Puja Patel

University of North Carolina at Greensboro | UNCG · Department of Psychology

Background: In Kenya, the prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is close to 6%, but a notable treatment gap persists. AUD is especially pronounced among men, leading to negative consequences at both individual and family levels. This study examines the experiences of problem-drinking fathers in Kenya regarding previous treatment-seeking related...

This presentation explores the impact of a culturally relevant intervention anchored in behavioral activation and motivational interviewing targeting alcohol use and family engagement for fathers with problem drinking in Kenya.The intervention was simplified for lay providers. Clinical and implementation outcomes were examined with an emphasis on l...

Objectives: Based on the conceptual overlap between shift-&-persist (S&P) and culturally based strategies (critical civic engagement [CCE] and spiritually based coping), this study tests whether associations between these three previously disparate strategies are attributable to the existence of a higher-order coping construct: culturally informed...

Immigrants currently account for close to 14% of the United States’ population with one in four children growing up in an immigrant household. Yet, little is known about how immigrant parents and their adolescents dialogue about race and ethnicity within the evolving sociopolitical environment. Traditionally, the adolescents’ role in racial-ethnic...

Evidence suggests that within the context of collectivistic minority groups, familial pride may function largely as a family-based emotion. We examined whether emotions derived from achieving on behalf of ones’ family were associated with positive psychological functioning in Asian American college students. The sample for this cross-sectional desi...

Familism cultural values have been related to greater family cohesion and reduced conflict in Latinx adolescents and emerging adults. This study explores how emotional experiences related to familism may be associated with family functioning above and beyond familism values. We examined whether familism pride (i.e., the tendency to experience posit...

Family-based interventions offer a promising avenue for addressing chronic negative family interactions that contribute to lasting consequences, including family violence and the onset and maintenance of mental health disorders. The purpose of this study was to conduct a mixed-methods, single group pre-post pilot trial of a family therapy intervent...

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global surge in harassment and hate crimes against individuals of Asian descent, including Asian Americans. Misdirected blame and fear of COVID-19 is xenophobic, and simulates historical and systemic racism that frames Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners.” Racial discrimination negatively impacts academic wel...

Objective: To evaluate a lay provider-delivered, brief intervention to reduce problem drinking and related family consequences among men in Kenya. The 5-session intervention combines behavioral activation (BA) and motivational interviewing (MI). It integrates family-related material explicitly and addresses central cultural factors through gender...

Objective: To evaluate a lay provider-delivered, brief intervention to reduce problem drinking and related family consequences among men in Kenya. The 5-session intervention combines behavioral activation (BA) and motivational interviewing (MI). It integrates family-related material explicitly and addresses central cultural factors through gender t...

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the United States (US) have disproportionately high rates of food insecurity (FI). In the general population, FI has been associated with cognitive impairment among older adults and may exacerbate HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. The current study assessed the effects of FI and HIV infection on the neu...

HIV-associated neurocognitive impairments that impact daily function persist in the era of effective antiretroviral therapy. Cognitive training, a promising low-cost intervention, has been shown to improve neurocognitive functioning in some clinical populations. We tested the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of computerized cogni...