Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology最新文献

The paper contributes to the literature on social support theory by considering the social support offered by employers and education providers to former refugee and migrant workers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 85 former refugees and migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand—74 of whom were engaged in work or study during the early phase of the pandemic—this study explores how employers and education providers responded to participants' needs during the public health crisis. The findings reveal that some employers and education providers engaged in various forms of instrumental, informational and emotional support. While participants were grateful for this support, its effectiveness was often limited because it failed to take into account workers' and students' specific needs, or the structural constraints they faced. This qualitative study highlights the importance of tailoring social support to the social realities of former refugee and migrant communities, and of situating their experiences within broader structural and institutional contexts.

Sense of community has emerged as a pivotal factor in enhancing well-being. Universities are small communities where students develop academic skills and personal networks, and where the degree of integration and perceived support significantly influence various aspects of the educational experience. However, little consideration was given to the measure of the specific sense of community of university students. While existing instruments assess communities at the school classroom level, they often overlook the broader university context. Literature provides a Scale of Sense of Community in university online courses (SSC-UOC), but its applicability to face-to-face environments remains untested. The present study aims to adapt the SSC-UOC for measuring university students' sense of community in face-to-face university contexts (Study 1) and to examine how the sense of community relates to well-being, satisfaction and risk of drop-out (Study 2), addressing a key gap in understanding the role of community in shaping university experiences. A sample of 439 Italian university students was involved. The results demonstrate the validity and reliability of the specific University Students' Sense of Community Scale (US-SoC) and reveal that academic satisfaction mediates the relationship between the sense of community and outcomes, including well-being, intentions to withdraw and stress among university students. Finally, the study emphasises the importance of considering the relationships between psychosocial variables such as the sense of community and academic success in actions aimed at supporting the well-being of university students.

The primary aim of the current study was to investigate whether moral disengagement and associated negative emotions (guilt, shame and anxiety) could explain the green gap, that is, the disparity between environmental values or climate concern and pro-environmental behaviour. The secondary aim was to test an awareness-empowerment and a social norm intervention as two ways to enhance pro-environmental behaviour by reducing moral disengagement. First, in a large cross-sectional Study 1 (N = 1233), we investigated moral disengagement and negative climate emotions as serial mediators of the relationship between environmental values, as well as climate concern, and pro-environmental behaviour. Then, in a two-wave longitudinal Study 2 (N = 1308), we attempted to reduce moral disengagement using either an awareness-empowerment or a social norms intervention. The results of the two studies showed that both environmental values and climate concern predicted pro-environmental behaviour and this was partially mediated by lower moral disengagement and higher experienced negative emotions. Also, we found awareness-empowerment, but not social norms, intervention to be effective in reducing moral disengagement and, indirectly, motivating pro-environmental behaviour. The study provides persuasive evidence that moral disengagement contributes to the green gap and that interventions aimed at its reduction constitute an effective way of motivating pro-environmental behaviour. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's community and social impact statement.

This study examined the role of gender identification and perceived gender discrimination on collective action intentions for gender equality among adolescent boys and girls in two countries with different levels of gender equality: Poland and Norway. Additionally, we explored the mediating role of well-being, which has been shown to be associated positively with gender identity and negatively with perceived discrimination. Utilising data from 1560 adolescents (M_age = 16.6, SD_age = 0.6), we found that perceived gender discrimination, but not gender identification, predicted collective action intentions among all groups. Perceived discrimination on the basis of being a man predicted lower willingness to engage in collective action among Norwegian boys but did the opposite among Polish boys. Furthermore, we found that well-being may be a mechanism that plays a role in the collective action intentions of adolescent girls, but not boys. More specifically, for the Polish adolescent girls, well-being appeared to underlie the effect of gender identification and perceived gender discrimination on collective action intentions for gender equality. These results highlight the importance of individual-level and contextual factors that may influence collective action intentions among different groups. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Equitable participation of all community members is fundamental to a democratic society. Immigrants in the United States are underrepresented in positions of leadership, both nationally and locally, which hinders their ability to impact community decision making. This study explores the experiences and insights of 16 immigrants to the United States who navigate complex social and institutional contexts as they seek to advocate for their communities. Using a participatory research approach, we engaged immigrant civic leaders from diverse backgrounds to discuss experiences they have had that impacted why and how they engaged in leadership. Data were analyzed through the lens of positive marginality theory using a combination of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Findings yield three themes: (1) from dual consciousness to multiple consciousness; (2) inequitable structures create individuals who can transform structures; and (3) emotional fulfilment through identity expression inspires leadership. We discuss practical implications for policymakers, organizations, and researchers committed to fostering inclusive leadership opportunities.

This study advances an understanding of citizenship and acculturation as dilemmatic frames that are shaped by and provide situated argumentative resources for constructing belonging while managing intergroup power dynamics. It documents how Greek NGO workers may draw on these resources to negotiate and make sense of non-dominant cultural groups' socio-political and cultural inclusion/exclusion and to achieve particular interactional goals. Analysis draws on a broader data pool of 49 semi-structured interviews, specifically focusing on the talk of seven Greek NGO workers involved in supporting movers. A critical discursive socio-psychological (CDSP) approach was implemented for the analysis of this data subset, indicating four central argumentative lines. The first positions movers as a ‘special case’, subtly legitimising segmented assimilation and selective state support. The second shifts the focus to non-dominant groups' cultural participation as a matter of individual choice, emphasising movers' agency for voluntary engagement with dominant norms. The third negotiates acculturation, approaching multiculturalism as parallel coexistence and cultural independence, thereby managing emerging nationalist dilemmas. The last projects conditional multiculturalism, where integration depends on commitment to settle, constituting inclusion as procedural while managing newcomers' perceived liminality. Emerging dilemmas and power differentials underlying constructions of citizenship and cultural participation are discussed, highlighting their potential to reinforce and/or challenge inclusion, and pointing to self-reflective, rights-based approaches.

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of intergroup contact and ethnic identification in shaping attitudes toward outgroups. However, not enough consideration has been given to the influence of group status across different settings, as well as how positive attitudes toward one outgroup may translate into other groups (i.e., secondary transfer effect), who are geographically far away from one's own country. This set of studies aims to investigate the roles of both the quality and quantity of contact and ethnic identification in outgroup acceptance. We focus on the same ethnic group in three different contexts: Turks in Turkey (Study 1), Turks in Germany (Study 2a), and Turks in Bulgaria (Study 2b). For majority and minority group members, lower ethnic identification and higher quality of contact with the primary outgroup predicted more acceptance of the secondary outgroups through more acceptance of the primary outgroup. These investigations could facilitate the development of favourable intergroup relationships among minority and majority populations across various settings.

Engaging older men in initiatives that promote health and well-being is vitally important as men have distinctive health problems and often experience difficulty accessing health care and seeking help more generally. Men's Sheds are an initiative with a growing evidence base that speaks to their capacity to promote health and well-being in this hard-to-reach group. Recent research also suggests that identity leadership can play a key role in helping men to access the health benefits of Men's Sheds. Nevertheless, its constituent components in this context are unclear. To help understand the nature of identity leadership in the Men's Shed context, we performed codebook thematic analysis of responses provided by 117 Men's Shed members to an open-text box question that was part of a broader research survey. Analysis identified four overarching themes related to (a) providing good governance and public engagement, (b) promoting educational and enjoyable activities, (c) modelling positive values and behaviours, and (d) promoting supportive social networks. These themes mapped onto identity leadership constructs of advancement, impresarioship, prototypicality, and entrepreneurship. Findings provide insight into how identity leadership can be developed within volunteer mutual-aid groups in ways that enhance group members' health and well-being.