Sexual orientation and gender identity are among the least of considerations in facing life sentences for crimes committed. Prison experiences differ among cisgender and transgender affecting motivations for change and reformation. This phenomenological inquiry aims to capture the lived experiences of 21 Filipino detainees (aged 21-59), disaggregated to: 10 cisgender women, 3 lesbians, 4 gays, 2 bisexual women, 1 bisexual man and 1 transwoman. Using an interview guide, the narratives were subjected to vertical and horizontal analyses yielding a set of emerging themes that describe what the cisgender women and LGBT detainees consider to be their motivations for change and reformation. The emergent taxonomy depicts three motivational frames which structure the mindset of the detainees in their drive for change and reformation: Maturation Motivational frame, Ministration Motivational frame and Management Motivational frame. These three frames are crucial perspectives developed from their pre-prison states, peri-prison states and post-prison expectations. This paper contributes to the knowledge base on Gender and Development and LGBT psychology. Additionally, the findings of this qualitative inquiry deepen the understanding of reformative care and gender-specific prison management in the Philippines and may assist in promoting the mental health and well-being of Filipino detainees.

Death is a universal concept which influences all human beings. Through generations, the process of grieving and mourning which accompany death, has evolved from traditional to digital, aligned with the changes of time. In varying age groups, this grieving process is expressed in diverse ways, and existing literature shows a lack of this exploration, especially in the Filipino context. This phenomenological research aims to describe the participants’ digitalized mourning by utilizing social media platforms to process their grief. The participants will be from the Millennials or ages 24-42 years old, from Legazpi City, the capital of Albay. Using an interview guide, this study seeks to answer: “How do millennials give meaning to their social media mourning?” The narratives will be analyzed through thematic analysis via a repertory grid. This research hopes to contribute to the growing Filipino research literature on death and dying, specific in age groups, which is most beneficial in gerontological psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology. The study resulted in the formulation of the H.E.R.O. model of social media mourning, representing the following themes: Helping and Hurting, Enriching and Encroaching, Relieving and Reliving, and Obtaining and Obscuring; categorizing the various forms of mourning demonstrated by Filipino millennials online. These findings have important implications for individuals, families, and communities as they navigate the challenges of grief and loss in the digital age. This study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of bereavement by examining the ways in which Filipino millennials use social media to cope with loss.

Relationships are experienced all throughout one’s lifetime with differing layers of complexities to maintain and make it last. Among older adult couples, relationships are found to be crucial attributions for being mentally healthy in their intrapersonal and interpersonal lives. There is a rich extant literature on relationships and mental health of older adults. However, this paper argues that there is still a research imperative to provide a more contextualized characterization pertinent to the mentally healthy behaviors employed by Filipino older adults in their more than 20 years of relationship. This phenomenological research underscored the typification of mentally healthy behaviors of older adult couples in long-term monogamous relationships. Guided by the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 22 participants (11 couples) were selected and interviewed. From the collective narratives, a framework, ‘Fixatives for mentally healthy long-term monogamous relationships’ was rendered with three themes; Character reservoir (Staying to fill you up), Emotional reservoir (Staying to lift you up) and Eternal reservoir (Staying to back you up). The findings showed that the success of a long-term monogamous relationship calls for a pledge of a lifetime commitment and being cognitively, emotionally, socially and spiritually invested to their spouses. The emergent framework may be used as a springboard for community-based programs such as family support sessions and other supportive interventions for older adults. The framework may also be used as a guide for strengthening mental health advocacy campaigns, end-of-life services and to encourage more older-adult studies to deeply enrich the research culture on the Filipino older adults.

The older adult population has been a growing concern in the global context calling for attention to aging processes, supportive measures and health care policies. In the Philippines, the population of older people is accumulating swiftly with a faster growth compared to the total population of the country. Thus, this calls for a closer attention on the overall wellness and the mental health of older adults that are more crucial in comparison to other ages in one’s lifetime. Generating a database search strategy for the last 10 years focused on the mental health of older adults, retrieved articles from APA PsycNet, ProQuest, SAGE, EBSCOHost and PubMed Central electronic databases were synthesized guided by the set inclusion and exclusion criteria and utilizing the PRISMA flowchart of the record selection process. This narrative synthesis rendered the Mental Health Orientations of Older Adults to illustrate an integrated framework to understand mental health and older adults. The findings of this research synthesized a portrait on how older adults give credence to their mental health in various concerns and needs which they directly and indirectly experience. These will be valuable in considering age-specific mental health needs aligned with the three orientations that will support Philippine law provisions on mental health (RA11036 or the Mental Health Act) and on senior citizens (RA9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizen Act) with the continuing aim of providing access for mental health services and integrated strategies for the promotion of mental health.

Over the years, reports of overcrowding, unsanitary circumstances, and inhumane treatment towards detainees have been increasing. In the Philippines, specific reports on poor inmate living conditions and violence are prominent. Moreover, the incarcerated are placed in life-altering circumstances when the prison cells are overcrowded, resulting in varied prison crowding experiences. This phenomenology study aims to understand how the detainees give meaning to their crowding experiences. Ten (10) male and female Filipino young adult (20–35 years old) detainees from the Legazpi City Jail were interviewed, excluding any participants under solitary confinement or isolation due to precautionary health measures. The participants’ narratives were examined through within- and cross-case analysis, and four (4) themes: Kulong sa kapungawan (longing and yearning), Kulong sa kapanahunan (sentiments over a period of time), Kulong sa pag-asa (experiences that instill hope), and Kulong sa oportunidad (forced opportunities and routine-based life) were rendered via repertory gridding. These contextualized the prison crowding experiences of Filipino detainees specific to family and community concepts in a Bicolano culture. The findings of this research may contribute to intersectionality studies, especially in clinical, rehabilitation, and community psychology. The findings can also be substantial as a springboard for implementing culture-specific programs for the incarcerated.

This study took on a qualitative approach with a multiple case study design. The researchers gathered and analyzed data on the psychological issues of the victims after being ghosted which requires deeper knowledge about the event. Multiple case study was the best fit to fulfill this research because the design will serve as an avenue to capture different profiles of victims and perspectives of the experiences of the victims after being ghosted in a romantic relationship to explain the mental and emotional struggles, psychological issues, and coping strategies of victims. Examining the narratives of the five (5) young adult victims of ghosting through Thematic Analysis, it was found that these narratives encompass the three themes that emerged in the study, namely The Masala Effect, The Matcha Effect, and The Lapsang Effect, which illustrate the issues faced by the victims in their ghosting experiences. These themes serve as the guidelines that will promote societal awareness and further understanding of the actual gravity of the phenomenon with studies conducted by Freedman et al. (2022) and Pancani et al. (2022) confirming that victims of ghosting experienced more of a threat to their fundamental psychological needs, and with Holmes (2022) acknowledging the boom of technology generated new human experiences like being ghosted makes the end of a romantic relationship even more difficult, stressing that it is important to seek understanding of this phenomenon sooner than later to understand the future of romantic relationships and society at a whole.. This paper also supplements past studies which failed to focus on the emotional and psychological impact of ghosting on its victims. The findings of this study also provided an eye-opener for the general public that ghosting exists and compromises the emotional and psychological stability of the victims in the aftermath of being ghosted. With increased understanding of this phenomenon, individuals, mental health professionals, and organizations can help recognize and address the issue more effectively. This research on the psychological issues faced by victims of ghosting can promote prevention efforts by increasing awareness of the issue and its potential negative impacts. This could lead to increased efforts to prevent ghosting, both at the individual level (e.g., through education and communication about healthy relationship communication) and at the organizational level (e.g., through policies and practices that discourage ghosting in the workplace). Along with that, this research supplements the need for data in the Southeast Asian context of dating culture, specifically in the Philippines.

Objective: The overall intent of this conjoint analysis study is to explicate family intervention preferences of the respondents (aged 18-75) to assist Filipino Older adults in coping with death anxiety and interment stress. Background: Distressing life circumstances such as death and interment are better coped with family interventions. There have been numerous studies on how family interventions assist in the treatment of physiological and mental illnesses, but there is a continuing research imperative to empirically establish specific family interventions which are holistic and appropriate in cultural and social contexts. Method: Conjoint analysis was utilized to identify the preferred family intervention measures. A total of 214 adults from the most populous group of islands in the Philippines qualified in the inclusion criteria and after the ethical clearance was obtained, the recruitment started via snowball sampling, following the inclusion criteria set in this research. The demographic details were utilized for the descriptive and inferential statistics of this study, and the orthogonal plan cards were generated via SPSS software to create the orthogonal profiles. Results: The outcomes of the statistics demonstrated that the conjoint model performed for this study was considerably fit: Pearson’s R is .670, p<.01, Kendall’s Tau is .487, p<.05. Results showed that the cognitive state (23.272%) is the most important and the spiritual state (17.256%) as the least important attribute of family interventions. Part-worth of family interventions showed favoring the following: Medical routines and procedures (.342) for the physical state; mental health awareness (.266) for mental state; livelihood trainings (.051) for social state; family therapy (.022) for psychological state; and church activities (.017) for the spiritual state. The correlation analysis showed that the spiritual state is significantly correlated with age (r = 0.151, p < 0.05) and number of children (r = 0.143, p < 0.05). Conclusion: This conjoint analysis study provided empirical evidence for identifying preferences of family intervention measures in a holistic perspective by combining physical, mental, social, psychological and spiritual attributes. The findings rendered a multi-modal structure to cope with death anxiety and interment stress that will have a significant bearing in the overall care of the older adult in the family and improve family dynamics. Implications: The findings will subscribe to the knowledge base useful in family theories and relations, developmental psychology, ageing studies, gerontological psychology and educational gerontology. Moreover, the significant findings will greatly contribute in implementing effective psychosocial and psychoeducational strategies towards the mental health care of the older adult population.