Biopsychosocial Perspectives on Arab Americans: Culture, Development, and Health

The biopsychosocial study of Arab Americans yields compelling insights into innovative theoretical and applied initiatives. In the context of a growing population of Arab Americans, coupled with the current tenure of xenophobia and exposed structural racism in the US, clinical and community practitioners must be attuned to their clients of Arab ancestry, whose experiences, development, and health concerns are distinctly different than that of their White counterparts. This second edition, with its uniquely interwoven sections of culture, psychosocial development, and health and disease, provides a rich overview of timely, critical topics. The audience for the text includes counselors, social workers, psychologists, nurses, psychiatrists, sociologists, and any other public and mental health practitioners, researchers, and policy makers who work with and on behalf of clients and patients of Arab descent. The authors represent a team of leading experts spanning disciplines of sociology, clinical mental health, and community public health. 

"This edition draws on leading experts in Arab American health and sociology who document the complexity of this population's immigration and acculturation experience. It offers critical and current research that speaks to the centrality of context and diversity in treating Americans of Arab descent. Contributors explore the complex and limited racial framework within which Arabs in the U.S. form their identities, and the impact of structural racism on their lives and health. This collection offers practitioners much needed insights on a population often hidden or rendered invisible by data limitations, and yet misrepresented by cultural stereotypes."

 

Helen Hatab Samhan, Former Executive Director, Arab American Institute/Foundation.

 

"Nassar, Ajrouch, Hakim-Larson, and Dallo’s breakthrough work in the area of culturally competent health care has been inspiring across interdisciplinary fields and to the communities they serve. Their work on Arab American health issues, in particular, has greatly improved clinical practice at the community and national levels. I heartily recommend taking the time to become familiar with their important body of work and this latest text."

Ismael Ahmed, Former Michigan State Director of Health and Human Services.

Sylvia C. Nassar, PhD is Professor of Counselor Education at North Carolina State University. Her predominant areas of focus over the past decades have included ethnic, gender, and career development, and the intersection thereof. A consistent thread has been her commitment to communities of Arab descent, ensuring that their voices are heard within dominant discourses of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Dr. Nassar was one of the co-authors of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies, and many of her current initiatives apply the MSJCC across a variety of contexts, through which she increasingly connects her ethical practice, research, and policy efforts.

 

Kristine J. Ajrouch, PhD is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University and Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Her research has focused, for over twenty years, on Arab Americans beginning with ethnic identity formation among adolescent children of immigrants followed by a focus on aging and health.  Dr. Ajrouch’s current work addresses social aspects of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) where she is leading efforts to establish prevalence levels of AD among Arab Americans as well as adapt an AD caregiver intervention program to meet the needs of Arab American families.   

 

Florence J. Dallo, PhD, MPH is professor and associate dean of the School of Health Sciences at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Since 1996, she has used national, regional, state, hospital and community data to better understand and improve the health of the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) in Michigan and beyond. Given that MENA individuals do not have their own racial or ethnic “check-box”, Professor Dallo has matched a MENA surname list with data bases to obtain more valid and reliable estimates of health conditions and behaviors than would be available otherwise.

 

Julie Hakim-Larson, Ph.D. obtained her doctorate in life-span developmental psychology from Wayne State University in 1984 and postdoctoral training in Clinical Child Psychology. She has been on the faculty of the University of Windsor since 1991 and is a Professor of Clinical Psychology (Child Track). Her interests include emotional development, developmental psychopathology, the history of psychology, and mental health and culture.  Dr. Hakim-Larson’s research interest has focused on the mental health and overall well-being of individuals and families of Arab and Middle Eastern origin. In 2013, Dr. Hakim-Larson organized an international study group on Arab youth identity funded by the Society for Research in Child Development and collaborated in organizing an international symposium on Arab youth identity funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  Dr. Hakim-Larson’s publications and current research interests include culture and emotional development within a global perspective, emotion in families, Arab ethnic identity in North America, and the promotion of mental health in Arab immigrants and refugees.