Anthropological methods in global mental health research

The author uses the story of one Nicaraguan family to show how pensando mucho and other embodied idioms are meaningful ways for family members to express their emotional responses to transnational life across generations and even across national borders. Like other grandmothers I worked with in Nicaragua, Marbeya experienced an episode of self-diagnosed depresin following Azucena’s migration. Eight years old at the time of this study, Selso was born in Costa Rica and lived there until he was five years old, when Azucena sent him back to Managua to be raised by his grandmother. The alterations in appetite and eating that Selso experienced following his mother’s visits home were also a form of shared emotional distress in this family. Multilevel health-promotion interventions that consider personal and social environments in interaction have been shown to support the mental health of children exposed to war, violence, and other traumas by including cultural, religious, neighborhood, and family-level supports.

Duke Scholars

Author Brandon A. Kohrt Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychia ...