COMPARING NEIGHBORHOOD‐FOCUSED ACTIVISM AND VOLUNTEERISM: PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL‐BEING AND SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS

Does participating in neighborhood‐focused activism confer different benefits than volunteering? The engagement of community members in neighborhood civic life has been identified as an important component of safe and healthy communities. Research on community engagement has encompassed voluntary associations, volunteering, as well as participation in neighborhood activism. A diverse set of research suggests that there are psychological and social benefits to community engagement, but also suggests that there are differences between forms of participation. To understand these differences, I examine the relationship of both volunteerism and neighborhood activism to psychosocial outcomes using survey data from a neighborhood‐based sample of Chicago residents (n = 3105). Findings suggest that activism is different—activists have higher neighborhood and personal mastery than those who only volunteer. Participation in neighborhood activism is also associated with an increased likelihood of contact with local officials and social ties in the neighborhood. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

WOMEN'S COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND WELL‐BEING: LOCAL RESISTANCE TO GENDERED SOCIAL INEQUITIES IN NICARAGUA AND TANZANIA

Although it is well‐documented that globalization has exacerbated structural factors that contribute to rising levels of gender inequality, social actors from diverse local contexts demonstrate that women are not mere victims, but rather have worked actively to resist oppression and promote women's well‐being worldwide. Self‐mobilized groups of women throughout the world are engaging in complex processes of renegotiating structural and relational injustices that transform women's well‐being. The current article focuses on how two groups of women–one in Nicaragua and one in Tanzania–use land rights to reconfigure gendered power relations that have been exacerbated during realignments of global power. We examine how conscientization, or a critical consciousness surrounding experiences of gender discrimination, motivated resistance, collective mobilization, and social change. The analysis provides evidence for theories of struggle and everyday resistance that represent how community contexts enable and support women's struggle for justice in an increasingly globalized world.     

FINANCIAL STRESS,NEIGHBORHOOD STRESS,AND WELL‐BEING: MEDIATIONAL AND MODERATIONAL MODELS

This study explores whether high quality neighborhoods or social integration have protective effects on psychological well‐being, especially in the face of financial challenges. Previous research suggests that low levels of financial stress, lower neighborhood stress, and social integration are each associated with greater levels of well‐being; few studies, however, investigate these contextual variables in confluence. Data from the Notre Dame Study of Health and Well‐Being were used to investigate whether (a) neighborhood stress mediates the relationship between financial stress and psychological well‐being and (b) social integration moderates the relationship between neighborhood stress and psychological well‐being. Results were consistent with both hypotheses and were replicated in data from Successful Aging in Context. These results suggest that proximal contextual variables, such as social integration and neighborhood stress can arbitrate the effect that less proximal contextual variables, such as economic conditions, have on individuals’ psychological well‐being.     

ASSESSING MULTIDIMENSIONAL WELL‐BEING: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE I COPPE SCALE

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale of perceptions of well‐being in key areas of life. We developed the I COPPE Scale, which incorporates overall as well as Interpersonal, Community, Occupational, Physical, Psychological, and Economic well‐being. A total of 426 U.S. participants provided online responses to the I COPPE Scale and relevant comparison instruments. We used exploratory structural equation modeling to examine the factor structure of responses and document convergent validity by comparing I COPPE Scale scores with comparison instrument scores. We found strong empirical evidence to support the theorized factors. This study fully and reliably assessed the underlying constructs of the I COPPE Scale and provided psychometric evidence of construct validity. The ability of this scale to assess the domains in a single, easy to administer instrument is a potential contribution to the growing body of literature on well‐being.     

THE FAMILY DEBATE ON VALUES AND LIVING TOGETHER: A COMMUNITY‐BASED APPROACH THROUGH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

This article presents a participatory action research that began with collaboration between the community and the university. An intervention was carried out in the form of Family Debate about Values and Living Together. Its objectives were to promote reflection and dialogue about values and living together in families and capture those families’ views on values and living together in the main contexts of socialization–family, school, and peers–and to apply that vision in the process of analyzing and transforming their reality. Participants in this study were 2,321 families living in the County of Bages in Barcelona province (Spain) with at least one child between 8 and 12 years of age. The results highlight important aspects of family values and provide preliminary assessments of the intervention from agents involved in it.     

GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENCES IN SUBJECTIVE WELL‐BEING AMONG INDIGENOUS AND NON‐INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS

Published data that describe the subjective well‐being (SWB) of Indigenous people across Australia are scarce. This study reports differences in the SWB of 3 sample groups–mainstream Australian adults, Indigenous adolescents, and non‐Indigenous adolescents–in 5 geographic areas classified by remoteness. Both groups of adolescents were participating in a national program for disengaged youth. Consistent with results from general population samples, the SWB for people living in rural centers was higher than for those in either major cities or very remote areas. This suggests that there may be an optimum size of community that acts as a buffer to the well‐being of both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous adolescents and adults. This may be achieved through greater community connection, as well as having a reasonable level of amenities available. The results of this study are likely relevant to Indigenous populations in other countries, and the implications of these findings for service delivery are discussed.     

TESTING A THEORY OF SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF PREDICTIVE CAPACITY ON EMPLOYEE WELL‐BEING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP

This study attempts to advance our understanding of the experience of community in organizational settings by empirically testing a theory of sense of community responsibility (SOC‐R) in relation to traditional measures of sense of community [SOC] on outcomes of employee well‐being and organizational citizenship. Findings support the notion that SOC is a better predictor of employee well‐being, while SOC‐R more strongly predicts organizational citizenship behavior. The findings add new knowledge to the literature on the experience of community in organizations, as well as representing an important contribution to our understanding of the factors that drive employee action and well‐being at work.     

RESIDENT WELL‐BEING,COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS,AND NEIGHBOURHOOD PERCEPTIONS,PRIDE, AND OPPORTUNITIES AMONG DISADVANTAGE METROPOLITAN AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES: EVIDENCE FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL PROJECT

The current study aims investigate the relationship between participants’ neighbourhood perceptions and social capital and resident well‐being using data from the Neighbourhood Renewal Project (NRP; n = 7855). Resident well‐being was positively associated with the quality of the physical environment and safety of the neighbourhood, but negatively associated with government trustworthiness and community connections. Life satisfaction had a positive relationship with community connections, resident well‐being, as well as quality of community services and safety. We conclude that free or low‐cost opportunities to engage and connect with neighbours through participation in activities such as sporting groups, volunteer organizations, and leisure/hobby groups may increase life satisfaction of individuals in a neighbourhood, particularly for those living in low socioeconomic or stigmatized areas.     

VARYING TREATMENT INTENSITY IN A HOME‐BASED PARENT AND CHILD THERAPY PROGRAM FOR FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY: A RANDOMIZED CLINIC TRIAL

This study addressed the question of whether increasing the intensity of a parent and child therapy program would improve results for young children with significant behavior problems from families living in poverty. Children were randomly assigned to either a standard condition or an intensity condition that provided 50% more treatment over a standard 8‐week treatment period. Based on multiple parent‐report, direct observation, and clinician‐report measures of the children and their caregivers, both groups improved on all measures from pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow‐up. No differences in outcomes were found between the standard and intensity groups at posttest or follow‐up. These counterintuitive results are discussed within the parent and child intervention literature. Also, the heuristic potential of this study to encourage continued research with this challenging population is addressed.     

SELF‐CONTROL AND ADOLESCENT INTERNALIZING AND EXTERNALIZING PROBLEMS: NEIGHBORHOOD‐BASED DIFFERENCES

Self‐control may act as a protective factor against the development of internalizing and externalizing problems among adolescents. However, little research has examined how self‐control functions within and across different types of communities. Using two cohorts from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 1,072; 51.40% female), we examined how self‐control and neighborhood characteristics were independently and jointly associated with these behaviors. Using latent profile analysis, we categorized neighborhoods based on several characteristics known to be associated with youth outcomes, including violence, concentrated disadvantage, and collective efficacy. Then we examined how self‐control was associated with youth internalizing and externalizing problems within and across neighborhoods. Results suggest that self‐control was a protective feature in only some types of disadvantaged and dangerous neighborhoods. We discuss findings in terms of implications for programs and policies to support youth mental health.     

SOMEONE TO LISTEN: INCREASING YOUTH HELP‐SEEKING BEHAVIOR THROUGH A TEXT‐BASED CRISIS LINE FOR YOUTH

A multi‐method evaluation was conducted to assess the TextToday pilot program, the nation's first crisis line with the capacity to accept text messages. Objectives of the evaluation included how successful the system was in meeting the needs of underserved youth and how effectively the social marketing campaign reached the target population with information about the texting crisis service. The service was found to increase youth help‐seeking behaviors among our pilot study population. Implications for replication, integrating texting into community crisis services, and future research are discussed.     

INVOLVING PARENTS IN A COMMUNITY‐BASED,CULTURALLY GROUNDED MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION FOR AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH: PARENT PERSPECTIVES,CHALLENGES, AND RESULTS

An important predictor of youth well‐being and resilience is the presence of nurturing adults in a youth's life. Parents are ideally situated to fulfill this role but often face challenges and stressors that impede their ability to provide adequate support and guidance. American Indian parents may also be affected by intergenerational transmission of trauma and loss of traditional parenting practices, as a result of forced boarding school and/or relocation. Members of a community‐university partnership sought to interrupt cycles of violence and poor mental health of youth through a culturally‐grounded intervention for youth and their parents that focused on healing historical trauma, strengthening positive parenting practices and social skills, reconnecting to traditional cultural knowledge, and improving parent‐child relationships/communication. This article describes parental involvement and its challenges and provides mixed‐method results for 10 parents related to enculturation, parenting practices, parent‐child communication, family cohesion, historical loss and associated symptoms, and community involvement.     

THE ROLE OF RELATIONAL,RECREATIONAL, AND TUTORING ACTIVITIES IN THE PERCEPTIONS OF RECEIVED SUPPORT AND QUALITY OF MENTORING RELATIONSHIP DURING A COMMUNITY‐BASED MENTORING RELATIONSHIP

Previous research has shown that activities between volunteer mentors and youth mentees are associated with relationship quality. Using data from a longitudinal investigation of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) community mentoring relationships across Canada, the current study investigated whether different types of activities (relational and skill, recreational, and tutoring) moderate the association between mentees’ perceptions of received support and subsequent relationship quality. The results showed that, irrespective of activity type, activity frequency was positively associated with perceptions of received support and relationship quality. More importantly, higher frequency of recreational activities strengthened the positive association between perceptions of received support and relationship quality, whereas higher frequency of tutoring activities weakened this association. The implications for the provision of relational and skill, recreational, and tutoring activities are discussed in relation to BBBS programs.     

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSETS AND LAW‐ABIDINGNESS AMONG URBAN ADOLESCENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

In this study, we argue that researchers should look to prevention efforts that capitalize on youth’s potential for positive development and law‐abidingness in order to develop interventions that facilitate their successful transition to young adulthood. We draw from the positive youth development framework to assess the association between individual, family, and community assets and law‐abidingness among a sample of adolescents living in Chicago, Illinois, neighborhoods. Data come from the first wave of the Program on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 1,258). We focus on cohorts 12 and 15, since developmental assets have a significant impact on adolescents during these ages. After controlling for a range of individual and demographic variables, we find that greater levels of positive family communication were associated with greater odds of law‐abidingness in our multilevel logistic regression models. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of a sociological perspective on positive youth development.     

BRIEF INSTRUMENTAL SCHOOL‐BASED MENTORING FOR FIRST‐ AND SECOND‐YEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: A RANDOMIZED EVALUATION

A limitation of school‐based mentoring (SBM) is the lack of structured, evidence‐based practices in mentoring sessions that explicitly target school‐relevant outcomes, such as academic performance and school behavior. To address this concern, we developed and experimentally evaluated a brief SBM program based on practices adapted from evidence‐based counseling and academic interventions with the goal of improving the academic and behavioral performance of middle school students. The results indicate that students randomly assigned to instrumental SBM with an average of 8 sessions over a 2.5 month period (N = 74) showed better math grades, reduced school behavioral office referrals, and increased life satisfaction when compared to students randomly assigned to the control group (N = 60). Tentatively, our results suggest that SBM programs may benefit from the incorporation of instrumental elements based on evidence‐based practices.     

ADAPTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SCIENCE‐BASED PREVENTION SYSTEM IN COLOMBIA: CHALLENGES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

During the last 2 years, the Colombian government and the Nuevos Rumbos Corporation have been implementing an adapted version of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, called Comunidades Que se Cuidan (CQC) in Spanish, for use in Colombia. This brief report presents the process of implementing CQC and identifies some of the main challenges and achievements of implementing the system in 8 communities in Colombia. Preliminary results of a pilot study of CQC implementation in Colombia show that prevention system development, including a focus on measuring community risk and protection, can be established successfully in Latin American communities despite a lack of rigorously tested prevention programs and strategies. Moreover, mobilizing community coalitions toward science‐based prevention, with a focus on examining local risk and protective factor data, can spur development and evaluation of prevention efforts in Latin America.     

RELATIONSHIP OF EVIDENCE‐BASED PRACTICE AND TREATMENTS: A SURVEY OF COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS

Evidence‐based treatments (EBTs) are interventions that have been proven effective through rigorous research methodologies. Evidence‐based practice (EBP), however, refers to a decision‐making process that integrates the best available research, clinician expertise, and client characteristics. This study examined community mental health service providers’ knowledge of EBP and perceived advantages, disadvantages, reasons for not implementing full EBT protocols, and attitudes toward EBTs. Qualitative examination of mental health service providers’ definitions of EBP reveals confusion between the terms EBP and EBT. Service providers indicated several advantages and disadvantages of using EBTs. Analysis suggests that many perceived EBT disadvantages would be eliminated if EBTs are implemented as part of the EBP approach, thus allowing for clinician expertise and patient characteristics to be combined with EBTs. Alternatively, distinguishing between EBP and EBT may be more confusing than useful for most community mental health practitioners, which indicates new terminology may be needed.