First Peer-Reviewed Quantitative Study on Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) to be Published in European Journal

Legitimizing the painful experiences of FSA adult survivors through global research

You can now read the full published study here: https://oapub.org/hlt/index.php/EJPHS/article/view/202/202.

Our second (now completed) co-authored quantitative study on FSA and Postpartum depression (PPD) will be published in late 2025 in both Asia and Europe in peer-reviewed health and medical journals..

To all my subscribers,

I’d like to share some exciting news, and it really is something worthy of all FSA adult survivors celebrating!

I have just been informed by Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala - whom I co-authored the first peer-reviewed quantitative study on Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) with - that our study on FSA as related to the experiences of University students in Zambia will be published in 2025 in the European Journal of Public Health Studies.

As a renowned mental health researcher, Dr. Kartheek R Balapala advocates the concept of visualization in medical sciences for better comprehension at medical institutions around the globe and serves as an Associate editor and board member for international medical research journals. You can learn more about Dr Balapala and what makes him such a powerful partner and advocate for greater understanding of FSA and its effects at the end of this post.

Such studies serve to further legitimize the painful experiences of FSA adult survivors. In regard to this most recent study I co-authored with Dr. Balapala, it also provides evidence that more resources, practical support, and clinical understanding on the part of treatment providers are needed for those suffering from scapegoating and other forms of family abuse.

I’d like to add that I have had plenty of people discount my FSA research that I’ve conducted over the past 15 years because it was qualitative - as if people’s lived experience is inconsequential.

The sad fact of the matter is, qualitative research is frequently discounted, invalidated, and ignored within academic and clinical circles, no matter how rigorous one’s research methods. I was therefore pleased to learn from Dr. Balapala that my original FSA questionnaire that I used in my own research passed a 5-person Mental Health peer-review team at the University in Zambia (where our study was conducted) with flying colors (a CFA value of 0.87 indicated ‘strong reliability’. Only a few adjustments were made to my FSA questionnaire to account for cultural differences).

As an FSA survivor myself, invalidation is something I’ve experienced for decades, and it was not always easy to keep moving forward and pushing on. However, I did continue on, and for one primary reason: To help adult survivors and clinicians understand FSA as a distinct Family Systems phenomenon that can (and does) occur in any type of dysfunctional family system - not just a narcissistic one. I also continued to hold a vision that someone would eventually reach out to me to partner on quantitative research studies, and this has finally happened.

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Check out my introductory book on FSA, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed

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I am extraordinarily grateful to Dr. Balapala for his interest in FSA and his willingness to support my work and help me bring international attention to this form of systemic psycho-emotional abuse via our co-authored studies and publications. Dr. Balapala has already invited me to participate in a second study on FSA, this time in regard to women who are scapegoated when experiencing Postpartum depression (PPD).

I’ll be sharing our first completed FSA study with you all here once I get the green light from Dr. Balapala to do so. Until then, I hope that your holidays are restful and restorative.

Holiday Support Chat: A reminder to our paid subscribers that I’ll be leaving our Holiday Support Chat up through January 5, ‘25. Access the Chat here: https://substack.com/chat/2666152/post/df4add47-8ffc-44bc-9caf-4ec1000ba3fa

Learn more about Dr. Balapala

Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala is a unique doctoral research scholar in mental health and clinical neurophysiology. His research interests span postural changes in blood pressure, mental stress and family scapegoating abuse, together with their impacts on human behaviour. Two decades ago, he graduated as a medical doctor, published over 54 papers in global medical and educational peer-reviewed journals, and challenged himself to think about both sides of scientific aphorisms. He is a firm believer in contemplation with academic tenacity. He has been mentoring medical graduates for the past 18 years across the globe and Africa. He published over 25 books on medical concepts in eight different languages across the European Union and the globe with LAP Lambert Academic Publishers. His book on the mind mapping techniques for medical concepts, based on Leonardo da Vinci’s concept of mind mapping, implied for medical students, is a remarkably novel contribution to twenty-first century medical knowledge.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2405-5105

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MOBILE APP USERS: If links aren’t working in this post, please report it to Substack support so they take this issue seriously at support@substack.com (email them to avoid the customer support bot). They don’t seem to be listening to me or other publishers who have alerted them to this issue.