Examining and Elaborating the Hybrid Model of Stress Response as Applied to Belizean Contexts

Project Overview

Investigator:
Joy Lee-Shi, MA
Graduate Student (currently graduated)
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University
Email: jleeshi@outlook.com

Thesis Supervisor:
Robert G. Ley, PhD
Professor (currently retired)
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University

Status: Completed
Population: Adults in Belize
Sample: 12 participants

This project was my Master’s thesis in Psychology at Simon Fraser University and examined how Belizeans understand experiences of trauma and adversity, the psychological and emotional responses that can follow these experiences, and the ways people cope.

Much of the psychological literature on trauma has been developed in North American and European contexts, with comparatively little research examining how trauma is conceptualized and experienced in Belize. This project therefore centered Belizean perspectives, asking not only what kinds of experiences people identified as traumatic or highly adverse, but also how social and cultural context shapes the meaning of those experiences.

A central issue emerging from the research was the boundary between adversity and trauma. Experiences such as childhood adversity, violence, loss, and other significant stressors may become relatively common within particular social environments, raising questions about definitions of trauma that rely on an event being outside the range of “normal” experience. The project explored these questions alongside participants’ descriptions of post-stressor outcomes, coping, and social support.

This project aimed to not only advance theoretical knowledge of trauma but also create a more culturally relevant framework for describing trauma in Belize, a diverse under-represented population in research. To achieve this, this study had two main objectives:

1. Explore the experiences of adversity and trauma among Belizeans: types encountered, perceptions, and interpretations, including post-stressor changes and coping.
2. Expand upon the Hybrid Model of Stress Response (Krupnik, 2019).

Conference Presentations

Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2025, May). From Adversity to Trauma: Examining and Elaborating the Hybrid Model of Stress Response as Applied to Belizean Contexts [Paper presentation, Symposium]. Inaugural Conference on Critical Social Justice in Psychology, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2025, April). The Double-Edged Sword of Social Support: Protective and Risk Factors in Trauma Recovery in Belize [Oral presentation]. 22nd Hawai’i International Summit on Preventing, Assessing & Treating Trauma Across the Lifespan, Hawaii, USA.

Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2025, March). The Double-Edged Sword of Social Support: Protective and Risk Factors in Trauma Recovery in Belize [Poster presentation]. JEDAI (Justice, Decolonizing, Reconciliation, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion) Research Fair, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada.