Empirical research has shown that exposure to race-related stressors in the military by Asian American Pacific Islander Vietnam veterans, now reliably measurable, contributes uniquely and significantly to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and generalized psychiatric distress; moreover, studies reveal that adverse race-related events can meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. Competence in treating PTSD or general psychiatric distress requires understanding the types of, and effects of, adverse race-related events experienced by ethnic minority veterans. Case studies highlight two types of race-related stressors—“bicultural identification and conflict” and “racial stigmatization”—which placed the veteran at greater risk of death and reduced cohesion with fellow service members. The studies demonstrate the presence of race-related stressors in one or more of the four major types of war zone stressors: traditional combat, atrocities-abusive violence, perceived threat, and malevolent environment. These case studies supplement the empirical findings on race-related stressors and PTSD, enlarging the clinician's understanding of this unique type of mental health risk factor.

Treatment for symptoms arising from exposure to adverse race-related events is critical to culturally competent healthcare delivery to ethnic minorities, particularly in light of recent findings demonstrating significant relationships between adverse race-related events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and general psychiatric distress. This article offers a developmental model consisting of stages by which psychological symptoms develop in response to race-related stressors in the military. This article also describes a model of group treatment for ethnic minority veterans related to psychological symptoms arising from exposure to race-related stressors. Both models were used in a race-related support group for Pacific Islander Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. A combined approach of group intervention, psychosocial education, identity reframing, cognitive differentiation, and cognitive restructuring, which included 'depersonalizing discrimination' and rejection of faulty beliefs, appear to offer an effective approach to treating psychological sequelae arising from adverse race-related events. This article offers an intervention model that is linked to a developmental model of race-related stressors for Asian American Pacific Islander minority personnel in the military.

There were a lot of places in Nam that were similar to places in Guam. There were fruits like sweet sap, sour sap, bananas, naturally sweet potatoes, all kinds of things that they had there. I could have just walked into Vietnam and stayed there and lived off their diet.We go down to the PX and pick us up some corned beef and onions, come back, cook our own food. And they [white GIs] come down and tell us, [imitating voice] “You're eating gook food.” [We'd reply] “What do you mean gook food? This came out of the PX. What are you talking about?”

Few studies have explored the relationship between exposure to adverse race-related events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study examined whether adverse race-related events can give rise to symptoms that meet the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis as specified in the DSM-IV. Three hundred Asian American Vietnam veterans were administered a Mississippi Scale and a questionnaire that assessed exposure to adverse race-related events in the military and associated PTSD symptoms. A subsample was administered the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. A majority of the participants (77%) reported exposure to adverse race-related events. Depending on the number of events to which they were exposed, between 13% and 36% reported symptoms consistent with meeting full criteria for PTSD. Mississippi Scale scores increased significantly as a function of frequency of exposure to adverse race-related events. These results converge with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale findings to demonstrate that adverse race-related events can be traumatic and associated with PTSD. These findings support the construct and convergent validity of race-related PTSD.

This article describes the development and validation of the Race-Related Stressor Scale (RRSS), a questionnaire that assesses exposure to race-related stressors in the military and war zone. Validated on a sample of 300 Asian American Vietnam veterans, the RRSS has high internal consistency and adequate temporal stability. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that exposure to race-related stressors accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and general psychiatric symptoms, over and above (by 20% and 19%, respectively) that accounted for by combat exposure and military rank. The RRSS appears to be a psychometrically sound measure of exposure to race-related stressors for this population. Race-related stressors as measured by the RRSS appear to contribute uniquely and substantially to PTSD symptoms and generalized psychiatric distress.

This article addresses theoretical principles and clinical descriptions of the phenomenon of race-related stress and trauma experienced by Asian American Vietnam veterans. A conceptual model of race-based stress is presented, comprised of five principles, by which to understand mental health difficulties that can arise in regard to race-based stressors. The model describes (a) the relationship between life threat and physical similarity to the "enemy," (b) the relationship between fear and prejudice, (c) dehumanization as it impacts race hate and combat indoctrination, (d) additive life threat related to exploitation of one's physical similarity to the "enemy," and (e) race-based remorse. The article delineates factors affecting treatment seeking and disclosure of race-based stresses, guidelines for interviewing veterans about race-related events and ethnic self-worth, and the harmful effects of race hate.

This article presents a conceptual framework by which to understand race-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the Asian American Vietnam veteran. The framework draws from cognitive schema theory, social behaviorism, the notion of cumulative racism as trauma, and the assumption that bifurcation and negation of one's bicultural identity is injurious. Classifications of race-related stress or trauma that may be experienced by Asian American Vietnam veterans, with exemplifying clinical case material, are presented. These types of stressors include being mistaken for Vietnamese, verbal and physical assaults that are race-related, death and near-death experiences that are race-related, racial stigmatization, dissociation from one's Asian identity, and marginalization. As studies of combat trauma and sexual assault forced the psychological stresses attendant to war and sexist oppression into public consciousness, so this article addresses psychological stress and trauma attendant to racism.

This article presents a clinical model that integrates classic victimization symptoms with multiple treatment interventions into a coherent process of recovery. The model serves to reduce the fragmentation of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) literature, clarify existing treatment modalities in terms of their respective contributions to recovery, and suggest principles underlying the sequencing and/or concurrence of specific interventions for trauma due to intentional, external human design (PTSD-IHD). Parallels are made between symptoms experienced by Vietnam veterans with PTSD and those of Japanese Americans who were interned in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. The psychologically relevant historic and self-help events that preceded and included the Japanese American redress movement elucidate the clinical model.

The purpose of this survey was to examine the extent to which community psychology has committed itself to one of its original missions: to foster cultural relativity and diversity. Content analyses were conducted of all articles published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, Community Mental Health Journal, and the Journal of Community Psychology from the journals' inception through 1985. Of all articles published, 13% furthered the goals of cultural diversity, and 86% did not. Further breakdown revealed that 5.5% of the articles were on a single U.S. ethnic minority group, 5% compared an ethnic minority group(s) to Whites, 2% were on an international cultural group, and .5% compared two or more ethnic minority groups to each other. Compared to CMHJ, a higher proportion of articles published in AJCP and JCP were devoted to cultural diversity. Greater attention has been given to the study of Blacks and Hispanics/Puerto Ricans than to Asian Americans or Native Americans. For all journals combined, there was an overall increase in the proportion of articles devoted to cultural diversity and ethnicity over time. Still, 5% to 11% was considered short of the proportion of ethnic minorities in the United States (over 20%), leading the researchers to conclude that progress has been made, but more needs to be done.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsChalsa M. LooChalsa M. Loo is associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Garry Rolison is a Predoctoral Fellow in Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.Garry RolisonChalsa M. Loo is associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Garry Rolison is a Predoctoral Fellow in Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The aims of this study were (1) to test theories related to neighborhood satisfaction and safety and (2) to address planning and policy questions raised by a proposal for controls on development in San Francisco's Chinatown. Findings of an interview sample survey supported the urban scale, compositional, quality of local conditions, and urban anonymity perspectives. Results revealed a relationship between high population density/commercial development and lowered levels of neighborhood satisfaction as well as a relationship between increased building density and lesser feelings of safety in one's neighborhood. Increased development would be expected to exacerbate undesirable environmental qualities of the area and potentially destroy the ethnic enclave nature of the community. The margin of "affordable error" was judged to be small given the following factors: (1) lack of alternatives for this low income, nonmobile, immigrant, and Chinese monolingual population, (2) lower level of neighborhood satisfaction among Chinatown residents than U.S. residents overall, and (3) the greater neighborhood satisfaction experienced by the older, poorer, and nonaspiring and those whose neighboring relations constitute a form of community.

This study sought to test the validity of assumptions made regarding multilingual electoral ballot provisions. In addition, the study sought to determine if rationale for multilingual ballot provisions exist on the basis of factors related to language shift. Special, but not exclusive, attention was given to the Chinese language minority group. Empirical support for assumptions made by English-only advocates was found lacking. Rationale for language assistance was found to exist on the basis of number and proportion of recent immigrants, proportion of foreign born, lag of biliterate skill behind bilingual ability, linguistic differences between the Chinese language and English, and the discriminatory structure of the labor market.

This article examines crowding in San Francisco's Chinatown and the attitudes and perceptions of its residents, using self-reported interview survey data. The objectives of the study were to test the validity of conjectures prevalent in the literature about the Chinese and crowding, to test Wirth's theory that crowding is related to psychological stress and social conflict, and to provide a fuller understanding of the nature of crowding and of density. Findings were contrary to the beliefs held about Chinese attitudes toward crowding; Chinatown residents evaluated crowding as undesirable and harmful. Personal effects of crowding included environmental health problems, social conflict, and psychological stress. Simultaneously, for a disadvantaged population, Wirth's theory was supported. Also, cultural background and environmental referent significantly predicted perceived crowding at the neighborhood level but did not affect perceptions of crowding at the dwelling level. Perceptions of dwelling crowding were instead heavily influenced by objective indices, that is, number of persons and number of rooms. Findings suggested that extended exposure to crowding breeds greater dislike for crowding at the micro level and that crowding in a primary environment is deemed more undesirable than crowding in a secondary environment.

Minority women of lower income urban communities potentially have much to gain from a mass movement that attempts to win for all women social and economic equality in this country, but integration of these women into the current women's movement is difficult for many reasons. These two apparently paradoxical realitiesthe potential for gains and the lack of integrationare touched on in the few pieces that exist in the literature. On the one hand, Almquist (1975) presents data documenting similar attitudes held by black women and white women with regards to issues of abortion rights, decent treatment for AFDC families, quality day care, equal pay, fair employment practices, impartiality in the granting of credit, and the recognition of the value and dignity of houseworkgoals that benefit all women, white or black. On the other hand, personal accounts of several Third World feminists speak of their non-integration into the women's movement. Davenport (1981) addresses the exclusion of black women in the movement, pointing to racism as the cause. Yamada (1981) speaks of disillusionment among Asian Pacific American women in regard to the middle-class focus of the movement, its inattention to racism and its tendency to treat minority women according to racial stereotypes. Lastly Moschkovich (1981) contends that lack of knowledge about other cultures is one basis for cultural oppression of whites over women of color and holds all women responsible for the transformation of this ignorance.