Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community最新文献

Schools are a critical developmental context for adolescents that can, depending on certain characteristics, do a better or worse job at promoting student resilience and well-being. In working to meet student needs and respond to student behaviors, schools can exhibit more punitive characteristics, like exclusionary discipline practices, or more promotive characteristics, including restorative practices and marshaling of mental health resources. While punitive factors have been associated with more negative outcomes, especially for marginalized students, and promotive factors have been associated with more positive outcomes for students, these factors have rarely been considered together. We conducted an online survey of students from high schools in the Midwest. Students rated their experiences of various promotive and punitive characteristics at their schools, as well as their sense of the school climate-perceived safety, fairness, and belonging. Promotive factors uniquely and positively predicted climate outcomes, eclipsing any effect of punitive factors. Further, while main effects indicated differences across racial groups in perceptions of school climate, there were no racial group differences in the impact of promotive factors on these climate perceptions. When exploring different promotive elements, support from teachers and staff, as well as available resources and mental health resources had the largest predictive effects on climate outcomes for students. We discuss implications for how educators and policy makers can leverage such promotive characteristics to create equitable contexts for all students to flourish.

The current study explored youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a multi-level intervention to promote young adults' wellbeing within a virtual National Young Adult Wellbeing Network. The research questions were: 1) how did young adults conceptualize wellbeing?; 2) how did young adults describe the impact of YPAR on their wellbeing? Fifteen racially and economically diverse 18-23 year olds from three states participated. Phase one included creating art as data (research), critical reflection, and action planning in YPAR. Phase two involved a qualitative follow up to create a collective definition of wellbeing. Field notes, arti(facts), and post-interviews were coded and reflexive thematic analysis was used to answer the research questions. Young adults' conceptualization of wellbeing centered the impact of structural forces on individual and group functioning. YPAR facilitated the young adults' wellbeing across five domains. Combining positive psychology and community psychology in YPAR can improve individual and collective wellbeing.

Young people living in urban, high-burden communities are at particular risk to experience adversity that affects well-being, including exposure to community violence and barriers to accessing health-focused resources. To address these concerns, the current paper describes the development and evaluation of a pilot, 6-week positive psychology intervention (PPI) with fifteen Black, Hispanic, and Asian youth leaders attending an afterschool program in a high-burden NJ community. Results indicated positive changes in psychological well-being and health-focused practices at one program site (n = 8) and declines in health practices at the other (n = 7). Results also indicated initial site differences in youths' interests and beliefs about well-being, which may have contributed to the different outcomes. Our findings highlight the potential of culturally-responsive PPIs and to promote positive mental health for minoritized youth in high-burden communities. They also urge researchers and practitioners to consider potential adverse effects of interventions, especially when programs are implemented in a universal way.

Social network analysis (SNA) can provide insight to support communities from positive and community psychology perspectives. From a strengths-based, positive psychology perspective, social connections provide information, support, and resources, which contribute to health, employment, life satisfaction, and resilience. Interconnected communities facilitate dissemination of resources and promote health, resilience, and empowerment. This study examined a strengths-based, participatory application of SNA to inform family programming, build community, and facilitate the exchange of families' sociocultural assets at a bilingual preschool (BP) that primarily serves Latine families. Participatory, quantitative, and qualitative methods explored 1) the strengths of BP's use of SNA, 2) the effects of community-building efforts, and 3) the benefits exchanged through community networks. This study illustrates an application of SNA as an action research tool that bridges positive and community psychology perspectives by building on community members' strengths, increasing access to support and resources, and empowering individuals and communities to thrive.

Studies have identified three key components of mattering: getting attention from others, feeling that you are important to others, and feeling that others depend on you to fulfill a need in their lives. Research consistently links experiences of mattering with positive mental health outcomes and the absence of mattering with a range of self-destructive and antisocial behaviors in youth. Despite this, limited research has explored how young people themselves understand and experience mattering. This study investigates the phenomenology of mattering among youth, drawing on 359 comments submitted in response to a New York Times article between November 3 and December 3, 2023. Guided by grounded theory coding methodology, the analysis yielded 33 code clusters, which were categorized into four main themes: preconditions, sources of mattering, potential effects, and lack of mattering. Findings offer new insights into how mattering is experienced by youth, highlighting implications for prevention and well-being promotion strategies.

This article contributes to the literature by (a) providing evidence of benefits of awe-inspiring interventions for a vulnerable population (i.e., residents of a homeless shelter), (b) reporting the development and validation of two new psychometric instruments that fill a significant void in the assessment of awe, and (c) providing recommendations for future research examining the use of these new instruments in assessing awe in vulnerable populations. Awe refers to peak experiences of sublime wonderment, accompanied by awe-related reactions including a sense of vastness, self-transcendence, interconnectivity with others or the world, enhanced prosociality, perceptual accommodation, altered time perception, and a characteristic pattern of neurophysiological reactivity. In the first section, we cite evidence that awe experiences are associated with both physical and mental health, as well as theoretical models on the mechanisms by which awe experiences enhance health. Then, we briefly review research on the benefits of awe-related interventions, emphasizing that there is a dearth of research focused on vulnerable populations. Subsequently, we present research (quantitative and qualitative) demonstrating the benefits of awe-related interventions for homeless shelter residents, which were implemented within the context of a long-term participatory community action research project. In the second section, we review research and theory regarding the specific elements of the awe construct. We show that, despite a growing body of research on awe, there is no adequate (comprehensive) psychometric instrument to assess trait (or dispositional) awe. Then, we present a series of studies (quantitative and qualitative) focused on developing and validating the Trait Inventory of Awe and an accompanying instrument (Inventory of Self-Efficacy for Awe). Toward the end of the manuscript, we discuss various ways to use the newly-validated psychometric instruments (including short versions) for assessing awe in vulnerable populations, including assessment of interventions designed to inspire awe.

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Peoples have endured centuries of colonization, resulting in lasting mental health effects (historical trauma). Historical trauma has been linked to PTSD symptoms (e.g., grief, anger, hypervigilance) and resulting health inequities. Clinical psychology, particularly the subfield of positive psychology that centers communities, can help address maladaptive historical trauma coping (e.g., substance misuse) for AI/AN Peoples. Mindfulness is a promising intervention strategy that may mitigate the impacts of historical trauma responses among AI/AN Peoples to prevent substance misuse. The present study investigated relations between historical trauma thought frequency (HLS), historical trauma response (HLASS), trait mindfulness (total FFMQ score), and lifetime substance use among AI/AN adults. Participants self-identified as AI/AN, were ≥18 years old, and endorsed lifetime alcohol or drug use (n = 162) were recruited from a large, Midwestern university and surrounding community. Participants completed an online survey that assessed trait mindfulness, substance use, HLS, and HLASS. Pearson bivariate correlations and moderation analyses were conducted. On average, participants reported thinking of historical losses daily. Higher HLS scores were significantly associated with greater substance use and greater HLASS scores (ps<.01). FFMQ moderated the relation between HLS and substance use (p = .026), such that HLS and substance use were positively associated at low FFMQ levels but non-significant at high FFMQ levels. Findings suggest that AI/AN adults with high trait mindfulness may be less likely to engage in substance use despite the presence of historical trauma thoughts. As such, mindfulness-based interventions may represent promising approaches to reduce substance use associated with historical trauma among AI/AN Peoples. Future clinical and community-based participatory research studies can build on this work to culturally adapt mindfulness-based interventions to reduce substance use related to coping with historical trauma thoughts among AI/AN Peoples.

Gun violence disproportionately affects New York City's poorest neighborhoods, with gang-related incidents comprising approximately half of the shootings in these communities. Traditional law enforcement approaches have shown limited effectiveness, prompting development of community violence interventions (CVIs) that target high-risk individuals through holistic programming. Project Restore (PR), a 12-month CVI serving 30 men from two rival street crews, achieved notable success with all participants completing the program without new arrests for violent acts and the community experiencing a 28% greater than expected reduction in shooting incidents. This study examines how PR influenced participants' social networks to better understand potential mechanisms underlying these violence reduction outcomes. Using mixed methods, Study 1 employed qualitative content analysis of post-intervention interviews with 25 of the 30 PR participants to examine relationship changes across three Social Brain Hypothesis levels: Support Clique (family), Sympathy Group (peers, mentors), and Active Network (professional connections). Study 2 conducted social network analysis with a purposely selected subset of six participants-three influential crew leaders from each of the two rival groups who engaged in cross-gang collaboration focused on community peacebuilding-examining social network changes pre- and post-intervention. Results demonstrated substantial network expansion and transformation that may help explain PR's previously documented violence reduction success. Study 1's broader sample revealed improved family relationships, enhanced peer communication skills, and expanded community engagement across all participants. The six influential leaders in Study 2 reported an 11.7-fold increase in social connections, with marked growth in mentor relationships and professional connections. Most notably, the six leaders from previously disconnected rival crews became interconnected, indicating successful cross-crew collaboration. These social network transformations may help account for PR's violence reduction success by facilitating prosocial norm diffusion within resistant social structures. Unlike traditional approaches that sever social ties, PR demonstrates how existing gang networks can be leveraged to promote positive change through systematic social network strengthening.

Addressing complex and persistent issues such as substance misuse requires sustained collaboration by individuals and organizations. This exploratory study investigates factors that predict coalition members' perceptions of their inter-organizational relationships and the effects those relationships have on the community. Ego-centric network data were collected via online survey from participants in substance misuse prevention coalitions across Tennessee. Each respondent (i.e., ego) was asked to indicate other organizations (i.e., alters) with whom their organization worked to prevent substance misuse in the last six months. The resulting dataset comprised 256 unique ego-alter relationships (representing inter-organizational collaborations) from 66 organizations across 31 coalitions. We used two-level mixed-effects logistic regression models to examine the factors that affect a respondents' perception that each ego-alter relationship is highly impactful to the community. Implications for our understanding of inter-organizational collaboration, as well as the value of ego-centric inter-organizational network analysis for examining collaboration networks across locales, are discussed.