Search Results (5)

Research examining risk and protective factors of suicidality among Black students remains limited. This study assessed the effects of psychological inflexibility and emotional resilience on suicidal behaviors among Black college students. We conducted a secondary data analysis of the 2022–2024 Healthy Minds Study. Black students (aged 18–24) who completed the suicidality matrix, psychological inflexibility (Acceptance & Action Questionnaire II) and emotional resilience (Brief Resilience Scale) measures were included in the analysis. Logistic regressions were performed to examine the effect of psychological inflexibility and resilience on suicidal ideation, plans for suicide, and suicide attempts. The students (N = 4557) represented diverse backgrounds, with 61% being African American, 12.2% African, 13.8% Caribbean, and 7% Afro-Latinx. Further, 18.7% endorsed suicidal ideation, 9.2% endorsed suicide plans, and 3.2% reported a suicidal attempt within the past 12 months. Psychological inflexibility was associated with increased risk of suicidal ideation (OR = 1.04, p < 0.001), suicidal plan (OR = 1.05, p < 0.001) and suicide attempt (OR = 1.03, p = 0.011). Emotional resilience was not associated with any suicidal behaviors as a protective or risk factor. The findings support previous research identifying psychological inflexibility as a suicidal risk factor. Prevention and intervention strategies may warrant a focus on promoting psychological flexibility. Full article

This study examined the experiences of Black students attending a Hispanic-Serving Research University (HSRU). Utilizing a mixed-methods Black Student Belonging Survey, the research team sought to understand how Black students across Afro-diasporic communities, including students who self-identify as Black, Afro-Latinx, Afro-Indigenous, West African, and others, described their encounters within an HSRU. Findings from this study revealed that the percentages of students at the HSRU under study who stated that they encountered challenges related to their Black identities at the target university was not equally distributed among various ethnic and multiheritage groups within the Afro-diaspora, χ² (2, n = 319), p < 0.01. Thus, it appears that challenges at the university related to Black identities vary by background. This is an important finding because it reveals that studies that flatten the Black identity of student respondents may be missing significant variations in experience. Moreover, analysis of qualitative results using an anti-Blackness framework sheds light on the pervasive experiences of anti-Black encounters across the university. These findings include anti-Black aggressions, politics of belonging, and bearing the weight of representation as the most frequent challenges experienced within the HSRU. Recommendations based on these findings call for participatory action research with students, enhanced upstander interventions, and continued work to humanize and broaden practices in higher education that promote servingness. Full article

Several studies emphasize that the limited representation of Afro-Latinx communities in Spanish language curricula affects students’ understanding of the diversity in Spanish-speaking societies. However, research has yet to evaluate the impact of a curricular intervention incorporating an Afro-Latinx module into an L2 Spanish language course. The present study addresses two research questions: (1) what the changes in knowledge after implementing an Afro-Latinx module in an L2 Spanish language course are, and (2) how the module impacts students’ understanding of language variation and diversity in Afro-descendant communities. Guided by Critical Race Theory, Critical Language Awareness, and Raciolinguistics, this mixed methods study analyzed pre- and post-tests alongside journal reflections completed by 50 college students. The findings demonstrated significant improvements in students’ knowledge, indicating a strong association between the intervention and the observed increase in knowledge regarding the representation of Afro-Latinx communities. It also deepened students’ understanding of language variation within Afro-descendant communities and illustrated the role of language in deconstructing social hierarchies and enabling collective memory, resistance, and empowerment. Full article

Background/Objectives: Black and Afro-Latinx communities have a higher propensity for more-severe glaucoma at a younger age. This study aimed to use the Kahook Dual Blade (KDB) to treat all glaucoma subtypes and severity levels in this historically underserved community. Materials and Methods: This study involved a retrospective analysis of surgical case records, with follow-up through 20 months. The subjects were glaucoma patients at Hospital Elias Santana in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Inclusion criteria were age >18 years and a minimum follow-up of 1 year after surgery. All glaucoma subtypes and disease severities were included, including previous glaucoma procedures. Sequential patients undergoing KDB goniotomy alone or in combination with phacoemulsification cataract surgery were assessed. IOP data and number of medications were collected at specific time points: baseline, postoperative day 1, postoperative week 1, and postoperative months 1, 3, 6, 12, 16, and 20. Surgical outcome was determined using IOP and number of medications. Success was defined as either a 20% or more reduction in IOP or a decrease in at least one topical therapy. Recorded postoperative complications were hyphema, ocular hypertension, and need for additional glaucoma surgery. Results: A total of 90 eyes from 90 patients were included. A total of 100% of the patient population was Black or Afro-Latinx. The most common glaucoma subtype was primary open-angle (76.7%). Most of the eyes had severe glaucoma (53.3%). The mean preoperative baseline IOP was 20.5 mmHg. The mean postoperative IOP from all time points ranged from 12.9 to 13.5 mmHg (all time points were significantly lower than baseline IOP, p < 0.0001). A mean reduction in IOP percent of at least 31.5% was seen at every time point. There was a mean reduction of two medications by postoperative month 20. Surgical success was achieved in 95.6% of patients at postoperative month 1 and remained high throughout the study period (95.4% at month 20). Conclusions: KDB goniotomy achieved successful IOP and medication reduction across all levels of glaucoma severity. Surgical success rates were maintained to 20 months. While MIGS has historically been used as an intervention in mild-to-moderate glaucoma, our study results show that the KDB can play a significant role in all stages of glaucoma, including severe. MIGS should be considered as a favorable intervention in all disease severities in Black and Afro-Latinx communities around the world. Full article

In 1974, the Pakistani Constitution was amended to declare Ahmadi Muslims as “non-Muslim”, initiating a systematic and hegemonic structural attempt to restrict Ahmadi Muslims from professing and practicing the Islamic faith in Pakistan. This state-sanctioned exclusion led to the mass migration of Ahmadis out of Pakistan into diasporic contexts. Using autoethnography, this article examines how being an Ahmadi Muslim woman in Canada remains rooted in deeply divisive politico-religious conflicts that transcend temporal and spatial boundaries and result in multiple layers of marginalities in the diaspora. I am conscious that my self-formation is racialized, gendered, and classed across three primary intersections: as a Pakistani/South Asian; as an Ahmadi Muslim; and as a woman. This “triple consciousness”, a term coined by Black feminist scholars and Afro-Latinx scholars in the United States to extend W. E. B. Du Bois’ “double consciousness”, produces a liminal and contradictory space of belonging—one that requires further reflection and analysis in the Canadian context where the racial continues to dominate our social world and proximity to Whiteness is privileged and rewarded. Full article