American journal of community psychology最新文献

Much research has been devoted to the positive effect of green space on prosociality, but little is known about its impact on civic engagement. It is also unclear how the effect takes place. This research fills the voids by regressing 2440 US citizen's civic engagement on the vegetation density and park area in their neighborhoods. It further examines if the effect is due to changes in well-being, interpersonal trust, or activity level. Park area predicts higher civic engagement, which is mediated by higher trust in outgroups. However, the data is inconclusive about the effect of vegetation density and the well-being mechanism. In contrast to the activity hypothesis, the effect of parks on civic engagement is stronger in unsafe neighborhoods, suggesting that they are valuable resources to combat neighborhood problems. The results bring insights into how individuals and communities can benefit the most from green spaces in the neighborhood.

Utilizing a Black and Hip Hop feminist and Black girlhood studies theoretical lens, the purpose of this study is to explore how Black girls (14–17) and women (19–22), who are in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) mentoring program, BlackGirlsResearch (pseudonym) express their gendered racial identities and gendered racial experiences through their participation in a YPAR photovoice program. This study seeks to answer the following research question: (1) How do Black girls and college women conceptualize their gendered racial identities and gendered racial lived experiences in predominately white schools using a YPAR methodology and photovoice? Employing a qualitative thematic analysis to explore 36 photovoice narratives, results yielded 3 themes: (1) experiencing challenges at predominately white institutions (PWIs): false inclusivity, continued underrepresentation, and tokenism (2) identifying as “queens of culture”: identity and empowerment through art, culture, and breaking conformity and (3) activism, inclusion, and accountability: solutions for PWIs. The results of this study indicate that Black girls and women can not only identify and critically discuss issues related to Black girls and women within PWIs, but through YPAR, they can push for positive youth development and community solutions related to those issues.

Experiencing racism is linked to lower subjective social status (SSS), defined as one's perception of their position in society. SSS is influenced by power, prestige, and objective socioeconomic status (SES). Previous findings suggest that race-related stress may be related to adverse mental health outcomes through SSS in Black Americans, a population that has been deeply affected by continuing legacies of oppression. The current study examines the indirect association between race-related stress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms through SSS in a community sample of largely trauma-exposed Black Americans (N = 173). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that overall race-related stress significantly predicted lower SSS, higher PTSD symptoms, and higher depression symptoms. Analyses also revealed indirect effects of cultural race-related stress on PTSD and depression symptoms through SSS after controlling for SES. Results suggest that the experience of race-related stress, particularly cultural race-related stress, which involves the degradation and disparagement of one's culture and worldview, is associated with more severe PTSD and depression symptoms potentially due to these experiences decreasing Black Americans' SSS. Findings support the need for systemic intervention strategies to disrupt the cultural oppression of Black Americans and improve the societal value and mental health of this population.

Telemental health technology is a feasible tool for providing behavioral healthcare in rural areas. However, there is scant literature about implementing this technology within Indigenous populations. The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association is an urban-based Tribal Health Organization in Alaska tasked with providing behavioral health services to remote Unangax̂ communities. To expand telemental health services, a formative program evaluation was conducted to examine the acceptability of and barriers to implementing telemental health. Using a qualitative approach, five individuals with lived experience in the same community were interviewed using a semi-structured format. Data were analyzed using critical thematic analysis and situated within the context of historical trauma. Five themes were constructed that showed broken trust as the primary barrier to services, despite the substantial obstacles related to communications infrastructure. When situated within the context of historical trauma, the results show how colonization spurred and has maintained broken trust. The clinical, research, and policy implications resulting from this study point to the need for decolonization and integration of culture in behavioral health services. These findings can be informative for organizations and providers seeking to implement telemental health in Indigenous communities.

Stress-coping theory posits that exposure to stressors, such as community violence, increases risk for early alcohol initiation. The current study identified patterns of alcohol use in an ethnically diverse sample of early adolescents in rural communities, and examined relations between different forms of exposure to community violence and severity of adolescents' alcohol use patterns. Participants were 5011 middle school students (46.4% non-Hispanic White, 25.5% Latinx, and 13.4% Black; 50% female) living in rural communities in the southeastern United States. Latent class analysis identified subgroups that differed in their patterns of lifetime and past 30-day alcohol use, and subgroup differences in exposure to community violence. Five subgroups were identified: abstainers (56.5%), initiators of wine and beer (12.5%); moderately frequent wine and beer users (10.3%); moderately frequent wine, beer, and liquor users who got drunk (12.0%); and highly frequent wine, beer, and liquor users who got drunk (8.6%). Subgroups differed across sex, grade, and racial-ethnic background. Subgroups characterized by severe alcohol use reported more frequent exposure to community violence and physical victimization, while controlling for nonviolent stressors. Consistent with stress-coping theory, the results indicate that experiencing physical victimization and witnessing community violence robustly relate to adolescents' high-risk alcohol use.

Everyday forms of political engagement, such as civic participation and collective action, have been recognized as a crucial factor for positive youth development, but less is known about their resilience effects on youth from marginalized populations, especially in less democratic societies. The present study investigated experiences of everyday political engagement among sexual minority youth in China and examined their compensatory and protective effects against heterosexist victimization. A sample of 793 Chinese sexual minority youth was included in the study. The results showed that collective action operated as a protective factor in buffering the effect of heterosexist victimization, such that its association with academic engagement was not significant among those with higher levels of collective action. In contrast, civic participation served the compensatory function and was associated with greater academic engagement, a stronger sense of school belonging, and fewer depression symptoms, but it did not protect against the negative effects of heterosexist victimization. The findings highlight the importance of identity-based action among sexual minority youth and provide insight into the differential resilience effects of everyday political engagement. The study has implications for fostering resilience among sexual minority youth with victimization experiences in school and counseling settings.

Youth living in areas with high concentrations of vacant properties may be at particular risk for poor health outcomes given the associations between deteriorated vacant properties, poor mental health, and community violence. Vacant lot greening has emerged as a key strategy to mitigate the harms of deteriorated properties. Youth engagement in greening has documented benefits for youth, yet few organizations responsible for managing vacant properties currently engage youth. Further, few researchers have examined the best practices that organizations can employ to effectively engage youth in greening programs. The purpose of this study was to understand how high functioning vacant land management organizations with robust youth engagement capabilities engage youth in their greening work. Based on in-depth interviews with staff from vacant land management organizations, we explored three research questions: (1) what are their identified best practices for youth engagement?; (2) what are the major challenges that impede their youth engagement work?; (3) what solutions are these organizations employing to address these challenges? Findings from this study emphasize the important themes of engaging youth in vacant lot greening in areas of planning, leadership, and decision-making. Youth engagement in vacant lot greening may be a key mechanism for preventing violence through cultivating youth empowerment and development.

Youth are more likely to succeed when they feel safe at school and have access to caring relationships with adults. Systemic racism interrupts access to these assets. Within schools, racially/ethnically minoritized youth encounter policies rooted in racism, leading to decreased perceptions of school safety. Having a teacher mentor may mitigate some of the harmful effects of systemic racism and discriminatory practices. Yet, teacher mentors may not be accessible to all students. In this study, the authors tested a putative explanatory hypothesis for differences between Black and white children's access to teacher mentors. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used. Linear regression models were used to predict access to teacher mentors, and a mediational analysis was conducted to determine the effect of school safety on the relationship between race and teacher mentor access. Results indicate that students from higher SES backgrounds and those with parents who have greater educational attainment are more likely to have a teacher mentor. Furthermore, Black students are less likely than white students to have a teacher mentor, and school safety mediates that relationship. The implications of this study suggest that challenging institutional racism and structures may improve perceptions of school safety and teacher mentor accessibility.

Marginalized groups (including people of Color and sexual minorities) have been over-policed and specifically targeted based on their race/ethnicity and identity. The deleterious effects of over-policing marginalized groups include overrepresentation in the carceral system, experiencing higher rates of violence from police, and extend to affect mental health and stress levels. This study examines police-related stress among a U.S. national cohort of gay and bisexual men (collected in late 2020 and early 2021) and its association with race/ethnicity, age, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, income, and other characteristics of interest. Our results show that the odds of reporting extreme police-related stress were 2.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] [2.08, 3.41]) times higher for Black individuals than for their White counterparts. Odds were also significantly greater for those who have experienced race-based (odds ratio [OR] = 2.26, 95% CI [1.81–2.82] or identity-based discrimination (OR = 2.05, 95% CI [1.66, 2.54]). Our findings demonstrate variation in police-related stress among a cohort of gay and bisexual men; with men of Color and low-income men among the most affected by police-related stress. For this population, police-related stress should be considered for its potential deleterious effect on HIV vulnerability and reporting violent crimes to police (including intimate partner violence and hate crimes).

In the United States, racial segregation still organizes the social lives of most people. This segregation of social life continues reinforcing attitudes and behaviors that sustain racial injustice in the United States. Given the longstanding structural forces sustaining the segregated status quo, why do certain individuals seek out opportunities for ‘intentional integration’? And what happens when they do? This qualitative study interviewed racially diverse participants in a community-developed, sustained, and strategic intergroup dialogue program called Touchy Topics Tuesday (TTT), located in St. Louis, Missouri. Overall, participants (N = 30) described three interwoven motivations for involvement in the program–a catalytic moment, a long-term commitment mindset, and/or the influence of their social network. Of all these, participants' social network was the predominant motivating force for individuals across racial lines. Participants also reported three main categories of outcomes: intellectual growth, emotional growth, and relational growth. Each of these categories encompass both attitudinal and behavioral changes. The article interrogates these major findings in the context of the intergroup dialogue literature and studies of attitude change and psychotherapy.