Introduction: The Psychology of Global Mobility

Abstract

(from the chapter) This chapter examines the integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the development of culturally grounded mental health, and psychosocial assessment tools for use with populations displaced by armed conflict or natural disaster. After first arguing for the importance of grounding our assessment tools in local cultural contexts, the author then describes the unique and complementary contributions that qualitative and quantitative methods can make to the creation of contextually and empirically sound instruments. Of particular importance is the capacity of blended or mixed-methods approaches to identify and assess locally salient expressions of wellbeing and distress, as well as factors that influence mental health in specific contexts. Drawing on examples from research on the mental health of adults in Afghanistan and on the psychosocial wellbeing of youth in Sri Lanka, the author illustrates an easily replicable, sequenced approach to culturally anchored development of measures. First, qualitative methods such as free-listing and key informant interviews are used to identify relevant constructs and key indicators of those constructs; those indicators are then used as items in newly-developed measures of the target constructs. The measures are then pilot tested in community surveys and assessed for reliability and validity using traditional quantitative scale development procedures. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of the development and validation of the Afghan Symptom Checklist and the Sri Lankan Index of Psychosocial Status - Child Version. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)