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Relationships between trauma variables, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD), affect dysregulation, dissociation, somatization, and alexithymia were studied in 70 women with early-onset sexual abuse treated in community-based private (n = 25) or clinic outpatient settings (n = 45). Measures were the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and the Psychological Trauma Assessment Program. Compared with the community sample, the clinic sample (1) met diagnostic criteria for both lifetime and current complex PTSD; (2) showed correlations between current affect dysregulation, dissociation, and somatization with alexithymia; and (3) higher levels of alexithymia. Results suggest the clinic sample continued to experience current forms of suffering, risk, and vulnerability associated with early-onset sexual trauma. The findings may have implications regarding types of treatment available in community versus clinic settings. (Contains 2 tables.)

Examines the attitudes toward wife abuse in a sample of Muslim women and men in Canada and whether thos e attitudes were influenced by self-esteem. Reveals that Muslim women and men did not differ on levels of self-esteem, but their attitudes were related to self-esteem, and Muslim men had more lenient attitudes toward wife abuse. (CMK)

Background: Refugee groups fleeing war and violence and resettling in the West are one of the population groups that are poorly understood. Understanding their mental health challenges and providing effective and evidence-based interventions continue to be formidable challenges. Aim: This study presents a refugee mental health framework [RMHF] that was developed to address the gaps in understanding and responding to the needs of refugee populations by prioritizing their voices, and incorporating lessons learned from working with these refugee communities into the development of the framework. Method: A RMHF was developed, presented and refined with input from refugee communities, multiple stakeholders and an expert panel. Results/conclusions: This paper presents the process and finalized framework, and discusses its utility as a mapping, planning and intervention tool in supporting refugee communities with their resettlement and promoting mental wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study looked at the links between exposure to the ideal image of female beauty in western culture, and body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and mood. Media images of the ideal of female beauty were found to have an immediate effect on the mood, supporting the findings that the images have a detrimental effect and may play a part in binge eating. The study is limited as the sample was essentially nonclinical.

This study examined the relationship between thought disorder and verbal recall in schizophrenic, manic, and schizoaffective inpatients. Based on previous research, it was predicted that subjects who demonstrated only positive thought-disorder would differ from those with positive and negative thought-disorder in terms of their ability to encode short descriptive passages. Unlike controls, who were able to encode organized material better than unorganized material, neither thought-disorder group improved its encoding when the material to be remembered was more organized. Both thought-disorder groups remembered more when the material was less organized. These findings raise a number of issues with regard to the interrelationship among thought disorders, psychiatric diagnoses, and information-processing deficits.

This study compared an immigrant sample of Caribbean-Canadian women (n = 20) and a sample of women living in the Caribbean (n = 20) on the following variables: dominant domain of meaning (defined as that aspect of the participant's life from which she derives primary meaning for her sense of self); self-silencing (defined as the tendency to silence one's thoughts and feelings; Jack, 1991); and symptoms of depression. Results revealed that the Caribbean women were more likely to report relational domains of meaning as primary (e.g., family, friendships, intimate relationships), while the Caribbean-Canadian women were more likely to report domains of self-nurturance as primary (e.g., career goals, spirituality). Furthermore, univariate analysis revealed that the Caribbean-Canadian women reported higher levels of self-silencing and depressive symptoms, and derived less meaningfulness from their primary domains of meaning compared to the Caribbean women. These findings suggest that the immigrant experience may be a factor in women's emotional well-being.