Attitudes toward depression among a sample of Muslim adolescents in the Midwestern United States
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Zubeir Haroun
Abstract
Background: Little is known about how Muslim youth in non-Muslim countries perceive depression and its treatment and prevention.
Objective: We investigated the barriers and suggest treatment models for depressive disorders in Muslim adolescents and young adults residing in the United States.
Methods: We conducted a thorough literature review to identify previous study on the beliefs of American Muslim adolescents about depression and its treatment. We identified the gaps and developed a survey to ascertain this information from American Muslim adolescents.
Results: The survey was administered to a convenience sample of 125 Muslim subjects (60.0% males) aged 14–21 years. The sample was ethnically diverse with Pakistani (44.8%) encompassing the majority of the sample. Most responders believed that recitation from the Koran relieves mental distress. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that those who reported strong emotional support from parents or a greater acceptance of taking depression medication prescribed from a physician were more likely to accept a physician’s diagnosis, whereas believing in prayer to heal depression was associated with a lower likelihood of the same. Youth were accepting of Internet and preventive approaches.
Conclusion: Planning of culturally sensitive mental health services is useful to accommodate the needs of Muslim youth served by primary care physicians and mental health practitioners in the United States. Muslim adolescents tend to be more traditional with family, social, and religious values. This value system plays an important role in their likelihood of seeking and accepting professional help for depression.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Alternative medicine does not exist, biomedicine does not exist, there is only evidence-based medicine
- Review Articles
- Vitamin D: a potential role in reducing suicide risk?
- Psychopharmacological treatment of ADHD symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder
- Pubertal development and sexuality in female adolescents born preterm: a review of the literature
- The role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the pathophysiology of adolescent suicidal behavior
- Towards understanding the nurse/research interaction
- Original Articles
- A pilot study of a combined intervention for management of juvenile primary fibromyalgia symptoms in adolescents in an inpatient psychiatric unit
- Screening for psychiatric illness among students of the University of The West Indies, Trinidad
- Depression in adolescents with chronic medical illness
- I am smart, therefore I can: examining the relationship between IQ and self-efficacy across cultures
- Asthma and quality of life in adolescents in Manisa, Turkey
- Hirschsprung’s disease in the neurologically challenged child
- Positive youth development program targeting students with greater psychosocial needs: Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong
- Subjective outcome evaluation of the Project P.A.T.H.S.: findings based on different datasets
- Occupational, speech and emotional therapy with students attending booster classes
- Poverty and child (0–14 years) mortality in the USA and other Western countries as an indicator of “how well a country meets the needs of its children” (UNICEF)
- Students with visual impairments in Israel: quality of life as a subjective experience
- Influence of family structure on sexual behavior of Turkish female adolescents
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging of facial information processing in children with autistic disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and typically developing controls
- Racial trends in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among US adolescents: 1988–2004
- Healthcare utilization for pain in children and adolescents: a prospective study of laboratory and non-laboratory predictors of care-seeking
- Attitudes toward depression among a sample of Muslim adolescents in the Midwestern United States
