Eleven participants completed the training. Overall, participants reported regular use of MBB techniques to manage their own stress and showed some moderate improvements in both quality of life and self-efficacy. MBB was generally perceived to be a useful tool for community health coaches, with perceived strengths including the ease of teaching it to others and increased ability to empower community members to handle their own problems more efficiently. Next steps include longitudinal tracking of the coaches’ use of MBB as a coaching tool and monitoring outcomes among the community members receiving the coaching.
Eve teasing was identified as a significant community problem through a community-based participatory process with nine villages in Punjab, India. Eve teasing is a common euphemism in South Asia for sexual harassment of women in public areas by men. The purpose of this study was to characterize the meaning of eve teasing in the rural context, especially among female youth, and to develop a means to measure its occurrence. Mixed methods were utilized including focus group discussions (FGDs), semistructured interviews, and direct observation of questionnaire administration. Thirty-four people participated in six FGDs; two with adolescent boys (n = 10), two with adolescent girls (n = 15), and two with women ages 20 to 26 years (n = 9). Eighty-nine females, ages 14 to 26 years, were recruited through purposive sampling for face-to-face interviews in homes and schools. Twenty-four interviews were observed directly to aid questionnaire development. Eve teasing was described as staring, stalking, passing comments, and inappropriate physical touch. Perceived consequences of eve teasing included tight restrictions on girls’ mobility, inability to attend school or work, girls being blamed, and causing family problems. FGD participants suggested that eve teasing can lead to depression and suicide. Among the 36 (40.4%) interview participants who reported eve teasing, 61.1% reported feelings of anger, 47.2% reported feelings of shame or humiliation, and more than one third reported feelings of fear, worry, or tension. The questionnaire offers a means to assess the occurrence of eve teasing that is culturally relevant and age appropriate for female youth in India.