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Journal Article 1: Muller, H. A., Brewer, T. A., Patel, S. G., & Desai, D. (2019). A qualitative exploration of parental separation and coping: Attachment disruptions among newcomer immigrant adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research.

Abstract: Qualitative interview data were used to explore parental separation and coping strategies among newcomer immigrant adolescents. Participants included 58 newcomer immigrant adolescents from 21 countries of origin. Authors used archival data from students enrolled in two public high schools in a large northeastern city in the United States that exclusively serve international students. The qualitative data were collected from an in-depth semi-structured interview. Interviews were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach with Lazarus and Folkman’s model of coping as the initial framework to identify key themes. Qualitative analysis explored two themes of coping strategies, emotion-focused and problem-focused; subtheme analysis identified six distinct emotion-focused and four distinct problem-focused strategies. A chi-square test of independence showed no significant difference in use of coping strategies between participants who had been separated from their families compared with those who had not. Findings suggest that the types of coping strategies newcomer immigrant adolescents use may be highly influenced by a multitude of individual and environmental factors. Results support the need for interventions that bolster culturally congruent coping strategies such as social support and activity engagement.

Journal Article 2: Pournaghash-Tehrani, S. S., Zamanian, H., & Amini-Tehrani, M. (2019). The impact of relational adverse childhood experiences on suicide outcomes during early and young adulthood. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Abstract: This study aimed at investigating the degree to which relational adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) would affect suicide outcomes during early and young adulthood of Iranian female and male students. In all, 487 undergraduate students (59.2% females) with a mean age of 20.66 ± 1.42 were recruited using a multistage clustering sampling method from eight schools from the fields of humanities, engineering, and basic sciences. Suicide Behavior Questionnaire–Revised form (SBQ-R) was employed for assessing past year suicidal ideation (PYSI, once or more), the meaningful likelihood of future suicide (mLoFS, a score of 2 or more), and suicide risk (SR ≥7). Relational ACEs were assessed in the form of a yes/no question, including caregivers’ maltreatment, household relational dysfunction, family loss events, school events, and sexual abuse. Analyses were conducted using Fisher’s exact test, chi-square test, and univariate binary logistic regression. The rates of PYSI, LoFS, and SR were, respectively, 37.2%, 44.6%, and 30.8%. The most experienced event was witnessing verbal violence (68.8%) and the least was divorce/separation (6.2%). All the events and domains (except family loss events), the interaction of domains, and cumulative events significantly increased the odds of suicide outcomes, in which females were more affected by all types of relational ACEs. Students whose ethnicity was Azari & Turk and who were studying in humanities or basic sciences showed a higher suicide risk than their counterparts. The study showed that the rates of relational ACEs and suicide outcomes were remarkable, in Iran. Because of the detrimental effects of relational ACEs on suicidality, mostly for females, it is necessary to improve the initiatives promoting child protection and legal support for health professionals to address child abuse. There is also an urgent need for providing young students with supports and effective interventions.