Featured Research
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Featured Research
Here we showcase a sample of current research conducted within and about communities.
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. […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Teach the Children Well: Social Justice in College Predicts Preference for Socially Responsible Jobs
Posted in: Education | Tags: Featured ResearchTaking a social justice focused course or participating in extracurricular volunteering made it more likely for students to want to work for a socially responsible company.
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Posted in: Prevention Science, Sense of Community | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyIt is intuitive that social support and positive interactions within communities are linked to better physical and emotional health for individual community members. However, we have not be able to say, from a research standpoint, how or why this is the case. In Sharing Positive Experiences Boosts Resilient Thinking: Everyday Benefits of Social Connection and […]
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Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Criminal Justice | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyWhat is the role of a spiritual leader in the private sphere of the home? How do church leaders address the tensions between reducing the rate of divorce, promoting family stability, and addressing the needs of church members at risk for emotional, financial, and physical violence within their families? The “holy hush” refers to a […]
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Posted in: Children, Youth and Families, Mental Health | Tags: Featured ResearchPublished in: American Journal of Community PsychologyExposure to violence (ETV) is associated with poorer mental and physical health outcomes including mental distress, suicidal ideation, problematic behaviors, and substance abuse. Individuals with regular exposure to violence may be at higher risk of hopelessness and more likely to avoid consideration of the future in a positive way. Up to now, we haven’t known […]
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Posted in: Criminal Justice | Tags: Featured ResearchIn 2009, approximately 11,000 sexual assault kits (also called “rape kits”) were found in a remote police property storage facility in Detroit, Michigan. The vast majority of these kits had never been tested by a crime laboratory for forensic DNA evidence. This meant that about 11,000 rape victims had sexual assault kits collected at a […]
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