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13 - Ethnographic Case Study: Maria – Cultural Change and Posttraumatic Stress in the Life of a Belizean Adolescent Girl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2010

By
Eileen Anderson-Fye
Edited by
Carol M. Worthman ,
Paul M. Plotsky ,
Daniel S. Schechter  and
Constance A. Cummings
Carol M. Worthman
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Paul M. Plotsky
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Daniel S. Schechter
Affiliation:
Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève
Constance A. Cummings
Affiliation:
Foundation for Psychocultural Research, California
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Summary

I can feel the pain inside me and joy

Yes, it makes me think God's a woman too.

Chorus of song by Maria, 12 years old

Twenty percent of the world's children and adolescents suffer from a disabling mental illness, and this percentage is thought to be increasing (WHO, 2003). Moreover, subclinical mental illness is thought to compromise quality of life for thousands more children. Globalization and cultural change also appear to play a role in the worldwide increase of diagnosed mental illness among children and adolescents (WHO, 2003). One of the psychiatric illnesses linked to cultural change is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although the sociocultural and psychological pathways that lead to an increase in diagnoses of PTSD under conditions of change such as war have been well studied, these pathways have been less carefully examined in more normative situations such as economic and cultural globalization.

One cause of PTSD is child maltreatment. Korbin (1987) has suggested a relationship between cultural change and an increase in child maltreatment, though the exact way this increase affects PTSD prevalence is unknown. Following is a well-accepted definition of child maltreatment containing three tiers:

(1) cultural practices that are viewed as abusive or neglectful by other cultures, but not by the culture in question; (2) idiosyncratic departure from one's cultural continuum of acceptable behavior; and (3) societally induced harm to children beyond the control of individual parents and caretakers.

(Korbin, 1980, 1981; 1987, p. 34)
Type
Chapter
Information
Formative Experiences
The Interaction of Caregiving, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology
 , pp. 331 - 343
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

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