Assignment  : Cultural Considerations

As a mental health worker in a large city, you have been asked to work with refugee children who have been relocated from central Nigeria to live with foster families in your city. The children are between the ages of 9 and 13, boys and girls. They were rescued from a refugee camp in Nigeria where conditions were very poor. People were cramped and slept in rudimentary shelters. Food was scarce, and disease was rampant. Prior to arriving in the camp, the children were exposed to brutal violence. They saw their families murdered, houses burned, and witnessed or experienced sexual assault. Some were also injured in the attacks on their villages.

Utilize the Culturegrams database in the Argosy Online library, the Ethics and Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2010), and your readings to write a paper addressing the following:

Describe the psychological effects of violence that the children from Nigeria might be experiencing? Be sure to consider issues such as gender and age.

Design an intervention program to address the children's exposure to violence. Remember to consider individual, family, and community needs.

Describe the elements you would incorporate into a prevention program designed to foster resilience in the children from Nigeria, as well as break the cycle of violence that we learned can occur for children exposed to violence. You may research existing programs that utilize best practices as we have learned in this course, or design your own program.

Reflect on the debate between "cultural universality" and "cultural specificity". How would you reconcile this debate within the context of the ethics code for psychologists?

Discuss why it is important to take into consideration cultural traditions when designing an intervention program. Describe at least two specific Nigerian cultural traditions and how you would use this knowledge in designing your intervention program.

Briefly describe at least 2 ethical considerations that one would need to take into account when intervening with children as victims of violence in general, as well as pertaining to cultural issues specifically.