B Heidi Ellis
Biographic Data
| ID | 78817 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Heidi Ellis |
| GIVEN NAMES | B Heidi |
| FAMILY NAME | Ellis |
| SIGNATURE | ELLIS B H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston Children's Hospital |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9916-1458 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 150 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Support for violent extremism is not on a continuum: Identification of subgroups that justify violence differently
Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Women and Children Returning from Violent Extremist Contexts: A Rapid Review to Inform Program and Policy Development
This rapid review used a systematic approach to examine the available literature on rehabilitation and reintegration (R&R) programs for women and children returning from contexts of violent extremism, examining common assumptions, inputs, activities and outcomes across diverse settings. Fifty-one documents including peer reviewed articles and grey literature were included in the analysis. The most common program activities identified included men…
Supporting Women and Children Returning from Violent Extremist Contexts: Proposing a 5R Framework to Inform Program and Policy Development
Women and children returning from areas formerly controlled by the Islamic State typically have experienced high levels of trauma and indoctrination, further complicating politically fraught efforts at reintegration and resettlement. Consequently, countries around the world are grappling with how best to manage the return of these women and children. To help better understand which types of programming can contribute to the successful, non-violen…
Promoting positive development among refugee adolescents
Of the estimated 35.3 million refugees around the world (UNHCR, Figures at a Glance , 2022), approximately 50% are children under the age of 18. Refugee adolescents represent a unique group as they navigate developmental tasks in an unstable and often threatening environment or in resettlement contexts in which they often face marginalization. In addition to physiological, social, and psychological changes that mark adolescence, refugee youth oft…
The role of discrimination, assimilation, and gender in the mental health of resettled Somali young adults: A longitudinal, moderated mediation analysis
Acculturation styles have important associations with future adjustment among immigrants and refugees, yet less is known about the individual and interpersonal factors that influence the strategy an individual adopts. High rates of discrimination may signal the receiving community's rejection of one's ethnic group, increasing pressure to assimilate and suppress one's heritage identity. Within a sample of Somali young adults (18-30, N = 185) reset…
Leveraging community-based mental health services to reduce inequities for children and families living in United States who have experienced migration-related trauma
Given the unique stressors, strengths, and needs of immigrant children and their families, mental health services must be equitable, community based, and sustainable. TST-R demonstrates promise as a prevention and intervention model especially for those experiencing immigration policy-related stressors and may serve as a guide for developing child mental health policies and immigration policies that promote mental well-being for immigrant familie…
Exploring the Social-Ecological Factors that Mobilize Children into Violence
This article applies the social-ecological model to children’s mobilization into two violent groups—Central American gangs and terrorist organizations. While these two groups clearly differ in important ways, there are contextual similarities that frame a child’s involvement in each. For example, both flourish in low-resource settings where governmental structures may have been weakened or disrupted. Does it follow, therefore, that similar proces…
Civic development and antisocial attitudes/behaviors among Somali immigrants: Change over one year
Objectives: Understanding how immigrant young adults engage with civic society over time is critical to understanding and fostering healthy development and healthy democracies. The present study examines how civic engagement and antisocial attitudes/behavior of Somali young adult immigrants (ages 18-30, N = 498) in four North American regions co-occur, and change over time. Method: Using latent transition analyses, we examine latent classes of yo…
Partnering with refugee communities to improve mental health access: Going from “why are they not coming” to “what can I (we) do differently?”
Refugees are disproportionally impacted by trauma and its negative sequelae. Even after being resettled in the United States, refugees face disparities in accessing services due to the stigma attached to mental health symptoms and the paucity of culturally and linguistically accessible services. Thus, there is a great need to develop methods that facilitate the engagement of refugee communities. Community-Based Participatory Research recommends t…
Discrimination, marginalization, belonging, and mental health among Somali immigrants in North America
In this study, we examined the relationships among discrimination and mental health for Somali young adults, a group at risk for an unfavorable context of reception, and the way in which individual- and community-level factors explain these associations. The present study drew upon data collected during the first wave of the Somali Youth Longitudinal Study, a community-based participatory research project focused on understanding and supporting t…
Bhutanese Refugee Youth: The Importance of Assessing and Addressing Psychosocial Needs in a School Setting
BACKGROUND: Traumatic exposure combined with significant stressors in resettlement place Bhutanese refugees at risk for mental health problems. Despite this, refugee youth often are reluctant to seek mental health services. Psychosocial support services, such as school-based groups, offer one solution to this barrier to care. We had 2 aims in this study: (1) to describe the psychosocial needs of resettled Bhutanese refugee students; and (2) to ev…
Residential mobility, mental health, and community violence exposure among Somali refugees and immigrants in North America
The Challenge and Promise of a Multidisciplinary Team Response to the Problem of Violent Radicalization
Violent radicalization is a complex process that results from multiple influences and experiences across the settings and contexts of an individual’s life. No single pathway or characteristic determines who is at risk for it. Given this understanding, no single intervention aimed at this multiply-determined problem is likely to be successful if it is implemented in isolation. Multidisciplinary team approaches are increasingly seen as holding prom…
Factor structure and concurrent validity of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) in a sample of Somali immigrants living in North America
age = 25.35; female = 45%) Somali young adults living in North America. Results using confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the one-factor structure of the CFQ previously found in other diverse populations held in the present sample. The structure and related item loadings were invariant across three key variables: gender, age, and location of resettlement in North America. Importantly, cognitive fusion was meaningfully associated with a…
We All Have Stories: Black Muslim Immigrants' Experience With the Police
Understanding the relationships between immigrants and refugees and the police is a critical research task with implications for both community-police partnerships and the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts. This study contributes to such an understanding by examining perceptions of police and police interactions among Somali immigrants and refugees (both first and second generation) in three communities in the United States and Canada. Thi…
Trauma, Trust in Government, and Social Connection: How Social Context Shapes Attitudes Related to the Use of Ideologically or Politically Motivated Violence
In this study we examine how grievances and social connection among Somali immigrants are associated with attitudes towards radicalization to violence. Data was drawn from structured interviews with 213 Somali young adult men living in North America. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the association of grievances with attitudes in support of political violence, and the mediating role of social connection (ethnic community belonging, a…
Building community resilience to violent extremism through genuine partnerships
What is community resilience in relation to violent extremism, and how can we build it? This article explores strategies to harness community assets that may contribute to preventing youth from embracing violent extremism, drawing from models of community resilience as defined in relation to disaster preparedness. Research suggests that social connection is at the heart of resilient communities and any strategy to increase community resilience mu…
Relation of psychosocial factors to diverse behaviors and attitudes among Somali refugees
Refugee studies have examined both resilience and adverse outcomes, but no research has examined how different outcomes co-occur or are distinct, and the social-contextual factors that give rise to these diverse outcomes. The current study begins to address this gap by using latent profile analysis to examine the ways in which delinquency, gang involvement, civic engagement, political engagement, and openness to violent extremism cluster among So…
Executive Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
The Impact of Acculturation Style and Acculturative Hassles on the Mental Health of Somali Adolescent Refugees
Understanding Bhutanese refugee suicide through the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior
Attention has been drawn to high rates of suicide among refugees after resettlement and in particular among the Bhutanese refugees. This study sought to understand the apparent high rates of suicide among resettled Bhutanese refugees in the context of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior (IPTS). Expanding on a larger investigation of suicide in a randomly selected sample of Bhutanese men and women resettled in Arizona, Geor…
Trauma Systems Therapy for Children and Teens
Trauma and Openness to Legal and Illegal Activism Among Somali Refugees
This article examines key setting events and personal factors that are associated with support for either non-violent activism or violent activism among Somali refugee young adults in the United States. Specifically, this article examines the associations of trauma, stress, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth (PTG), strength of social bonds, and attitudes towards legal and non-violent vs. illegal and violent act…
Maternal Emotion Coaching: A Protective Factor for Traumatized Children’s Emotion Regulation
Trauma systems therapy: 15-Month Outcomes and the Importance of Effecting Environmental Change
This study tracked the clinical course of 124 children receiving trauma systems therapy (TST). In addition, exploratory analyses compared hospitalization rates before and after implementation of the model and comparative cost savings were estimated. Children ages 3–20 who experienced potentially traumatic events received TST intervention. Measures of clinical course, children’s psychiatric and psychosocial functioning, and social-environmental st…
Past horrors, present struggles: The role of stigma in the association between war experiences and psychosocial adjustment among former child soldiers in Sierra Leone
Ethical Research in Refugee Communities and the Use of Community Participatory Methods
This article describes the distinct challenges associated with conducting ethical research with refugees. A case example of an ongoing study of stigma and access to mental health treatment among Somali refugee adolescents resettled in the USA is presented. In developing the study, standard research paradigms were critically examined in order to take account of the unique aspects of Somali culture and experience. Community participatory methods we…
Building community resilience to violent extremism through genuine partnerships
What is community resilience in relation to violent extremism, and how can we build it? This article explores strategies to harness community assets that may contribute to preventing youth from embracing violent extremism, drawing from models of community resilience as defined in relation to disaster preparedness. Research suggests that social connection is at the heart of resilient communities and any strategy to increase community resilience mu…
Mental Health Service Utilization of Somali Adolescents: Religion, Community, and School as Gateways to Healing
This mixed-method study examines the utility of the Gateway Provider Model (GPM) in understanding service utilization and pathways to help for Somali refugee adolescents. Somali adolescents living in the Northeastern United States, and their caregivers, were interviewed. Results revealed low rates of use of mental health services. However other sources of help, such as religious and school personnel, were accessed more frequently. The GPM provide…
We All Have Stories: Black Muslim Immigrants' Experience With the Police
Understanding the relationships between immigrants and refugees and the police is a critical research task with implications for both community-police partnerships and the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts. This study contributes to such an understanding by examining perceptions of police and police interactions among Somali immigrants and refugees (both first and second generation) in three communities in the United States and Canada. Thi…
Residential mobility, mental health, and community violence exposure among Somali refugees and immigrants in North America
Trauma and Openness to Legal and Illegal Activism Among Somali Refugees
This article examines key setting events and personal factors that are associated with support for either non-violent activism or violent activism among Somali refugee young adults in the United States. Specifically, this article examines the associations of trauma, stress, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth (PTG), strength of social bonds, and attitudes towards legal and non-violent vs. illegal and violent act…
Partnering with refugee communities to improve mental health access: Going from “why are they not coming” to “what can I (we) do differently?”
Refugees are disproportionally impacted by trauma and its negative sequelae. Even after being resettled in the United States, refugees face disparities in accessing services due to the stigma attached to mental health symptoms and the paucity of culturally and linguistically accessible services. Thus, there is a great need to develop methods that facilitate the engagement of refugee communities. Community-Based Participatory Research recommends t…
The role of discrimination, assimilation, and gender in the mental health of resettled Somali young adults: A longitudinal, moderated mediation analysis
Acculturation styles have important associations with future adjustment among immigrants and refugees, yet less is known about the individual and interpersonal factors that influence the strategy an individual adopts. High rates of discrimination may signal the receiving community's rejection of one's ethnic group, increasing pressure to assimilate and suppress one's heritage identity. Within a sample of Somali young adults (18-30, N = 185) reset…
The Challenge and Promise of a Multidisciplinary Team Response to the Problem of Violent Radicalization
Violent radicalization is a complex process that results from multiple influences and experiences across the settings and contexts of an individual’s life. No single pathway or characteristic determines who is at risk for it. Given this understanding, no single intervention aimed at this multiply-determined problem is likely to be successful if it is implemented in isolation. Multidisciplinary team approaches are increasingly seen as holding prom…
Exploring the Social-Ecological Factors that Mobilize Children into Violence
This article applies the social-ecological model to children’s mobilization into two violent groups—Central American gangs and terrorist organizations. While these two groups clearly differ in important ways, there are contextual similarities that frame a child’s involvement in each. For example, both flourish in low-resource settings where governmental structures may have been weakened or disrupted. Does it follow, therefore, that similar proces…
Civic development and antisocial attitudes/behaviors among Somali immigrants: Change over one year
Objectives: Understanding how immigrant young adults engage with civic society over time is critical to understanding and fostering healthy development and healthy democracies. The present study examines how civic engagement and antisocial attitudes/behavior of Somali young adult immigrants (ages 18-30, N = 498) in four North American regions co-occur, and change over time. Method: Using latent transition analyses, we examine latent classes of yo…
Belonging and Connection to School in Resettlement: Young Refugees, School Belonging, and Psychosocial Adjustment
Schools are one of the first and most influential service systems for young refugees. There is a burgeoning interest in developing school-based refugee mental health services, in part to reduce stigma and increase treatment access for this population. Despite the relevance of gaining a better understanding of how refugee students experience schools in resettlement and how this relates to psychosocial adjustment, belonging and connection to school…
Ethical Research in Refugee Communities and the Use of Community Participatory Methods
This article describes the distinct challenges associated with conducting ethical research with refugees. A case example of an ongoing study of stigma and access to mental health treatment among Somali refugee adolescents resettled in the USA is presented. In developing the study, standard research paradigms were critically examined in order to take account of the unique aspects of Somali culture and experience. Community participatory methods we…
Mental health of Somali adolescent refugees: The role of trauma, stress, and perceived discrimination.
The primary purpose of this study was to examine relations between trauma exposure, post-resettlement stressors, perceived discrimination, and mental health symptoms in Somali adolescent refugees resettled in the U.S. Participants were English-speaking Somali adolescent refugees between the ages of 11 and 20 (N = 135) who had resettled in the U.S. Participants were administered an interview battery comprising self-report instruments that included…
Discrimination and mental health among Somali refugee adolescents: The role of acculturation and gender
This study examines the role of social identity (acculturation and gender) in moderating the association between discrimination and Somali adolescent refugees' mental health. Participants were English-speaking Somali adolescent refugees between the ages of 11 and 20 (N = 135). Perceived discrimination, trauma history, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive symptoms, and behavioral acculturation were assessed in structured interviews. Fo…
Past horrors, present struggles: The role of stigma in the association between war experiences and psychosocial adjustment among former child soldiers in Sierra Leone
Mental Health Service Utilization of Somali Adolescents: Religion, Community, and School as Gateways to Healing
This mixed-method study examines the utility of the Gateway Provider Model (GPM) in understanding service utilization and pathways to help for Somali refugee adolescents. Somali adolescents living in the Northeastern United States, and their caregivers, were interviewed. Results revealed low rates of use of mental health services. However other sources of help, such as religious and school personnel, were accessed more frequently. The GPM provide…
Trauma systems therapy: 15-Month Outcomes and the Importance of Effecting Environmental Change
This study tracked the clinical course of 124 children receiving trauma systems therapy (TST). In addition, exploratory analyses compared hospitalization rates before and after implementation of the model and comparative cost savings were estimated. Children ages 3–20 who experienced potentially traumatic events received TST intervention. Measures of clinical course, children’s psychiatric and psychosocial functioning, and social-environmental st…
Maternal Emotion Coaching: A Protective Factor for Traumatized Children’s Emotion Regulation
Executive Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
The Impact of Acculturation Style and Acculturative Hassles on the Mental Health of Somali Adolescent Refugees
Understanding Bhutanese refugee suicide through the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior
Attention has been drawn to high rates of suicide among refugees after resettlement and in particular among the Bhutanese refugees. This study sought to understand the apparent high rates of suicide among resettled Bhutanese refugees in the context of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior (IPTS). Expanding on a larger investigation of suicide in a randomly selected sample of Bhutanese men and women resettled in Arizona, Geor…
Trauma Systems Therapy for Children and Teens
Trauma and Openness to Legal and Illegal Activism Among Somali Refugees
This article examines key setting events and personal factors that are associated with support for either non-violent activism or violent activism among Somali refugee young adults in the United States. Specifically, this article examines the associations of trauma, stress, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth (PTG), strength of social bonds, and attitudes towards legal and non-violent vs. illegal and violent act…
Relation of psychosocial factors to diverse behaviors and attitudes among Somali refugees
Refugee studies have examined both resilience and adverse outcomes, but no research has examined how different outcomes co-occur or are distinct, and the social-contextual factors that give rise to these diverse outcomes. The current study begins to address this gap by using latent profile analysis to examine the ways in which delinquency, gang involvement, civic engagement, political engagement, and openness to violent extremism cluster among So…
Building community resilience to violent extremism through genuine partnerships
What is community resilience in relation to violent extremism, and how can we build it? This article explores strategies to harness community assets that may contribute to preventing youth from embracing violent extremism, drawing from models of community resilience as defined in relation to disaster preparedness. Research suggests that social connection is at the heart of resilient communities and any strategy to increase community resilience mu…
Trauma, Trust in Government, and Social Connection: How Social Context Shapes Attitudes Related to the Use of Ideologically or Politically Motivated Violence
In this study we examine how grievances and social connection among Somali immigrants are associated with attitudes towards radicalization to violence. Data was drawn from structured interviews with 213 Somali young adult men living in North America. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the association of grievances with attitudes in support of political violence, and the mediating role of social connection (ethnic community belonging, a…
Bhutanese Refugee Youth: The Importance of Assessing and Addressing Psychosocial Needs in a School Setting
BACKGROUND: Traumatic exposure combined with significant stressors in resettlement place Bhutanese refugees at risk for mental health problems. Despite this, refugee youth often are reluctant to seek mental health services. Psychosocial support services, such as school-based groups, offer one solution to this barrier to care. We had 2 aims in this study: (1) to describe the psychosocial needs of resettled Bhutanese refugee students; and (2) to ev…
Residential mobility, mental health, and community violence exposure among Somali refugees and immigrants in North America
The Challenge and Promise of a Multidisciplinary Team Response to the Problem of Violent Radicalization
Violent radicalization is a complex process that results from multiple influences and experiences across the settings and contexts of an individual’s life. No single pathway or characteristic determines who is at risk for it. Given this understanding, no single intervention aimed at this multiply-determined problem is likely to be successful if it is implemented in isolation. Multidisciplinary team approaches are increasingly seen as holding prom…
Factor structure and concurrent validity of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) in a sample of Somali immigrants living in North America
age = 25.35; female = 45%) Somali young adults living in North America. Results using confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the one-factor structure of the CFQ previously found in other diverse populations held in the present sample. The structure and related item loadings were invariant across three key variables: gender, age, and location of resettlement in North America. Importantly, cognitive fusion was meaningfully associated with a…
We All Have Stories: Black Muslim Immigrants' Experience With the Police
Understanding the relationships between immigrants and refugees and the police is a critical research task with implications for both community-police partnerships and the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts. This study contributes to such an understanding by examining perceptions of police and police interactions among Somali immigrants and refugees (both first and second generation) in three communities in the United States and Canada. Thi…
Civic development and antisocial attitudes/behaviors among Somali immigrants: Change over one year
Objectives: Understanding how immigrant young adults engage with civic society over time is critical to understanding and fostering healthy development and healthy democracies. The present study examines how civic engagement and antisocial attitudes/behavior of Somali young adult immigrants (ages 18-30, N = 498) in four North American regions co-occur, and change over time. Method: Using latent transition analyses, we examine latent classes of yo…
Partnering with refugee communities to improve mental health access: Going from “why are they not coming” to “what can I (we) do differently?”
Refugees are disproportionally impacted by trauma and its negative sequelae. Even after being resettled in the United States, refugees face disparities in accessing services due to the stigma attached to mental health symptoms and the paucity of culturally and linguistically accessible services. Thus, there is a great need to develop methods that facilitate the engagement of refugee communities. Community-Based Participatory Research recommends t…
Discrimination, marginalization, belonging, and mental health among Somali immigrants in North America
In this study, we examined the relationships among discrimination and mental health for Somali young adults, a group at risk for an unfavorable context of reception, and the way in which individual- and community-level factors explain these associations. The present study drew upon data collected during the first wave of the Somali Youth Longitudinal Study, a community-based participatory research project focused on understanding and supporting t…
Leveraging community-based mental health services to reduce inequities for children and families living in United States who have experienced migration-related trauma
Given the unique stressors, strengths, and needs of immigrant children and their families, mental health services must be equitable, community based, and sustainable. TST-R demonstrates promise as a prevention and intervention model especially for those experiencing immigration policy-related stressors and may serve as a guide for developing child mental health policies and immigration policies that promote mental well-being for immigrant familie…
Psychology (29 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (21 works) · Political science (21 works) · Psychiatry (18 works) · Somali (16 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Mental health (15 works) · Refugee (15 works) · Clinical Psychology (13 works) · Immigration (10 works)