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Muslim Youth in the Face of Islamophobia: Risk and Resilience

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Islamophobia and Psychiatry

Abstract

Although bullying of American Muslim adolescents is on the rise, there is little understanding of the complexities of their bullying experiences. The pervasiveness of bullying places Muslim (the usage of the term “Muslim” refers to American Muslims, unless otherwise noted) youth at risk for poor mental health and increased engagement in risky behaviors. These challenges create an atmosphere in which Muslim adolescents may feel misunderstood and unsupported in different settings in their lives. However, Muslim youth also demonstrate resilience in the face of bullying and discrimination (Ahmed et al. J Community Psychol 48:181–192, 2011). Thus, it is imperative to support Muslim youth from multiple avenues to foster resilience and minimize the negative impact of bullying. The goal of this chapter is to (1) summarize the research findings on the bullying experiences of American Muslim adolescents and (2) provide clinical recommendations and strategies for supporting their positive development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Family & Youth Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Madiha Tahseen

  2. Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Sawssan R. Ahmed

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar

    Sawssan R. Ahmed

  4. The Family and Youth Institute, Canton, MI, USA

    Sameera Ahmed

Authors
  1. Madiha Tahseen
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  2. Sawssan R. Ahmed
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  3. Sameera Ahmed
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Madiha Tahseen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical College of Wisconsin (Retired Tenured Professor), Milwaukee, WI, USA

    H. Steven Moffic

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    John Peteet

  3. Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in Association with Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

    Ahmed Zakaria Hankir

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Rania Awaad

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Tahseen, M., Ahmed, S.R., Ahmed, S. (2019). Muslim Youth in the Face of Islamophobia: Risk and Resilience. In: Moffic, H., Peteet, J., Hankir, A., Awaad, R. (eds) Islamophobia and Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_26

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00511-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00512-2

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