What is Community Psychology?
Social justice. Action-oriented research. Global in nature. Influencing public policy. Working for empowerment. Multidisciplinary in focus. Celebrating culture. Preventing harm. Behavior in context. Social action. Supporting community strengths. Reducing oppression. Promoting well-being. Scientific inquiry. Honoring human rights. Respecting diversity.
Community psychology goes beyond an individual focus and integrates social, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and international influences to promote positive change, health, and empowerment at individual and systemic levels.
Featured Research
Kids Need More from School? Utilize Assistant Teachers!
Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Education | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyCommunities across the United States are expanding early childhood education (ECE) with the goal of promoting children’s development. Considerable scholarship and policy initiatives have sought to strengthen the ECE workforce to ensure these children attend classrooms with strong teachers, but most of this work focuses exclusively on lead teachers and overlooks the role of assistant teachers. […]
Supporting After-School Staff and Programs
Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Education | Tags: Featured ResearchAfter-school programs provide safe, supervised settings for homework and play. Over time, communities have begun to rely even more on after-school programs, reflecting changes in the national landscape for working families. Benefits to youth rely on high quality programming supported by structure and positive engagement. Programs in marginalized communities are under-funded and face frequent staff […]
The Psychological Value of Activism
Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Marginalized Groups | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyLGBTQ & GNC youth experience economic hardships and social stress in ways that continue to pose a threat to their health and well-being. Engaging in activist efforts can potentially improve their health in addition to furthering social change.
Improving After-School Programming
Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Sense of Community | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyWe can improve the effectiveness of afterschool programs by setting high expectations for youth, encouraging staff teamwork and engagement, and providing opportunities for staff to personally identify with youth they are serving.
What is Life Like in an Immigrant Detention Center?
Posted in: Marginalized Groups, Public Policy, Sense of Community | Tags: Featured ResearchThe inhumanity of detention has far reaching effects on communities outside of the detention facility.
The Effects of Deportation on Families and Communities
Posted in: Aging, Children, Youth and Families, Marginalized Groups, Public Policy | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyDeportation has numerous detrimental impacts on individuals who are deported, and on the families and communities they are forced to leave behind. This policy statement reviews the empirical literature to describe the effects of deportation on the individual, families, and the broader community, in order to inform policy and practice recommendations.
Featured New Content
Action or Inaction in the Wake of Parkland Florida Tragedy? Preventing Gun Violence Through Model (Red Flag) Legislation
Posted in: Blog, Violence Prevention | Tags: Featured ContentPublished in: The Community PsychologistIntroduction As the nation reels from another mass shooting that has killed at least 17 people and injured at least 15 more (Everytown Research, 2018), we can only face up to the harsh reality as to how preventable this shooting was–and also how culpable as a society we all are. Whether through obstruction, such as […]
Dialogue on Gun Safety: A Community Psychology Values Check Relative to Public Policy
Posted in: Blog, Violence Prevention | Tags: Featured ContentPublished in: The Community PsychologistRobin Jenkins, SCRA Policy Committee As I edit this article, another tragic school shooting has occurred. And perhaps even sadder were some of the quotes from students at Santa Fe High School, stating that they weren’t surprised that it happened to them because “that’s just how it is these days in schools”. It is easy […]
Community Advocacy: A Psychologist’s Toolkit for State and Local Advocacy
Posted in: Public Policy | Tags: Featured Content, ResourcesThe Community Advocacy Toolkit is a result of a joint effort between four divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA): Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology; Division 27, the Society for Community Research and Action; Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women; and Division 45, the Society for the Psychological Study of […]
Safe, Secure, and Loved: Parent Education
Posted in: Children, Youth and Families | Tags: Featured Content, PracticePublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyCommunity-led parent education focused on managing parenting stress, clarifying parenting goals, and strengthening nurturing parenting can engage and mobilize a volunteer community workforce.
Living Community Psychology-Louis Brown
Posted in: Inspiration | Tags: Featured Content, Living Community PsychologyPublished in: The Community PsychologistFor this installment, we feature Louis Brown of El Paso, Texas. Louis’ original focus, starting in graduate school, was on mental health self-help consumer groups, but his eventual move to a heavily Latino population on the U.S.-Mexico border and to a school of public health, have led to a broadened perspective, to multiple health-related issues, […]
New Open Access Community Psychology Textbook
Posted in: History of Community Psychology | Tags: Featured Content, ResourcesStudents and community members may access a free introduction to the field, the methods and theories, frameworks for understanding communities, intervention and prevention strategies used by community psychologists, tools for creating change on multiple levels, and guidance on the various paths one can take as a community psychologist
