Mixed Experiences: a study of the childhood narratives of mixed race people related to risks to their mental health and capacity for developing resilience

Posted in Dissertations, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United Kingdom on 2012-12-12 22:44Z by Steven

Mixed Experiences: a study of the childhood narratives of mixed race people related to risks to their mental health and capacity for developing resilience

City University London, School of Health Sciences
December 2011
330 pages

Dinah Cecilia Morley

This thesis is submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community and Health Sciences Research.

Background: The mixed race child population is growing proportionately faster than any other group. Whilst there is a body of research in this country, albeit small, that looks at the experiences of mixed race children, none of this research examines specifically the risks for mental health and the possibilities for developing resilience which may be related to growing up as a mixed race child.

Methods: Twenty-one adults, recruited through the internet, were asked to reflect on their childhood experiences in relation to being mixed race. They were offered a choice of response methods. The majority chose to provide a written account. A thematic analysis was carried out, within a phenomenological framework. A further analysis was undertaken to assess whether risks to mental health or opportunities to develop resilience could be identified in the findings from the phenomenological analysis using known risk and resilience factors relating to the mental health of children and young people.

Results: The data show that there are some additional risks to the mental health of mixed race young people. As well as difficulties experienced in establishing personal identity, they show that there are specific difficulties in secondary school and that young people of mixed race experience racism and prejudice from both black and white peers. The data indicate a capacity for building resilience, necessitated by their mixedness, linked to supportive families.

Conclusions: The overarching findings from this study mirror many of those from other mixed race studies. However this study shows how mixed race young people may experience some additional risks to mental health which need to be understood and considered by professionals in health, social
care, education and justice systems.

Table of Contents

  • Index of Tables
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgements and Declaration of Powers
  • Abstract
  • Chapter 1: Introduction
    • Background and context
    • Popular discourse
    • Creative writing and personal accounts
    • Demographic trends
    • Reasons for undertaking this study
    • Risk and resilience as a theoretical framework
    • Methodological approach and method
    • Positionality
    • Terminology
      • Race, ethnicity and culture
      • Mental health
    • The Structure of the Thesis
  • Chapter 2: A Review of the Literature
    • Chapter overview
    • Mental health and ethnicity
    • Mixed race young people
    • Service delivery issues as they affect young people of mixed race
    • Chapter Summary
  • Chapter 3: Risk and Resilience
    • Chapter overview
    • The Literature
    • Risk factors relating to family
    • Risks associated with the wider community
      • The school
      • Peers
      • The community beyond the school
    • Resilience
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 4: Relevant Demographic Data
    • Chapter Overview
    • Robustness of the data as it relates to mixedness
    • Ethnicity
    • Location
    • Education
    • Crime
    • Victims of Crime
    • Early Pregnancy
    • Children in Public Care
    • Mental Disorder
    • Summary of statistical information
  • Chapter 5: Methodology
    • Chapter overview
    • Using phenomenology
    • Interpreter bias and reflexivity
    • Using narrative
    • Rationale for the use of deductive material in the secondary analysis
    • Methodological approach summary
  • Chapter 6: Method
    • Chapter overview
    • Participant eligibility
    • The recruitment process
    • The chosen web sites
    • Contacts and participants recruited
    • Sample size
    • Types of responses – pros and cons
    • Confidentiality, anonymity and integrity
    • Reflexive aspects
    • Use of the internet to identify participants
    • Who uses the internet?
    • Other recruitment methods
    • Data quality
    • The thematic analysis
    • Reliability
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 7: The Thematic Analysis
    • Chapter overview
    • The analysis process
    • Telling the stories
    • Identifying the dominant themes
    • Themes and risks relating to the child
      • Appearance
      • Involvement in anti-racist work of some participants
    • Themes and risks relating to the family
      • Attitudes of family members
      • Access to wider family and visits for parents’ home countries
      • Sibling differences
      • Class
      • Meeting the absent parent
    • Themes and risks relating to the community
      • Mixed race isolation
      • School experiences
      • The multi-cultural nature of the community
      • Access to groups outside the family and school, including black groups
      • How public services respond to children on mixed race
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 8: The Obama Election
    • Chapter overview
    • Background
    • Participants’ views
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 9: Analysis of Risk and Resilience Issues
    • Chapter overview
    • Grouping the risk factors
      • Poor self esteem
      • Hostile and rejecting relationships
      • Discrimination
    • Establishing proxy indicators
    • Disconfirming evidence
    • Racism
    • Identity
    • Isolation
    • Overview of risk
    • Resilience
    • The continuum of risk to resilience
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 10: Theoretical Possibilities: an exploration of ‘risk’ and ‘mixed race’ from a sociological perspective
    • Chapter overview
    • Theorising mixed race in the context of globalisation and the risk society
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 11: Discussion of Findings and their Context
    • Chapter overview
    • Reviewing and assessing the thematic findings
      • Identity confusion
      • Otherness and isolation
      • Secondary school experiences
      • Racism
      • Family support or lack of it
    • Review of the methodology
    • Policy and practice implications
    • Strengths, limitations and future opportunities
    • Chapter summary
  • Chapter 12: Concluding Remarks
  • Appendices

Index of Tables

  • Table 1: Prevalence of specific child and adolescent mental health risk factors and impact on rate of mental disorder
  • Table 2: Mixed race demography (UK) 2001
  • Table 3: Mixed race demography (E&W) 2001
  • Table 4: Age distributions across the ethnic groups
  • Table 5: Location of people of mixed race in the UK – 2001 Census
  • Table 6: Educational attainment (higher educational qualification) as a proportion of ethnic population (16-74yrs). 2001 Census E&W)
  • Table 7: 5 A-C passes gained by 15-year olds in GCSE and equivalent by ethnicity – England)
  • Table 8: Attainment at Key Stage 4 (KS4) – percentage of pupils gaining 5 A*-C grades of pupils of mixed race, by gender, ethnicity and free school meals (FSM) eligibility in England
  • Table 9: Criminal justice disposals of young people aged 12-17 by ethnicity
  • Table 10: Convictions for drug usage by ethnicity in young people aged 10 – 17
  • Table 11: Children in Public Care by Ethnic Group. (DfES 2006)
  • Table 12: Initial response grid p.105
  • Table 13: Households with access to the Internet in Great Britain
  • Table 14: Length of written submissions
  • Table 15: Characteristics of participants, showing pseudonyms
  • Table 16: Clusters of Themes
  • Table 17: Family status of participants
  • Table 18: Wider family relationships and influences
  • Table 19: Growing up without two birth parents
  • Table 20: Indicators of specific risks for mixed race young people
  • Table 21: Proxy indicators showing the presence of risk factors in relation to the significant findings for the selected sample

Documents: Introductory Materials, Volume 1, and Volume 2 (Appendices)

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