Associations Between Primary Residence and Mental Health in Global Marginalized Populations

Abstract

Scholars suggest that marginalized people in non-urban areas experience higher distress levels and fewer psychosocial resources than in urban areas. Researchers have yet to test whether precise proximity to urban centers is associated with mental health for marginalized populations. We recruited 1733 people who reported living in 45 different countries. Participants entered their home locations and completed measures of anxiety, depression, social support, and resilience. Regression and thematic analyses were used to determine what role distance from legislative and urban centers may play in mental health when marginalized people were disaggregated. Greater distance from legislative center predicted higher anxiety and resilience. Greater distance from urban center also predicted more resilience. Thematic analyses yielded five categories (e.g., safety, connection) that further illustrated the impact of geographic location on health. Implications for community mental health are discussed including the need to better understand and further expand resilience in rural areas.

Internalized homophobia and social well-being among Black sexual minority men living with HIV: The mediating role of LGBT community connectedness and racial, gender, and sexual identity integration.

“…While the specific identities of participants in this study contribute to the novelty and usefulness of its findings (e.g., inclusion of participants who simultaneously experience oppression at the intersection of racism, heterosexism, and HIV-based stigma), the sample size obtained in this study was small which limits our statistical power and the generalizability of these findings to other populations (Etz & Arroyo, 2015). For instance, future research might seek to replicate these results with Black sexual minority men living with HIV in rural or politically conservative regions of the United States where they may contend with different risk and protective factors (Knutson et al, 2023; Reif et al, 2019) or reduced access to LGBTQ+-affirming mental healthcare (Pryor et al, 2023). Future studies could also test the association of other variables which align with facets of social well-being as identified by Keyes (1998), such as social contribution (i.e., one’s sense of having something valuable to offer the world), social coherence (i.e., one’s concern for understanding world events), and social actualization (i.e., one’s evaluation of the potential trajectory of society).…”

Unraveling substance abuse among Malawian street children: A qualitative exploration

“…Despite receiving much low attention [17], especially among the marginalized groups [21], [22,23] substance use problems are on the rise not only in the US [24] but globally [25][26][27][28][29] as well as in many low-developed countries [23,30] it is not all the members of the marginalized groups that develop substance abuse [31]. Drugs and medicine use can be induced by cultural, religious, and traditional medicinal use as in home remedies and economic pressures where the vulnerable and underprivileged service such drugs to cope with energy demands in their jobs [32] and to evade harsh realities of life [17,33,34].…”