American journal of community psychology最新文献

Lonnie R. Snowden's arrival to the UC Berkeley campus in the 1970s led not only to a stellar career that influenced multiple fields but also to the launching of hundreds of scholars who benefited from his wisdom, mentorship, and humanity. I recount my own experiences with Professor Snowden.

Considering instances of police brutality against people experiencing homelessness (PEH) and subsequent calls for changes to policing, it is important to understand how police and PEH interact. However, this literature in the US context has not been synthesized. This review aims to summarize: (a) the extent to which PEH have contact with police; and the (b) nature and (c) outcomes of these interactions. A PRISMA-aligned scoping review identified relevant scholarly articles on empirical studies published in a recent 20-year period in the United States. After screening, 26 relevant articles were analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Rates of contact were disproportionately high among PEH. Contact was often the result of code enforcement, racial profiling, or notification by housed people, and consisted of harassment and abuse towards PEH. Finally, proximal (i.e., move-along orders, citation, arrest) and distal (i.e., perpetuating homelessness, lack of service provision, conflict, distrust and avoidance of police, and stress) outcomes emerged.

Black women are disproportionally impacted by intimate partner violence (IPV), which influences women's mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant mental health strain on women experiencing IPV while also affecting their ability to seek mental health services. This study was conducted to qualitatively investigate the impact of IPV on urban Black women's mental health since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis is part of an ongoing mixed-methods study in the Upper Midwest of the United States. We used purposive and snowball sampling to engage 28 women in in-depth individual interviews. Using content analysis, four themes were identified, including (1) anxious feelings, (2) feeling depressed, (3) posttraumatic stress disorder feelings, and (4) substance use. There is an urgent need to consider mental health interventions in times of national or global crises. Mental health interventions are especially of consideration for populations experiencing deep vulnerability, like women who experience IPV. This is more so the case in crises where there is a need to enact restrictive policies to contain public health epidemics or pandemics.

Language nutrition, a phrase depicting language exposure occurring during caregiver-child social interactions, holds immense significance in a child's oral language acquisition and early brain development. We report progress promoting language nutrition by the KC Brain Builders Community Coalition (KCBB). A longitudinal, multilevel design was used to evaluate the effects of the KCBB. An online logbook was used to track community actions, and 83 families (73% Latinx) completed surveys reporting the reach of the KCBB. Twelve community sectors and 21 organizations were involved in 329 actions targeting changes in practices, programs, and policies. Significant relationships were identified between parents' knowledge of the importance of talking to babies, the children's home language environment, and expressive language skills. An approach for promoting population-level changes in children's language nutrition is demonstrated. Initial findings indicated that language acquisition in young children is driven by a child's language environment, its structure and function. Implications are discussed.

The Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, seeks to advance its commitment to social justice and the elimination of anti-Blackness. This presidential address focuses on how to envision the organization and field of community psychology well beyond 2023 and what it means to dream community psychology into the future.

Current times call for the promotion of caring communities through collective action. In caring communities, we feel connected, experience a sense of belonging, and deeply care about each other's health and well-being. Seymour Sarason's notion of social change as the creation of settings may have anticipated the art and practice of creating caring communities. Caring communities are thriving environments where members are there for one another, provide support when experiencing challenges, identify issues, take action on what matters to them, and celebrate achievements. In this paper, I call for creating caring communities through collective action. I discuss the concept of caring communities and propose a framework that introduces three key dimensions that characterize care-inducing settings: mutual aid, building on community strengths and assets, and opportunities for engagement and shared power. I discuss how together, these dimensions foster a deep sense of community and belonging, the adoption of caring practices and advocacy, and promote voice, influence, and meaningful social participation. This framework invites a reimagining of community as a relational and justice-oriented space where caring is not peripheral but central to how we organize, engage, and transform together. Examples of my research and action scholarly work illustrate the framework.

This study reports on a qualitative thematic analysis of secondary data from group session recordings collected as part of the Community Wise Optimization Trial. Community Wise is a multilevel behavioral intervention designed to increase critical consciousness and reduce substance use among formerly incarcerated men living in predominantly Black and historically disinvested communities (BHDC). Radical healing is a process of recovering from the trauma of oppression based on identification with historically marginalized groups. The current analysis sought to examine if there is evidence of radical healing components (critical consciousness, radical hope, strength and resistance, cultural authenticity and self-knowledge, and collectivism or emotional and social support) in Community Wise's group sessions. Results revealed evidence of all radical healing components in Community Wise participants' rich narratives as they engaged in critical dialogue and explored ways to improve their communities. Given a lack of culturally relevant approaches, this study's findings provide supporting evidence for the incorporation of the radical healing framework in interventions seeking to enhance treatment outcomes and address social determinants of health in BHDC.

In the United States, mental health disparities persist between sexual minorities - people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other nonheterosexual identifications - and heterosexuals. Although research shows that structural stigma in one's environment may contribute to such disparities, little research has examined religious environment as a source of structural stigma for sexual minorities. Given historic and ongoing religious-based sexual minority stigma, such research is needed. Thus, we conducted a secondary analysis of the Household Pulse Survey (n = 824,900) to test whether facets of the religious environment (i.e., presence of places of worship and conservative Christian adherents in one's U.S. state of residence) are associated with anxiety and depression. We test if associations are stronger for sexual minorities compared to heterosexuals and if associations remain significant after including other facets of the social environment (same-sex households, political conservatism, and urbanicity) and individual-level controls. We found that when considered separately, religious and social environmental factors demonstrated stronger associations with anxiety and depression for sexual minorities relative to heterosexuals, even after controlling for individual variables. Findings were more nuanced for integrated models. Overall, we address a gap in the literature by examining religion as a structural part of one's environment.

Equitable community-academic research partnerships provide an innovative way to advance health outcomes among criminal legal system-impacted individuals. The extant literature lacks accounts that detail the process for developing such partnerships, particularly in community-based (rather than carceral) settings and with community organizations (rather than system actors). This First-Person Account-co-written by members of a research team consisting of academic researchers and community partners, including formerly incarcerated individuals-details opportunities and challenges that emerged through a year-long pilot project intended to adapt a mental health intervention for correctional settings. The narrow focus of this project expanded dramatically over the course of the year as team members adapted to working together and realized the potential for the sustained impact of a long-term collaboration. Key elements allowing for successful partnership development included (1) devoting time to building relationships in addition to "doing business"; (2) flexibility regarding the project aims and approach, which allowed for more equitable decision-making; and (3) striving to understand and trust each other's respective expertise, whether based in academic training or lived experiences. Our experiences translate core principles of community-based participatory research into concrete actions and practical examples of how to center the perspective of criminal legal system-impacted individuals.

As researchers, advocates, and policymakers continue to emphasize community participation for people with serious mental illness (SMI), it is important to understand and strengthen the natural ties that these individuals have in the community. This study investigated how the social support provided by natural supports (i.e., relationships that occur in everyday life, such as friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors) relates to community participation. It was hypothesized that natural supports would be positively associated with community participation. Forty-eight participants completed a survey, and 15 of these participants completed a semi-structured qualitative interview. Family, friends, and neighbors were the most frequently identified supports. However, spouses, religious leaders, and pets provided higher levels of emotional support. Average total support was significantly related to community participation. Themes included families spending time together, mental health challenges as barriers to participation, and the desire to do activities with others. These findings provide insight about the role of natural supports in promoting community participation and inform interventions aimed at increasing social support and community participation.