American journal of community psychology最新文献

Some mentoring programs for youth have incorporated principles or strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), but research addressing the effectiveness of such programs is limited. This research is an evaluation of the impact of participation in Reach & Rise®, a program in which all mentors are supported in using CBT principles in their relationships with youth. Researchers randomly assigned youth either to be matched with a mentor through Reach & Rise® (i.e., treatment group; n = 316) or a waitlist control group (n = 284). We examined intent-to-treat effects using youth and caregiver survey data 15 months after study enrollment. Relative to the waitlist control group, we found treatment group youth to be significantly less likely at follow-up to report delinquent behavior (Treatment: 8%, Control: 15%, respectively) and substance use (28% and 43%, respectively). Treatment group youth also had significantly greater self-reported connectedness to school (Cohen's d = 0.267) and caregiver-reported academic performance (d = 0.214) and, at borderline significance (p = .05), greater reported connectedness to their families (d = 0.177). The groups did not differ on the remaining measures, which included youth reports of depressive symptoms, happiness, hope for the future, life satisfaction, and quality of peer relationships. Reach & Rise® shows promise for reducing problem behavior among youth while also positioning them for success and positive adaptation in contexts that are important for adolescent development. In the future, researchers should investigate avenues for broadening the scope of benefits to include aspects of emotional well-being. In view of the support established through this research for the effectiveness of the overall program, another logical next step would be to examine the unique contribution of the CBT principles embedded in the program to youth outcomes.

Community coalitions have the potential to elicit diverse participants' perspectives on complex issues and generate shared commitment to adaptive strategies. Ideally, these approaches have been found effective elsewhere. Despite evidence that leadership plays a generally important role in coalitions, there have been limited prior findings about how leadership may support the use of evidence-based practices. The purpose of the current study was to assess whether three facets of inclusive leadership-engaging communication, inclusive decision making, and inclusion of community residents-predicted the number, reach, and fidelity of coalitions' evidence-based practices. The study context was 64 Pennsylvania and Missouri youth substance misuse prevention coalitions. Multiple regressions were used to estimate the lagged effects of communication, inclusive decision making, and inclusion of community residents on the number of evidence-based practices used, their reach, and fidelity, respectively. Inclusive leadership was positively associated with the number of evidence-based practices coalitions used and how many parents and youth those programs reached, but not with evidence-based practice fidelity. Findings from this study indicate that inclusive coalition leadership warrants the time and skills entailed. Community psychologists are well-suited to support coalitions in this empowering approach to decision making and implementation.

This manuscript centers on the experiences of caretakers of minors in Honduran transnational families (TNFs) in which one or both parents emigrated, and of the schoolteachers, professional psychologists, and spiritual leaders working with these families. We report on the participants' knowledge and learned lessons, which we place in dialog with the interdisciplinary literature on TNFs in sociology, psychology, gender studies, and cultural studies. Through a participatory methodology, we collaborated with the participants to develop a series of guidelines based on their experiences. We have structured this manuscript in four intersecting themes: (1) Affectivity related to parental migration and its consequences; (2) Community dimensions and actors; (3) Family arrangements and agreements; and (4) Family communication at a distance. These guidelines and insights may prove helpful to current, prospective, and past TNFs who may see their experiences reflected in this manuscript, and to professionals working with TNFs. The participants' knowledges and suggestions can be instrumental in understanding and professionally supporting these families' well-being, care, and unity.

In the United States (US), communities that share the reality of relatively poor health are often on differing sides of a growing political divide. Might community-based participatory research (CBPR) promote inter-community understanding and mutual support? We conducted a scoping review of English-language literature on CBPR in the United States that utilized what we term "purposeful diversity." By purposeful diversity, we mean studies that intentionally involved partnerships with communities of differing race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic regions, gender/sexual orientation, religions or age in order to achieve a specific result. Only 41 partnerships (described in 65 papers) met our review criteria. Purposeful diversity in ethnicity/race was most common. Community advisory boards, community co-investigators, and community membership on steering committees were prevalent forms of community participation. Frequently, reasons for involving diverse partners were not given; those offered most often were the disproportionate burden of poor health on the communities participating. While many partnerships reported benefits of diversity, the only benefit frequently mentioned was success in recruiting diverse participants. Fewer than 40% of partnerships addressed challenges from working with diverse communities; barriers to communication and understanding were the most common. Fewer than 20% of partnerships reported strategies to address these challenges. Even fewer documented results of such strategies or methods they used to explore the influence of community diversity. Despite the focus of CBPR on structural disadvantage and the possibility of structural change, the potential of this approach for addressing inter-community conflict is virtually unexplored.

Research-Practice Partnerships seek to close the research-practice gap through developing collaborative, authentic partnerships between researchers and community members. Our team has leveraged Research-Practice Ambassadors to support socially just and equitable partnership processes in schools. We describe how the Ambassadors can support these types of long-term partnerships by building trusting relationships, uplifting practitioner voice and lived experiences, and strengthening bidirectional communication across research and practice teams. We provide details about the inputs and activities for the Ambassador role, the potential benefits of this role in strengthening partnership processes, and case examples of how our team has used the Ambassador role to strengthen partnerships. Future directions of this work should evaluate the impact of using this Ambassador role and incorporate critical analyses of power.

As young people explore and reflect on the conditions of their neighborhoods and communities, they can forge a critical consciousness-merging their perspectives and analysis to direct both individual and collective actions. Photovoice is a methodological tool that allows participants to document their perspectives and analysis and discuss with peers what is needed for social change. In this study, members of a local government youth program engaged in Photovoice with the ultimate goal of exploring problems and possible solutions from their points of view. Through dialogue of their selected photos, participants name a variety of structural causes of neighborhood neglect and abandonment. However, when encouraged to consider the solutions to those issues, participants predominantly identify individual or community-level actions. We discuss the implications of this discord in the context of literature on critical consciousness and social justice youth development, with the hope of informing policy and practice decisions that can facilitate the empowerment of young people and elevate community well-being.

Health inequalities persist along lines of income and wealth, shaped by unequal access to healthcare, differences in health behaviors, and pre-existing chronic conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic further put families in Korea under health strain and worsened their health outcomes. This study investigates how pre-existing socioeconomic disparities intersect with health outcomes. Using the national administrative health big data provided by the Korean National Health Insurance Service, we employ logistic regression models for 10,459,043 randomly sampled cases from a total of more than 34 million registered positive cases in the country. We specifically examine whether and to what extent individuals from lower income backgrounds with positive cases are more or less likely to experience negative health outcomes. Our findings reveal that individuals from higher income backgrounds are less likely to experience negative health outcomes compared to the lowest income group, including hospitalization (odds ratio [OR] = 0.45, confidence interval [CI] = 0.44, 0.46), severe illness (OR = 0.70, CI = 0.61, 0.81), and fatalities (OR = 0.40, CI = 0.38, 0.41). Furthermore, our subsample analyses based on various demographic characteristics consistently showed that individuals from higher income backgrounds face a lower risk of adverse health outcomes. These results indicate that disadvantaged individuals are disproportionately affected by the health crisis, deepening health inequities. This paper emphasizes the need for targeted public policies.

This study investigates the longitudinal impact of socioeconomic instability on teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis among adolescents and young adults (AYA) living in an agricultural region and examines pathways including supportive family and social structures, decision making autonomy in romantic relationships, health access, mental health and coping behaviors, and perceptions of future opportunities. Data were drawn from A Crecer, an 8-year cohort study in Salinas, California (2015-2023). Outcomes of teen pregnancy (<20 years) and STIs were measured using self-report and biological testing. Socioeconomic instability was defined as experiencing severe crowding, food insecurity, or housing instability at baseline. Log-binomial regression models estimated associations, and causal mediation analyses explored mediation pathways. Among 373 participants (median age 13.7; 96% Latine), socioeconomic instability was associated with teen pregnancy (RR 2.28, 95% CI 1.38-3.75) and STIs (RR 3.25, 95% CI 1.77-5.99). Housing instability, in particular, had strong associations with both pregnancy (RR 2.07; 95% CI 1.23, 3.48) and STIs (RR 2.38; 95% CI 1.33, 4.29). No statistically significant mediators were identified. Findings highlight the need for early economic and housing policy interventions to support AYA and their families early in adolescence to promote sexual health during the transition to adulthood.

Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a significant public health issue, particularly among individuals with mental disorders, where it exacerbates symptoms and hinders recovery. This study evaluates changes in perceived loneliness and affective symptoms before and after participation in peer support groups for individuals with mental disorders in Colombia. Employing a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-intervention assessments, the study utilized a non-randomized sample of 130 participants. The University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale and the Self-Report Questionnaire were employed as assessment tools. The intervention was structured around core components of peer support. The findings revealed a substantial reduction in both loneliness and affective symptoms, with moderate effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.35, Z = 8.330 for loneliness; Cohen's d = 0.42, Z = 8.634 for affective symptoms). These results underscore the efficacy of peer support groups in community settings for mitigating loneliness and enhancing mental well-being. Additionally, they highlight the potential of incorporating individuals with lived experience as active agents in mental health service delivery.

If sexual assault survivors report the assault to the criminal legal system, they often need informal support from family and friends throughout the long and frequently retraumatizing process of investigation and prosecution. This study is part of a long-term community-based participatory action research project in a predominately Black/African American U.S. city that is facing extended delays in sexual assault prosecution because the police have not been routinely testing medical forensic evidence when sexual assaults were first reported. When police had this evidence tested years later, cases with DNA matches were re-opened, and survivors were asked to re-engage with the criminal legal system. We conducted qualitative interviews with N = 32 survivors who participated in these "cold case" prosecutions and explored how their family and friends supported them throughout this process. Most survivors (94%) disclosed to friends and family that their cases had been re-opened, and 47% received beneficial emotional and tangible support during prosecution. The other half (53%) encountered indifference or blame from their family members and friends. We discuss how victim advocates can prepare survivors for the reactions they may receive from friends and family, and how community services can buffer loss of support.