New Releases by Jennifer Soriano

Activist Jen Soriano brings to light the lingering impacts of transgenerational trauma and uses science, history, and family stories to flow toward transformation in this powerful collection that brings together the lyric storytelling, cultural exploration, and thoughtful analysis of The Argonauts, The Woman Warrior, What My Bones Know, and Minor Feelings. The power of quiet can haunt us over generations, crystallizing in pain that Jen Soriano views as a form of embodied history. In this searing memoir in essays, Soriano, the daughter of a neurosurgeon, journeys to understand the origins of her chronic pain and mental health struggles. By the end, she finds both the source and the delta of what bodies impacted by trauma might need to thrive. In fourteen essays connected by theme and experience, Soriano traverses centuries and continents, weaving together memory and history, sociology and personal stories, neuroscience and public health, into a vivid tapestry of what it takes to transform trauma not just body by body, but through the body politic and ecosystems at large. Beginning with a shocking timeline juxtaposing Soriano's medical history with the history of hysteria and witch hunts, Nervous navigates the human body--centering neurodiverse, disabled, and genderqueer bodies of color--within larger systems that have harmed and silenced Filipinos for generations. Soriano's wide-ranging essays contemplate the Spanish-American War that ushered in United States colonization in the Philippines; the healing power of an inherited legacy of music; a chosen family of activists from the Bay Area to the Philippines; and how the fluidity of our nervous systems can teach us how to shape a trauma-wise future. With Nervous, Soriano boldly invites us along on a watershed journey toward healing, understanding, and communion.

The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship of psychosocial stress and attitude toward illness to psychological adjustment among youths with chronic arthritis. Main effects of stress and attitude toward illness and the stress-moderating effect of attitude toward illness were investigated. 75 youths with chronic arthritis ages 8--18 years and their parents were recruited from a major children's hospital. Children were administered a semi-structured interview assessing arthritis-related stress, chronic stress, and episodic stress in the domains of academics, peer relationships, family relationships, and extracurricular activities. Children also completed self-report measures of attitude toward illness, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Parents completed a measure of child psychosocial adjustment. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the predicted main and moderating effects of stress and attitude toward illness on child adjustment, after accounting for the effects of demographic and medical variables. Results indicated that higher levels of arthritis-related and episodic stress were associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Higher levels of chronic stress were associated with higher levels of anxiety symptoms and parent-reported adjustment problems. Attitude toward illness was a significant predictor of child adjustment, with more positive attitudes toward illness associated with lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Stress x attitude toward illness interactions were significant predictors of depressive symptoms, supporting the stress-moderating role of attitude toward illness. Although higher levels of arthritis-related, chronic, and episodic stress were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms under the condition of a negative attitude toward illness, the relationship between stress and adjustment was either nonexistent or weaker under the condition of a positive attitude. Study findings support the importance of assessing illness-related stress, general life stress, and attitude toward illness among youth with chronic arthritis to identify children at risk for adjustment problems. Suggestions are provided for intervention efforts to help children cope with arthritis-related stressors and to promote a more positive attitude toward illness as a resource in the face of illness-related challenges.