Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology最新文献

While physical activity generally declines in middle-aged adults, group exercise participation among 40-64-year-old is increasing. This rise may be due to the accessibility of online group exercise formats and their ability to reflect members' identities. This research explores how social identification processes facilitate participation in Zwift, an online group exercise platform. Seventeen Zwift participants aged 40–64 were recruited for three data collection stages: (1) an initial semi-structured interview on exercise history and Zwift usage; (2) a two-week post-exercise diary capturing social identification experiences; and (3) a follow-up interview to discuss topics from the first two stages. Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis. Zwift supports three levels of social identity abstraction: (1) Identity Continuity, maintaining a cyclist identity through online cycling; (2) A Compatible New Identity as a Zwifter, formed through group interaction and social support; and (3) New Group Membership, developed through in-team belonging, recognition, and social status. Mid-life is a period of transition and identity change. Findings in this study suggest four ways that online platforms could facilitate social identification within online exercise platforms, namely (a) empower selection via perceived life-stage similarity and age, (b) enable ‘digital proximity’ via text chat and participant on-screen avatars, (c) enable the common fate of shared real-time exercise experiences, and (d) facilitate interaction and belonging via a pre and post-exercise ‘digital clubhouse’ via a social media page.

Long-term imprisonment often results in negative psychological and behavioural effects that hinder effective reintegration into society, exacerbating antisocial behaviour and increasing recidivism rates. In response to a Supreme Court mandate, California, the state with the second-largest prison population in the United States, embarked on a significant prison downsizing initiative. Designed to help violent offenders develop emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and understanding of victim impact, Guiding Rage into Power (GRIP) is an example of a rehabilitation program expanding within California's state prison system in part because it has generated promising results. Building on previous investigations of the same program, this study evaluates the effectiveness of GRIP in altering incarcerated men's self-perceptions and observed behaviours, with a focus on trust and self-control. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including a qualitative photo elicitation task and psychological scales, data were collected from GRIP and non-GRIP participants in two California prisons. GRIP participants demonstrated a profound commitment to self-awareness and transformation, as evidenced by their narratives and photo choices. Differential levels of trust between the two groups also predicted distinct outcomes in the photo elicitation task. While this study has limitations, it underscores GRIP's potential to challenge entrenched identities and foster positive internal changes, paving the way for future research to assess broader program impacts. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

As harmful conspiracy beliefs against transgender people are becoming increasingly popular, three experiments examined how cisgender people's contact with transgender individuals might reduce these beliefs. In Study 1a (N = 222), positive parasocial contact with transgender creators on TikTok (vs. no contact) was found to increase perspective-taking, which was associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for frequency of contact and prejudice. Study 1b (N = 302) replicated this effect when controlling for frequency of contact. Study 2 (N = 220) aimed to manipulate perspective-taking. Contrary to predictions, asking participants to actively perspective-take (vs. no perspective-taking) did not increase perspective-taking (manipulation check) or reduce conspiracy beliefs. However, as all the studies measured participants’ frequency of positive and negative contact with transgender people, we pooled the data to explore whether these forms of contact were also linked with perspective-taking and conspiracy beliefs (combined N = 743). A positive relationship between frequency of positive contact with transgender people and perspective-taking was found, which was then associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for prejudice and experimental conditions. Our findings underscore the potential of positive contact, including via TikTok, to foster perspective-taking, which may mitigate conspiracy beliefs against transgender people.

Substance addiction can be considered a form of social injustice grounded in interactions between individual, family and community-level risk factors. Although prevention and treatment of substance use disorder is a key target of the United Nations sustainable development goal Good Health and Well-Being, many low-and-middle-income countries lack a culturally validated approach for its management. We contend that a resilience approach may provide a sound basis from which to develop such an approach in non-western, low-resource settings. Hence, the aim of this study is to identify factors supporting resilience for recovery from substance addiction in the lived experience of young adults in Assam, India. We used photo-led interviews to centre the lived experience of young adult addicts-in-recovery (11 men, 5 women; 19–24 years) recruited through two rehabilitation services and their networks. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data produced three clusters of themes: (i) precursors to recovery; (ii) repairing relationships; and, (iii) structuring a life of recovery. Findings are discussed and potential areas for intervention are identified to support a multi-level, culturally informed, community-driven approach to recovery from substance addiction.

Research into the phenomenon of happiness is often approached from the perspective of adults, yet the sense-making practice around happiness may not be the same for all age groups. This paper explores the conceptions of happiness and its opposite, unhappiness, among children in Finland—ranked ‘the happiest country in the world’ for 7 consecutive years. Drawing from Social Representations Theory, we analyse how children (10–12 years old) understand happiness and unhappiness and how these conceptions are socially constructed in relation to each other. The research material consists of drawings and written narratives by 254 children. The results show that symmetry exists between the concepts of happiness and unhappiness. The social representations are constructed around five distinct themes, namely: Social relationships, the Environment, Material possessions, Well-being and Performance. The underlying structure, thema, which guides meaning-making around happiness, is based on meaning-producing tension between feeling safe, supported and protected versus feeling unsafe due to lack of support and protection. The results suggest the importance of ‘positive safety’ as a ground for happiness, rather than an understanding of the concept based on the mere absence of threat. In other words, happiness can be experienced even in the face of challenges and hardships, when a sense of safety deriving from feeling supported and protected is being developed.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to far-reaching detrimental impacts, with challenges weighted toward women, who experience a double-burden of paid work and care/domestic work. Professional lives were enacted in new spaces, as many were ordered to work from home. This was particularly testing for women, who found themselves servicing additional expectations each day, such as complex relational work and home-schooling. For many, this caused stress, damage to career, and strained relationships. Yet, as women academics, we were surprised to see that some of our peers were reporting they had positive experiences during lockdowns. Drawing on interview data from 23 women academics based in the United Kingdom, we found that participants did not report damage to their professional identities; indeed, in some cases the pandemic provided new ways to expand academic identities, for example through skill development and international networking. Furthermore, participants reported the pandemic as a chance to choose how to focus their energies, withdrawing from relationships and activities that did not contribute to the achievement of the selves they sought to become and capitalising on those that did. This paper is therefore valuable in revealing the techniques and resources (narrative and otherwise) that can enable women to report positive experiences, even when facing adversity.

Atypical political candidates, such as those from ethnic, racial and immigration (ERI) minorities (vs. majority), are more likely to be chosen for hard-to-win seats than easy-to-win seats, a phenomenon known as the political glass cliff. This research aimed to uncover how the ERI status of decision makers played a role in this process. We hypothesised the emergence of a glass cliff pattern, that is, the preference for an ERI minority candidate over an ERI majority candidate for a hard-to-win seat, particularly among ERI minority participants, which are likely to perceive greater electoral potential in the ERI minority candidate compared to majority participants. Across two scenario-based experiments (Study 1: N = 264; Study 2: N = 375), ERI minority and majority participants played the role of political party leaders and made decisions regarding candidate nominations either in easy-to-win or in hard-to-win electoral districts. In Study 1, ERI minority participants, but not ERI majority participants, were more likely to choose an ERI minority (vs. majority) candidate for hard-to-win seats. Moreover, ERI minority participants made stronger attributions of change potential, competence and communion to ERI minority (vs. majority) candidates, suggesting that intra-minority solidarity could play a role in their choice. Although this result did not replicate in Study 2, exploratory analyses revealed a consistent glass cliff pattern among ERI minority men in both studies. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

The sibling relationship is complex, unique and important. When one sibling has a developmental disability, siblings can be important sources of care, support, advocacy and friendship for one another. We drew on online survey data from 456 UK adult siblings of people with DD. Siblings provided written responses to a prompt about their sibling experiences (> 80,000 words). These data were analysed using qualitative content analysis and organised using the Siblings Embedded Systems Framework (SESF). The SESF helps us to consider how complex interacting mechanisms and factors surrounding siblings, families and wider systems at a local, national and international level, can influence siblings' outcomes, experiences and relationships. Overall, siblings shared a range of experiences related to their: mental health and wellbeing; personal characteristics; sibling relationships; intra-familial experiences; caring experiences; experiences accessing support services; community experiences; and views on the discrimination and ableism that their disabled siblings experienced. Siblings reflected on the interconnected and dynamic nature of their experiences. We found the SESF to be a useful way of presenting an account of the data overall, as well as to explore the impact of societal factors on siblings' experiences. Siblings' structural, political and social contexts impacted their personal lives. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.