Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Afro-Caribbean Women and Schizophrenia in England

博士论文改进补助金：英格兰的非洲裔加勒比妇女和精神分裂症

• 批准号: 0648174
• 负责人: Tanya Luhrmann
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-01 至 2008-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0648174&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Afro

Graduate student Johanne Eliacin, supervised by Dr. Tanya M. Luhrmann, will conduct an ethnographic investigation of the lived experiences of UK African-Caribbeans, with and without schizophrenia, to illuminate the socio-cultural mechanisms and processes that contribute to their high prevalence of the illness. Over the past twenty years, epidemiological studies have reported consistently that individuals of Caribbean origin in England have the highest rate of schizophrenia ever recorded anywhere. Research data suggest that the increased rates of schizophrenia in this population are not due to genetic vulnerability or biological factors but to environmental stress and other social risk factors that are not yet fully understood. Using ethnographic research methods, the researcher will explore how UK African-Caribbeans' subjective experiences of their social worlds shape their sense of self and the ways they experience and cope with stress. Building on existing epidemiological findings, she will conduct a micro-analysis of identified risk factors to better understand how they play out in individuals' daily life and generate specific hypotheses about how the social environment may lead to greater vulnerability to schizophrenia. She will also focus on African-Caribbean women, a population that is largely neglected in schizophrenia research in the UK. This ethnographic work will complement the epidemiological studies by providing the contextual and interpretative frameworks to analyze the experiences of African-Caribbeans in England and the various risks factors associated with schizophrenia in this population. It will contribute to an understanding of the role of socio-environmental factors in the development of schizophrenia and anthropological theories on the long-term impacts of immigration over the life course. It will help to bring to fore the experiences of African-Caribbean women in schizophrenia and health disparity research. It will also contribute significantly to the education of a female social scientist from an under-represented minority group.

研究生约翰埃利亚辛，由博士监督坦尼娅M。鲁尔曼将对患有和不患有精神分裂症的英国非裔加勒比人的生活经历进行民族志调查，以阐明导致该疾病高患病率的社会文化机制和过程。在过去的20年里，流行病学研究一直报告说，英格兰加勒比裔的人患精神分裂症的比例是有史以来最高的。研究数据表明，这一人群中精神分裂症发病率的增加不是由于遗传脆弱性或生物因素，而是由于环境压力和其他尚未完全了解的社会风险因素。使用人种学研究方法，研究人员将探讨英国非洲-加勒比人对社会世界的主观体验如何塑造他们的自我意识以及他们体验和科普压力的方式。 基于现有的流行病学研究结果，她将对已确定的风险因素进行微观分析，以更好地了解它们如何在个人的日常生活中发挥作用，并就社会环境如何导致更容易患上精神分裂症提出具体假设。她还将关注非洲-加勒比妇女，这一人群在英国的精神分裂症研究中基本上被忽视。这项民族志工作将补充流行病学研究，提供背景和解释框架，以分析在英格兰的非洲-加勒比人的经验和各种风险因素与精神分裂症在这个人口。它将有助于理解社会环境因素在精神分裂症发展中的作用，以及移民对生命历程的长期影响的人类学理论。这将有助于突出非洲-加勒比妇女在精神分裂症和健康差距研究方面的经验。 它还将大大有助于教育一名来自代表性不足的少数群体的女性社会科学家。