Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community最新文献

The aim of this study is to test the efficacy of the Seeds of Unity curriculum on a Pre-Kindergarten class consisting of four to five-year-old children in Brooklyn New York. The syllabus is a fusion of The Starting Small Program created by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the teaching of emotional competence theory. This study measured fourteen, four to five-year-old children before and after a ten-month exposure to the Seeds of Unity Curriculum. The Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) was utilized to measure changes in emotional competence before and after exposure to the curriculum. The results showed a mean score on the Gresham Social Skills index that placed the girls in the 76^% before the program and the 97% after, and the boys went from the 64% to the 89% when measured against children their age. Despite the small N, this study showed that using this curriculum, increased social emotional intelligence. The competencies incorporated into this paradigm are vital to improving relations between cultures in the ethnically diverse New York city schools and provides hope that change is possible.

The participation of immigrants in the host community is recognized in the literature as an important protective factor of integration and well-being. Research suggests that there are psychological and social benefits to community engagement, but also differences among forms of participation. The first aim is to compare levels of Sense of Community and Self-esteem in engaged and not engaged immigrant youth. Within the subgroup of engaged youth, the second and the third aims are to identify the differences in self-esteem, sense of community (aim 2), motivations, and barriers (aim 3), of those engaged in prosocial activities and in recreational ones. Participants are 510 Italian immigrant youth aged from 19 to 29 (M = 23.75, SD = 2.92). ANOVA results show that (1) engaged immigrant youths report higher levels of both Sense of Community and Self-Esteem than not engaged ones; (2) for engaged youth, recreational activities better support these outcomes than prosocial; (3) immigrants youths engaged in prosocial activities reported higher levels of prosocial values than those engaged in recreation activities. These last perceive as barriers the difficulty in the Italian language, not having enough information regarding the volunteer and fear of conflicts more than other groups; those engaged in prosocial activities report health-related problems.

The accessibility to national health services by immigrants residing in our country has produced a widespread improvement of health indicators and health prevention for the entire population. The main goal of this study is to investigate the welfare conditions of immigrants, alongside two fundamental sources of psychological resources. In particular, the role of resilience and sense of community as protective factors against the risk of developing negative welfare outcomes, including life satisfaction and the perception of general health (physical and mental), were considered as indicators. The following self-report questionnaires were sent to a sample of 354 immigrants, stratified by ethnicity and gender: Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS), General Health Questionnaire, CD-RISC 10 Scale, and the Sense of Community Index SCI-2. The results obtained through regression models show how resilience and a sense of community are significant protective factors in terms of life satisfaction and general health. From an applicative point of view, it is highlighted that public and political bodies take a leading role in the design of public health interventions; in fact, their intervention should be aimed at increasing the psychological resources and ability to fulfill the health needs of specific populations.

The present article introduces the issue migration in the context: perspectives, methodology, and cultural issues. International migrations and their changing patterns pose new challenges to community social psychologists and new questions to be explored. Community psychologists' attention is necessary to develop a perspective about migration more suitable to effective interventions in global and local communities. Therefore, methods aimed at study migration issues should be implemented at micro-system, community, and national levels. Through this series of papers, we aim to contribute to the debate about how social and community psychologists can engage in community development strategies aimed at improving migrant well-being too. Indeed, they can give relevant contributions to the deepening of migration issues through research, methodologies, and interventions in different contexts and at different levels of analysis.

Unaccompanied migrant minors are youth under the age of 18 who migrate alone, traveling separately from both parents. These youth may be asylum seekers, recognized refugees, or other externally displaced persons. Unaccompanied migrant minors have become an increasingly prevalent global issue. However, this phenomenon might be better understood considering the peculiarities of their contexts, since there are differences related to specific conditions and reception systems. The present study reviewed and compared visually previously reported psychological perspective of unaccompanied migrant minor receiving services from select European countries and the U.S. Unaccompanied migrant minors create a challenge on a nation's care system because these minors are the most vulnerable group in the context of migration. Our explorative assessment suggested underlining similarities and differences between contexts, reflecting the unique needs of the unaccompanied migrants and proposed services and intervention models.

Internationally adopted adolescents face the crucial developmental task of shaping their ethnic identity by balancing their dual belongingness to the current cultural background and the birth country's ethnic background. This process does not depend exclusively on individual variables, but it is embedded within the social context. The present study was aimed at exploring the role of ethnic discrimination in moderating the association between reflected minority categorization, on the one hand, and ethnic identity, on the other. A self-report questionnaire was administrated to 180 internationally adopted adolescents. Results showed that at high levels of ethnic discrimination the relation between reflected minority categorization and ethnic identity in terms of commitment was negative and stronger. When considering instead ethnic identity in terms of exploration, it is possible to note that higher levels of reflected minority categorization were associated with higher levels of exploration. Findings are discussed in light of post-adoption intervention for adoptees.

One consequence of the securitarian approach against terrorism is the conflictual request both to "spot radicals" and build social cohesion in local communities. As a result, migrants' communities feel discriminated and treated as a "suspect community". The European Project PROVA addressed the prevention of violent radicalization in youth, involving professionals and representatives of local communities, and producing Guidelines in order to contrast the marginalization of suspected communities. The empirical research refers to an innovative way to carry out the Participatory Consensus Conference (PCC), used to define Guidelines aimed at identifying suitable recommendations, costs and benefits for the foreseen policies. Participants were 12 stakeholders (Local Authorities, Juvenile Justice System, NGOs, and Educational Institutions). Methods: the PCC used a scientific process for achieving an agreement with a participatory approach. The final outcomes consisted in the definition of recommendations on the social cohesion among citizens, and the sensitiveness toward migrants' isolation and fear.

Within a wider research line on policy-driven institutional discourses on migration by international/national institutions, NGO and political leaders, this contribution is aimed at illustrating the bipolarized social representations of immigrants inspiring 24 speeches by Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump. Statistical analyses using IRAMUTEQ included "specificity analysis" of discursive forms (words) and "cluster analysis." Results show that the Pope's discourse on migration (articulated into four clusters) is richer than the oversimplified Trump's discourse (originating just one cluster): the words "bridges" and "walls" emerge as representational nuclei of their bipolarized views of transnational migration, as metaphorical dichotomies of inclusive/exclusive policies. Emphasizing the need to build walls to protect the Americans, inspired by the sovereign ideology (AMERICA FIRST!), President Trump does not at all suspect that in the globalized interconnected world the AMERICA FIRST may become just AMERICA ALONE!

Gender violence is the most important factor that leads women refugees and asylum seekers to leave their country and is one of the main risks to which the migration journey exposes them. To the multidimensional trauma of migration is added the complex trauma of gender violence making migrant women even more vulnerable. This study, aimed to investigate meanings of experience of the operators who deal with migrant women in Southern Italy. For the purpose of the study, we use the Focus Group, for data collection and the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyze the data. The study confirms the need to structure specific paths for the well-being of forced migrant women victims of violence that respect gender dynamics and cultural differences. In particular, in the context of the transcultural clinic, it will be demonstrated that focus groups are a useful resource and propose the construction of "métissée" spaces.

Community psychology profiling, a complex and lengthy intervention methodology, can play an important role in enhancing social cohesion and integrating immigrants into local communities. In this pilot research intervention, we wanted to investigate if the Community Profiling Focus Group, which is flexible and a less time-consuming methodology could be employed to initiate empowering processes in marginalized community groups such as immigrants. Five focus groups were carried out with different immigrants. Overall our research shows that, though immigrants had deep concerns mostly on work issues and low acceptance of foreigners, participating in the Community Profiling Focus Group enabled them to be more proactive and to identify objectives they could reach jointly to increase their empowerment and integration in their communities.