Mental Illness Among African-Americans

This research examines the characteristics and prevalence of mental illness (psychological problems and disorders) among the African-American population component in the United States. African-Americans do not experience psychological problems that are not experienced by other ethnic and racial groups in the population of the United States; however, causal factors, prevalence, and outcomes at times are different among African-Americans than is true of other ethnic and racial population groups (Capers, 1994, pp. 57-64).

For purposes of this research, mental illness among African-Americans is discussed within the context of four phenomena. These phenomena are (1) family dysfunction, (2) chemical abuse, (3) clinical depression, and (4) psychological stress. That these phenomena are interrelated is recognized. Separate discussions, however, provides for a more orderly presentation of the material.

A variety of reasons underlie the social and psychological problems exhibited by many children in contemporary society. One of these factors is abuse perpetrated by someone in a position of trust or authority in the life of a young person (Howing, 1990, pp. 244-49). The most debilitating outcomes of abuse experienced by a young person are a loss of self-esteem, hopelessness, and depression (Ogata, 1990, pp. 1008-1013). The cycle of abuse, hopelessness, depression, and the loss of self-esteem is associated

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amilies. This approach, which is rather typical of systems theorists, does not restrict blame for child sexual abuse to the perpetrator of such abuse, but also faults victims and other family members. Barrett, Trapper, & Fish (1990, pp. 151-166), while recognizing that the systems theory approach to child abuse is blind to the societal impact of the behavior, as well as being blind to the effects on individual family members, nevertheless argue that the systemic approach to the treatment of such malfunctioning families is the most effective model. Babins (1991, pp. 103-128) analyzed child sexual abuse within a symbolic interactionist context, suggesting that such behavior fulfills different functions in different families. This approach to child abuse draws fire from critics who contend that the concept that child sexual abuse serves a functional purpose in families tends to legitimize such behavior. Within this context, Harwood and Weissberg (1992, pp. 85-113) argued that symbolic interactionism provides a framework for the development of preventive programming for psychopathology that can lead to reductions in the incidence of child abuse. Applying a symbolic interactionist approach to the assessment of child sexual abus
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3020
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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