Browsing by Author "Al-Khattab, Halima"

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    The Challenges for Primary Caregivers of Adolescents With Disruptive Behavior Disorders
    (SAGE, 2014-12-10) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Burke Draucker, Claire; Al-Khattab, Halima; Cravens, Hillary A.; Lowry, Brittany; Lindsey, Laura M.
    Adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), including oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder, present unique challenges for their families. Although, most empirically supported treatments for DBD are family-based, the emphasis is typically on the behavior of the child rather than on the life challenges and resultant distress experienced by the family members. Fifteen families of adolescents with DBD were recruited from a large publicly funded Community Mental Health Center. For this report, data from in-depth interviews with the adolescents’ primary caregivers were analyzed by standard content analytic procedures to describe the challenges they experienced living with and caring for the adolescents. The primary caregivers reported that the challenges were overwhelming, demanding, and unrelenting. The two most salient challenges were (a) managing the adolescents’ aggressive, defiant, and deceitful behaviors, and (b) interacting frequently with a number of child-serving agencies. A number of clinical implications are drawn from these findings.
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    How African American Adolescents Manage Depression: Being With Others
    (Sage, 2016-09) Al-Khattab, Halima; Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Perkins, Danielle; Draucker, Claire; School of Nursing
    BACKGROUND: African American (AA) adolescents with depression face serious negative outcomes. Despite racial/ethnic disparities in treatment utilization, few studies have explored how AA adolescents manage their depression. OBJECTIVE: To describe common ways AA adolescents manage depressive symptoms through relationships with people in their lives. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive methods were used to analyze the narratives of 22 AA young adults who had been depressed as adolescents and 5 AA adolescents in treatment for depression. RESULTS: A typology describing the varied ways AA adolescents manage their depressive symptoms through interactions with other people was constructed and labeled Being With Others. The five categories in the typology are keeping others at bay, striking out at others, seeking help from others, joining in with others, and having others reach out CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians might use the Being With Others typology to guide discussions related to detecting, assessing, and treating AA adolescents with depression.
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    Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Grounded Theory Research
    (Nova Southeastern University, School of Social and Systematic Studies, 2014) Burke Draucker, Claire; Al-Khattab, Halima; Hines, Dana D.; Mazurczyk, Jill; Russell, Anne C.; Stephenson, Pam Shockey; Draucker, Shannon
    National initiatives in the United States call for health research that addresses racial/ethnic disparities. Although grounded theory (GT) research has the potential to contribute much to the understanding of the health experiences of people of color, the extent to which it has contributed to health disparities research is unclear. In this article we describe a project in which we reviewed 44 GT studies published in Qualitative Health Research within the last five years. Using a framework proposed by Green, Creswell, Shope, and Clark (2007), we categorized the studies at one of four levels based on the status and significance afforded racial/ethnic diversity. Our results indicate that racial/ethnic diversity played a primary role in five studies, a complementary role in one study, a peripheral role in five studies, and an absent role in 33 studies. We suggest that GT research could contribute more to health disparities research if techniques were developed to better analyze the influence of race/ethnicity on health-related phenomena.
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    Sexual learning among East African adolescents in the context of generalized HIV epidemics: A systematic qualitative meta-synthesis
    (PLOS, 2017-03-09) Knopf, Amelia S.; McNealy, Kim R.; Al-Khattab, Halima; Carter-Harris, Lisa; Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Naanyu, Violet; Burke Draucker, Claire; IU School of Nursing
    Background AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of mortality for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda account for 21% of HIV-infected adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations framework for addressing the epidemic among adolescents calls for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education. These HIV prevention efforts could be informed by a synthesis of existing research about the formal and informal sexual education of adolescents in countries experiencing generalized epidemics. The purpose of this study was to describe the process of sexual learning among East African adolescents living in the context of generalized HIV epidemics. Methods Qualitative metasynthesis, a systematic procedure for integrating the results of multiple qualitative studies addressing a similar phenomenon, was used. Thirty-two research reports met study inclusion criteria. The reports were assessed in a four-step analytic process: appraisal, classification of findings, synthesis of findings, and construction of a framework depicting the process of sexual learning in this population. Results The framework includes three phases of sexual learning: 1) being primed for sex, 2) making sense of sex, and 3) having sexual experiences. Adolescents were primed for sex through gender norms, cultural practices, and economic structures as well as through conversations and formal instruction. They made sense of sex by acquiring information about sexual intercourse, reproduction and pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and relationships and by developing a variety of beliefs and attitudes about these topics. Some adolescents described having sexual experiences that met wants or needs, but many experienced sex that was coerced or violent. Whether sex was wanted, coerced, or violent, adolescents experienced worry about sexually transmitted infections or premarital pregnancy. Conclusions The three phases of sexual learning interact to shape adolescents’ sexual lives and their risk for HIV infection. This framework will contribute to the development of sexual education programs that address HIV risk within the broader context of sexual learning.
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    Understanding the Families' Needs: Interventions for Family Members of Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders
    (2014-11) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Burke Draucker, Claire; Al-Khattab, Halima; Cravens, Hillary; Lowry, Brittany; Lindsey, Laura; Knopf, Amy; Mazurcyk, Jill
    Session presented on Sunday, July 27, 2014: Purpose: Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD) including Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder present unique challenges to their families. DBD are prevalent and serious mental disorders first diagnosed in childhood. DBD are characterized by hostile, aggressive, defiant, and antisocial behaviors. These adolescents are at risk to drop out of school, abuse drugs, or be arrested. Therefore, family members of adolescents with DBD experience overwhelming and unrelenting stress related to the difficult challenges of managing the adolescents' behavior problems and interacting-often on a daily basis-with the mental health, schools, child welfare, and juvenile systems. While most emperically-supported treatments for DBD are family-based, the emphasis is typically on the behavior of the child rather than on the life challenges and the resultant distress experienced by the family members. To develop interventions to address the needs of family members, a better understanding of what mental health services they desire is needed. The purpose of this study is describe what multiple family members including those rarely considered (i.e., fathers, siblings, and other adult family members) need for support from mental health professionals. Methods: The Double ABCX Model of Family Stress and Adaptation by McCubbin and Patterson (1983) was used to guide the study. The model proposes that families experience life events or stressors such as the serious illness of a family member. The stressor may overwhelm available family resources and lead to hardships that affect all family members. Based on this model, we anticipated that caring for an adolescent with DBD is a demand that will likely exceed the family's capacity to meet the demand and therefore could result in altered family functioning, emotional stress, and the need for outside support. Fifteen families of adolescents (13 - 18 years old) with DBD were recruited from a large publicly funded community mental health center in Midwestern United States. Data were gathered from participants (parents or primary caregivers, adolescents with DBD, siblings, and other adult family memebrs) using in-depth individual interviews and a focus group interview (three parents or primary caregivers). Interviews were analysed by standard content analytic procedures. Results: The sample included 15 parents (14 females and one male, average age 45 years), 10 other adult family members (four females and eight males, average age 37 years), 15 adolescents with DBD (five females and 10 males, average age 15 years), and 12 siblings (four females and eight males, average age 14 years). The racial breakdown of the 52 participants was 61% African American, 16% Caucasian, and 23% biracial (mostly African American/Caucasian). The average annual household income for the families was less than $30,000. Most of the data was provided by parents and other adult family members but a few of the adolescents with DBD and their siblings also gave their opinion about mental health interventions. Families said that they would prefer multi family groups that included both psychoeducational sessions led by professionals and the time to network with other families that share their challenges, and offered in their own neigborhoods. Families described a number of issues or topics they would like professionals to address, including managing the adolescents' disruptive behaviors, family communication and conflict resolution, education about the disorders, strategies to manage the adolescents' care and service use, the personal issues and feelings of family members, and positive outcomes experienced by families. Conclusion: Findings provide the foundational data to begin the development of an emperically supported intervention for family members of adolescents with DBD. The findings also suggest that psychiatric nurses and other clinicians can clearly address some of the needs expressed by the family members in the context of everyday clinical practice.