Andrew Rasmussen
Biographic Data
| ID | 97758 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Rasmussen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Rasmussen |
| SIGNATURE | RASMUSSEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Fordham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9149-4795 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 374 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Sociopolitical Events in the Home Country and Psychological Distress among Iranian Immigrants in the United States
Assessing the Impact of an RPP on a Large Urban School District
This study analyzes the impact of the Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFÉCS) Research Practice Partnership (RPP) on the Chicago Public School (CPS) Office of Computer Science (OCS). Using a qualitative analysis drawing on data from leadership team meetings, published articles and presentations, and evaluation reports from 11 years of the partnership, we utilized a framework developed by the CAFÉCS leadership team to document the…
Body mass index mediates the direct association of subjective social status and hypertension in a fulani west African immigrant sample
The inverse association between social status and hypertension (HTN) often observed in native-born populations may not hold among immigrants from regions where larger bodies are markers of success. Qualitative evidence suggests that many African immigrant groups view larger body size as a marker of social status. The present study examined the relationships between subjective social status, body mass index (BMI), and HTN in a cross-sectional, com…
Understanding the disparate PTSD prevalence for U.S. and Mexico via social comparison effect types that inform perception of trauma difficulty
These preliminary findings provide support to consider patients' social context as it informs their perception of their capacity to cope, which may maintain PTSD. Future research is needed to determine whether perceptions of trauma difficulty are stable over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Treatment Decision-Making Preferences of Older Depressed Minority Primary Care Patients
The impact of parental trauma, parenting difficulty, and planned family separation on the behavioral health of West African immigrant children in New York City
Findings suggest that children of immigrants recovering from trauma are at risk of exhibiting behavioral symptoms and highlight a potential intervention target for improving child outcomes in immigrant families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
A validation study of the Zanmi Lasante Depression Symptom Inventory (ZLDSI) in a school-based study population of transitional age youth in Haiti
Study findings support that the ZLDSI has clinical utility for screening for depression among school-going transitional age youth
Development of the Bereavement and Interpersonal Domains codebook
We describe the development of an empirically-derived codebook for qualitative data concerning the impact of grief on the interpersonal relationships of bereaved individuals. Relatives ( N = 39) of deceased military service members participated in focus groups concerning how grief influenced their relationships across multiple interpersonal domains, including family, friends, community, and with the deceased. Focus group transcripts were coded us…
Changes in social status and postmigration mental health among West African immigrants
Immigration comes with rapid changes in social status that have effects on mental health. Research with nonimmigrant populations has identified relevant social status indicators, but these indicators are not sufficient to address changes that are uniquely relevant to immigrants. This study aimed to identify social status indicators that change during the process of migration and to examine their association with distress using variable- and perso…
Formative psychosocial evaluation using dynamic networks
Findings aligned with previous research on the centrality of basic needs in refugee populations. Further, specific stressors were highlighted as particularly impactful for this population, and sleep and physical difficulties emerged as key aspects of distress and impairment, suggesting areas for targeted intervention. Conclusions : Dynamic network approaches may be fruitful for identifying setting-specific intervention targets and maximizing the …
Vodou's role in Haitian mental health
This paper gives an overview of Vodou's history in Haiti and how Vodou informs Haitian mental health interventions
Role Conflict among Family Childcare Providers in the Bronx
Family childcare ( FCC ) providers provide childcare for many low‐income families in the United States, and the literature suggests they take on several other support roles as well. The current study consisted of focus groups and interviews in which FCC providers ( N = 22) shared successes and challenges in their profession. Using grounded theory we identified four primary FCC roles: teacher, caregiver, social worker and business owner. Conflict …
Migration Factors in West African Immigrant Parents’ Perceptions of Their Children's Neighborhood Safety
Immigrants make up large proportions of many low‐income neighborhoods, but have been largely ignored in the neighborhood safety literature. We examined perceived safety's association with migration using a six‐item, child‐specific measure of parents’ perceptions of school‐aged (5–12 years of age) children's safety in a sample of 93 West African immigrant parents in New York City. Aims of the study were (a) to identify pre‐migration correlates (e.…
The mental health of civilians displaced by armed conflict
Early research on the mental health of civilians displaced by armed conflict focused primarily on the direct effects of exposure to war-related violence and loss. Largely overlooked in this war exposure model were the powerful effects of ongoing stressors related to the experience of displacement itself. An ecological model of refugee distress is proposed, drawing on research demonstrating that mental health among refugees and asylum seekers stem…
Post-conflict struggles as networks of problems
Exploring Community Engagement and Cultural Maintenance Among Forced and Voluntary West African Immigrants in New York City
If We Can’t Do It, Our Children Will Do It One Day”
This study examined migration narratives of West African immigrants for the connections between experiences of loss and educational aspirations for their children. The qualitative design consisted of three interviews per family in which parents ( N = 20, 12 families) were asked to narrate their families’ migration histories. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory followed by thematic coding. Discussions of loss were markedly proximal to …
Development and validation of a Haitian Creole screening instrument for depression
Developing mental health care capacity in postearthquake Haiti is hampered by the lack of assessments that include culturally bound idioms Haitians use when discussing emotional distress. The current paper describes a novel emic-etic approach to developing a depression screening for Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante. In Study 1 Haitian key informants were asked to classify symptoms and describe categories within a pool of symptoms of common mental…
Cultural concepts of distress and psychiatric disorders
BACKGROUND: Burgeoning global mental health endeavors have renewed debates about cultural applicability of psychiatric categories. This study's goal is to review strengths and limitations of literature comparing psychiatric categories with cultural concepts of distress (CCD) such as cultural syndromes, culture-bound syndromes, and idioms of distress. METHODS: The Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR) was adapted based…
Posttraumatic stress in emergency settings outside North America and Europe
The Social Ecology of Resolving Family Conflict Among West African Immigrants in New York
The current study employs a grounded theory approach to examine West African immigrants’ resolution of parent–child conflict and intimate partner conflict. Data from 59 participants present an interactive social ecological framework, where a lack of resolution at one level results in attempts to resolve problems at higher levels. Four levels are identified within West African immigrants’ problem solving ecology, each with specific actors in posit…
Forced Migration and Psychotic Symptoms
Immigrants report more psychotic symptoms than native-born populations. This study used data from the U.S.-based, nationally representative and culturally validated National Latino and Asian American Study to investigate whether refugees are at higher risk of psychotic symptoms than voluntary migrants. In this study, refugee status predicted more psychotic symptoms. Effects remained significant in most models after controlling for demographic cov…
Correlates of symptom reduction in treatment-seeking survivors of torture
The torture treatment movement is into its second quarter century, and yet empirical examinations of clients’ improvement over time remain scarce. The present study examines correlates of symptom reduction in a multinational treatment seeking refugee sample (N=189) attending a torture treatment center in New York City. Clients were assessed for clinical symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) during…
Effects of Post-migration Factors on PTSD Outcomes Among Immigrant Survivors of Political Violence
Among West African immigrants in New York City
War exposure, daily stressors, and mental health in conflict and post-conflict settings
Adolescent Coping and Neighborhood Violence
Neighborhood violence is a persistent source of danger, stress, and other adverse outcomes for urban youth. We examined how 140 African American and Latino adolescents coped with neighborhood danger in low, medium, and high crime neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Participants reported using a range of coping strategies (measured via a modified version of the Ways of Coping Scale; R. S. Lazarus & S. Folkman, 1984). In low and medium crime rate are…
Anger, PTSD, and the nuclear family
Daily Stressors, War Experiences, and Mental Health in Afghanistan
Working in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, the authors assessed the relative contribution of daily stressors and war-related experiences of violence and loss to levels of depression, PTSD, impaired functioning, and a culturally specific measure of general psychological distress. For women, daily stressors were a better predictor than war experiences of all mental health outcomes except for PTSD; for men, daily stressors were a better predict…
Posttraumatic idioms of distress among Darfur refugees
Although psychosocial programming is seen as essential to the humanitarian response to the Darfur conflict, aid groups lack culturally-appropriate assessment instruments for monitoring and evaluation. The current study used an emic-etic integrated approach to: (i) create a culturally-appropriate measure of distress (Study 1), and (ii) test the measure in structured interviews of 848 Darfuris living in two refugee camps in Chad (Study 2). Traditio…
If We Can’t Do It, Our Children Will Do It One Day”
This study examined migration narratives of West African immigrants for the connections between experiences of loss and educational aspirations for their children. The qualitative design consisted of three interviews per family in which parents ( N = 20, 12 families) were asked to narrate their families’ migration histories. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory followed by thematic coding. Discussions of loss were markedly proximal to …
Among West African immigrants in New York City
Development and validation of a Haitian Creole screening instrument for depression
Developing mental health care capacity in postearthquake Haiti is hampered by the lack of assessments that include culturally bound idioms Haitians use when discussing emotional distress. The current paper describes a novel emic-etic approach to developing a depression screening for Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante. In Study 1 Haitian key informants were asked to classify symptoms and describe categories within a pool of symptoms of common mental…
The Validity and Clinical Utility of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Afghanistan
This study examined the validity and utility of PTSD among 320 adults in Afghanistan. Findings support the validity of PTSD in this cultural context: PTSD symptoms were highly prevalent, shared common variance, and correlated as expected with exposure to traumatic stress. However, only limited support was found for the clinical utility of PTSD. Other types of psychiatric symptomatology, including depression and a culturally specific measure of ge…
Do Human and Social Capital Protect Young African American Mothers From Depression Associated With Ethnic Discrimination and Violence Exposure
Young minority mothers are particularly vulnerable to depression associated with community-level or contextual stressors such as violence exposure and ethnic discrimination. This study explores whether human and social capital act as buffers of the associations between such stressors and maternal depression. Among a sample of 230 urban, African American mothers, who were teenagers when their preschool-age children were born, both being a victim o…
Mental health and armed conflict
Post-conflict struggles as networks of problems
Predicting Stress Related to Basic Needs and Safety in Darfur Refugee Camps
The research on the determinants of mental health among refugees has been largely limited to traumatic events, but recent work has indicated that the daily hassles of living in refugee camps also play a large role. Using hierarchical linear modelling to account for refugees nested within camp blocks, this exploratory study attempted to model stress surrounding safety and acquiring basic needs and functional impairment among refugees from Darfur l…
Vodou's role in Haitian mental health
This paper gives an overview of Vodou's history in Haiti and how Vodou informs Haitian mental health interventions
The Social Ecology of Resolving Family Conflict Among West African Immigrants in New York
The current study employs a grounded theory approach to examine West African immigrants’ resolution of parent–child conflict and intimate partner conflict. Data from 59 participants present an interactive social ecological framework, where a lack of resolution at one level results in attempts to resolve problems at higher levels. Four levels are identified within West African immigrants’ problem solving ecology, each with specific actors in posit…
Development of the Bereavement and Interpersonal Domains codebook
We describe the development of an empirically-derived codebook for qualitative data concerning the impact of grief on the interpersonal relationships of bereaved individuals. Relatives ( N = 39) of deceased military service members participated in focus groups concerning how grief influenced their relationships across multiple interpersonal domains, including family, friends, community, and with the deceased. Focus group transcripts were coded us…
Treatment Decision-Making Preferences of Older Depressed Minority Primary Care Patients
Adolescent Coping and Neighborhood Violence
Neighborhood violence is a persistent source of danger, stress, and other adverse outcomes for urban youth. We examined how 140 African American and Latino adolescents coped with neighborhood danger in low, medium, and high crime neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Participants reported using a range of coping strategies (measured via a modified version of the Ways of Coping Scale; R. S. Lazarus & S. Folkman, 1984). In low and medium crime rate are…
Daily Stressors, War Experiences, and Mental Health in Afghanistan
Working in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, the authors assessed the relative contribution of daily stressors and war-related experiences of violence and loss to levels of depression, PTSD, impaired functioning, and a culturally specific measure of general psychological distress. For women, daily stressors were a better predictor than war experiences of all mental health outcomes except for PTSD; for men, daily stressors were a better predict…
Predicting Stress Related to Basic Needs and Safety in Darfur Refugee Camps
The research on the determinants of mental health among refugees has been largely limited to traumatic events, but recent work has indicated that the daily hassles of living in refugee camps also play a large role. Using hierarchical linear modelling to account for refugees nested within camp blocks, this exploratory study attempted to model stress surrounding safety and acquiring basic needs and functional impairment among refugees from Darfur l…
Anger, PTSD, and the nuclear family
The Validity and Clinical Utility of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Afghanistan
This study examined the validity and utility of PTSD among 320 adults in Afghanistan. Findings support the validity of PTSD in this cultural context: PTSD symptoms were highly prevalent, shared common variance, and correlated as expected with exposure to traumatic stress. However, only limited support was found for the clinical utility of PTSD. Other types of psychiatric symptomatology, including depression and a culturally specific measure of ge…
Mental health and armed conflict
Resilience in trauma‐exposed refugees
Research with survivors of torture has generated considerable variability in prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Multiple risk and resilience factors may affect this variability, increasing or decreasing the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress. This study sought to investigate the effect of several such resilience factors, coping style, social support, cognitive appraisals, and social comparisons on PTSD sympto…
Rates and impact of trauma and current stressors among Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad
Darfur refugees face hardships associated with chronic displacement, including lack of basic needs and safety concerns. Psychiatric research on refugees has focused on trauma, but daily stressors may contribute more to variance in distress. This article reports rates of past trauma and current stressors among Darfur refugees and gauges the contribution of each to psychological distress and functional impairment. A representative sample of 848 Dar…
War exposure, daily stressors, and mental health in conflict and post-conflict settings
Posttraumatic idioms of distress among Darfur refugees
Although psychosocial programming is seen as essential to the humanitarian response to the Darfur conflict, aid groups lack culturally-appropriate assessment instruments for monitoring and evaluation. The current study used an emic-etic integrated approach to: (i) create a culturally-appropriate measure of distress (Study 1), and (ii) test the measure in structured interviews of 848 Darfuris living in two refugee camps in Chad (Study 2). Traditio…
Do Human and Social Capital Protect Young African American Mothers From Depression Associated With Ethnic Discrimination and Violence Exposure
Young minority mothers are particularly vulnerable to depression associated with community-level or contextual stressors such as violence exposure and ethnic discrimination. This study explores whether human and social capital act as buffers of the associations between such stressors and maternal depression. Among a sample of 230 urban, African American mothers, who were teenagers when their preschool-age children were born, both being a victim o…
Correlates of symptom reduction in treatment-seeking survivors of torture
The torture treatment movement is into its second quarter century, and yet empirical examinations of clients’ improvement over time remain scarce. The present study examines correlates of symptom reduction in a multinational treatment seeking refugee sample (N=189) attending a torture treatment center in New York City. Clients were assessed for clinical symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) during…
Effects of Post-migration Factors on PTSD Outcomes Among Immigrant Survivors of Political Violence
Among West African immigrants in New York City
The Social Ecology of Resolving Family Conflict Among West African Immigrants in New York
The current study employs a grounded theory approach to examine West African immigrants’ resolution of parent–child conflict and intimate partner conflict. Data from 59 participants present an interactive social ecological framework, where a lack of resolution at one level results in attempts to resolve problems at higher levels. Four levels are identified within West African immigrants’ problem solving ecology, each with specific actors in posit…
Forced Migration and Psychotic Symptoms
Immigrants report more psychotic symptoms than native-born populations. This study used data from the U.S.-based, nationally representative and culturally validated National Latino and Asian American Study to investigate whether refugees are at higher risk of psychotic symptoms than voluntary migrants. In this study, refugee status predicted more psychotic symptoms. Effects remained significant in most models after controlling for demographic cov…
Cultural concepts of distress and psychiatric disorders
BACKGROUND: Burgeoning global mental health endeavors have renewed debates about cultural applicability of psychiatric categories. This study's goal is to review strengths and limitations of literature comparing psychiatric categories with cultural concepts of distress (CCD) such as cultural syndromes, culture-bound syndromes, and idioms of distress. METHODS: The Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR) was adapted based…
Posttraumatic stress in emergency settings outside North America and Europe
If We Can’t Do It, Our Children Will Do It One Day”
This study examined migration narratives of West African immigrants for the connections between experiences of loss and educational aspirations for their children. The qualitative design consisted of three interviews per family in which parents ( N = 20, 12 families) were asked to narrate their families’ migration histories. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory followed by thematic coding. Discussions of loss were markedly proximal to …
Development and validation of a Haitian Creole screening instrument for depression
Developing mental health care capacity in postearthquake Haiti is hampered by the lack of assessments that include culturally bound idioms Haitians use when discussing emotional distress. The current paper describes a novel emic-etic approach to developing a depression screening for Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante. In Study 1 Haitian key informants were asked to classify symptoms and describe categories within a pool of symptoms of common mental…
Exploring Community Engagement and Cultural Maintenance Among Forced and Voluntary West African Immigrants in New York City
The mental health of civilians displaced by armed conflict
Early research on the mental health of civilians displaced by armed conflict focused primarily on the direct effects of exposure to war-related violence and loss. Largely overlooked in this war exposure model were the powerful effects of ongoing stressors related to the experience of displacement itself. An ecological model of refugee distress is proposed, drawing on research demonstrating that mental health among refugees and asylum seekers stem…
Post-conflict struggles as networks of problems
Role Conflict among Family Childcare Providers in the Bronx
Family childcare ( FCC ) providers provide childcare for many low‐income families in the United States, and the literature suggests they take on several other support roles as well. The current study consisted of focus groups and interviews in which FCC providers ( N = 22) shared successes and challenges in their profession. Using grounded theory we identified four primary FCC roles: teacher, caregiver, social worker and business owner. Conflict …
Migration Factors in West African Immigrant Parents’ Perceptions of Their Children's Neighborhood Safety
Immigrants make up large proportions of many low‐income neighborhoods, but have been largely ignored in the neighborhood safety literature. We examined perceived safety's association with migration using a six‐item, child‐specific measure of parents’ perceptions of school‐aged (5–12 years of age) children's safety in a sample of 93 West African immigrant parents in New York City. Aims of the study were (a) to identify pre‐migration correlates (e.…
Psychology (33 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (26 works) · Clinical Psychology (24 works) · Psychiatry (23 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Mental health (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Distress (14 works) · Immigration (11 works)