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Eunice Wong, PhD
Professional Bio
Eunice C. Wong, Ph.D., is an associate behavioral scientist at the Rand Corporation. Dr. Wong has a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has expertise in substance abuse, mental health and service-seeking in racial and ethnic minority populations. Dr. Wong has conducted studies on service-seeking and barriers to care as well as concordance between patient and provider perspectives on obstacles to mental health care. Her more recent work has focused on trauma-exposed populations and the implementation of evidence-based mental health treatment into community settings.
Dr. Wong's research with trauma-exposed populations is currently focused on issues related to treatment access, quality of care and health outcomes. She is working on developing a psycho-educational video intervention targeting trauma injury survivors who are at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dr. Wong has also been involved in several community-partnered efforts aimed at enhancing the provision of evidence-based mental health treatment for depression and PTSD for underserved populations in New Orleans and South Los Angeles.
Project Description
Even though immigrants make up an ever increasing part of the country, there is limited knowledge on immigrants' adjustment to life in the U.S., especially in terms of mental health outcomes.
The purpose of the present study is to examine depression outcomes and associated risk factors among U.S. immigrants using the New Immigrant Survey, the first study conducted with a nationally representative sample of U.S. immigrants. This study explores pre-immigration and post-migration factors related to the successful adaptation of immigrants in the U.S.
Findings
Using a nationally representative sample of US immigrants, this study examined the prevalence of depression and associated risk factors in this population. Interestingly, relatively low rates of depression were found. Female gender, younger age, greater numbers of years lived in the US, being admitted to the US for refugee status reasons, and greater exposure to political violence were associated with increased odds for meeting criteria for probable depression. This study's findings highlight the importance of considering the contextual factors involved in the immigration process when trying to understand immigrant mental health. The finding that exposure to political violence in the country of origin exhibited one of the strongest associations with depression underscores the importance of considering the conditions experienced by immigrants prior to resettlement. In addition, a growing number of studies are finding that greater exposure to life in the U.S. increases immigrants' risk for a variety of mental health problems. A better understanding of the contextual factors involved in increased risk for mental health problems with greater exposure to U.S. is needed. Findings highlight the importance of considering the contextual factors involved in both pre-immigration and resettlement conditions that relate to mental health well-being in order to ensure the successful adjustment of immigrants in the US.
Why I Applied to New Connections
New Connections provided an opportunity to obtain funding to conduct my own independent research using secondary data. Funding opportunities such as these are rare to come by.
What New Connections Means for my Career
The New Connections award has helped establish my credibility as an independent investigator, allowed me to network with other colleagues with similar research interests, and provided opportunities to refine my research skills. In addition to these tangible gains, the New Connections award has provided me with many intangible gains such as being connected to and inspired by so many others devoted to improving the health and well-being of the underserved.
Research Interests
Trauma and PTSD; Health Disparities; Ethnic Minority Mental Health; Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Treatments in Community Settings; Community-Partnered Participatory Research
Discipline(s)
Clinical Psychology
Populations Served
This research is aimed at informing policy makers, service providers, and researchers interested in serving immigrant populations.