The Relationship between the Mental Health of Refugee Parents and Their Children: An Investigation of Australian Longitudinal Data.

We investigated the relationship between parent and child mental health, including parents' general psychological distress, among refugees resettled in Australia. We utilised longitudinal data from a sample (N = 602 children and 377 parents) of recently settled refugees from the Building a New Life in Australia Survey). Parent psychological distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were measured by the Kessler 6 and PTSD-8, respectively.

Cultural factors in alcohol and other drug use among immigrant youth in Western Australia: A qualitative investigation.

Objectives: Our aim was to identify the influence of heritage cultural factors and mainstream Australian cultural norms on young culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) immigrants' alcohol and other drug (AOD) use attitudes, motives for use, and behaviors.

Method: We conducted nine focus groups with 55 youth (aged 16-30; 22 female, 33 male). Participants were from diverse cultural backgrounds including India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Hazara-Afghanistan, Burma (Chin and Karen), Malaysia, Singapore, and China.

Anticipating environmental losses: Effects on place attachment and intentions to move.

Environmental change is often accompanied by non-tangible, non-economic losses, including loss of valued attributes, connection to place, and social cohesion through migration in the face of such changes. Over two studies we sought to test whether imagining the loss of valued environmental characteristics influences intentions to migrate elsewhere and/or engage in place-protective actions, and whether this can be accounted for by changes to place attachment, using the city of Perth, Western Australia as a case study. In Study 1 ( = 148) we found imagined environmental loss significantly increased intentions to move away, and significantly decreased place attachment.

Perceived diversity norms, cultural identity styles and bicultural identity consolidation in two bicultural groups in Australia.

In this study, we investigate the relationships among contextual variables of perceived diversity norms- multiculturalism, assimilation and polyculturalism, identity styles and identity consolidation in bicultural Australians. The Multicultural Identity Styles Scale proposes two identity strategies, hybrid identity style (HIS) and alternating identity style (AIS) as processes through which individuals negotiate their bicultural identities. We test a model whereby perceived diversity norms predict bicultural identity consolidation directly and indirectly via HIS in samples of British (n = 195) and non-British (n = 181) Australians.

'They're discriminated against, but so are we': White Australian-born perceptions of ingroup and immigrant discrimination over time are not zero sum.

We examined whether zero-sum thinking explains White Australian-born people's majority-culture perceptions of discrimination towards their ingroup and an outgroup (immigrants), and the relationships among perceived discrimination and support for multiculturalism and immigration. Two correlational cross-sectional studies were conducted among self-identified White Australians (Study 1, N = 517), and White Americans (Study 2, N = 273), as well as an experiment among White Australians (Study 3, N = 121) in which we manipulated discrimination towards immigrants over time. Our findings did not support a zero-sum account but revealed that perceptions of group discrimination were positively correlated: a case of 'they're discriminated against, but so are we' rather than 'if they gain, we lose'.

Perceptions of pregnancy experiences when using a community-based antenatal service: A qualitative study of refugee and migrant women in Perth, Western Australia.

Background: Equality of care in pregnancy is important for all women, however can be difficult for healthcare providers to achieve. It has been found that culturally and linguistically diverse women born overseas generally have lower satisfaction with pregnancy care than women born in the host country.

Aim: Using a phenomenological framework, and models of care as a conceptual framework, this study explored the perceptions of care experienced by refugees and migrant women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who had participated in a community-based antenatal programme specialising in maternity care of multicultural women.

Psychometric properties of multigroup ethnic identity measure (MEIM) scores with Australian adolescents from diverse ethnocultural groups.

The present study investigated the reliability and factor structure of scores on a 12-item version of Phinney's multigroup ethnic identity measure with an Australian sample from diverse cultural backgrounds. Participants were 485 students aged between 10 and 15 years. The results generally supported the reliability of the ethnic identity scale scores and suggested a two-factor structure of ethnic identity consisting of Affirmation/Belonging, and Exploration.

Use of interactive voice response (IVR) technology in health research with children.

This article reports on the feasibility of using interactive voice response (IVR) technology to obtain daily reports of attitudes toward alcohol and tobacco use among children 9-13 years of age. Two studies were conducted. The first was an investigation of the use of IVR technology to obtain daily data from a sample of primary school children over a period of 8 weeks.