Empowerment for civic engagement and well-being in emerging adulthood: Evidence from cross-regional and cross-lagged analyses

The contribution of community service during the transition to adulthood to health in adulthood

Prior studies have linked young people's community service to indicators of health, yet little research takes the long view by connecting youth's community service to health in the next decade of life. Using a lifespan developmental lens, this study examined community service over the transition to adulthood and uses change over time in community service to predict indicators of behavioral, physical, and psychological health at ages 35 and 40. Data were taken from Monitoring the Future U.S. national multi-cohort data spanning ages 18-40 in high school cohorts from 1976 to 1995 for age 40 (N = 4300) and 1976 to 2000 for age 35 (N = 5879). Models estimated a growth curve model for community service from ages 18 to 30 and found that the slope for community service was associated with alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use, healthy behaviors, and life satisfaction at ages 35 and 40, with cigarette use at age 35 only, and with self-esteem and depressive symptoms at age 40 only. Less decline in community service over the transition to adulthood was associated with lower substance use, more healthy behaviors, and higher psychological well-being in adulthood. This study contributes evidence that community service and health are linked across the lifespan and suggests the value of examining the long-term implications of developmental change across adolescence and the transition to adulthood.

Uncovering the relationship between community participation and socio-political control among the migrant population

Prior research on psychological empowerment has found that community participation is associated with socio-political control, which takes place when people perceive control in their socio-political contexts. However, the process by which this relationship occurs remains an understudied area for migrants. This study aims to: (a) analyze the differences in socio-political control, critical thinking, and ethnic identity according to membership in migrant community-based organizations; and (b) propose a predictive model of socio-political control. A total of 239 first-generation migrants living in northern Italy completed a questionnaire (48.4% belonged to a migrant community-based organization). Members were found to have higher levels than nonmembers in all the variables. A moderated mediation model was proposed, whereby ethnic identity was a mediator between community participation and socio-political control, and critical thinking was a negative moderator between ethnic identity and socio-political control. Practical implications for enhancing socio-political control among migrants in receiving societies are discussed.

Civic engagement and mental health trajectories in Norwegian youth

Introduction

Applying variable-centered analytical approaches, several studies have found an association between civic engagement and youth mental health. In the present study, we used a person-centered approach to explore whether civic engagement was related to optimal trajectories of mental health compared to other trajectories. We also examined how sociodemographic factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES), gender and age were related to youth mental health trajectories.

Methods

Our sample comprised 675 students (aged 16-22) who had participated in three waves of data collection (Mage = 18.85, SD = 0.55; 43% males) in the COMPLETE project, a cluster-randomized controlled trial that involved Norwegian upper secondary schools.

Results

The results revealed three trajectories of mental health (reflecting a combination of mental distress and mental well-being): optimal, intermediate, and sub-optimal. Contrary to our expectations, higher levels of civic engagement were not related to the optimal trajectory of mental health vs. other trajectories. However, we found that students who reported higher levels of SES and males were more likely to follow the optimal trajectory compared to other trajectories.

Discussion

While the findings on civic engagement could be due to our measurement's inability to capture the concept of "dugnad," a well-established civic activity in the Norwegian society, the findings regarding the influence of SES and gender suggest that there is still more work to be done concerning the assessment and advancement of factors that can address mental health inequalities across SES and gender.

Revealing the practical strategies for promoting Chinese migrant workers' health and well-being: Organizational empowerment perspective

The health and well-being of migrant workers struggling to make ends meet are being compromised, especially with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to analyze how organizational empowerment promotes health and well-being from an applied psychological perspective, taking into account the shaping role of individual vulnerability. Links between theory and practice will be established to achieve equitable health and well-being. The underlying mechanism by which organizational empowerment mitigated workplace-induced adverse outcomes was validated in the analysis of construction workers (n = 966). In addition, individual characteristics, namely, excitability, low perceptual threshold, control, and knowledge, attitude, and practice, were identified as critical factors, as well-being consequences vary from person to person. Moderating effect analysis showed that high excitability enhanced the association between work environment exposure and health and well-being. Control and knowledge, attitude, and practice have opposite effects. Moreover, the dual effects of the low perception threshold are verified, that is, facing the work environment produces more negative consequences, whereas perceiving more resources stimulates more positive consequences. Overall, the research provides a clearer dialectical view of vulnerability, contributing wisdom toward accurate management based on empowerment theory, which lays a solid foundation for bridging gaps in health and well-being.

Examining the relationship between civic engagement and mental health in young adults: a systematic review of the literature

Researchers have examined civic engagement as a health promotion tool among older adults and adolescents, yet less is known about its mental health implications for young adults. This systematic review identified 53 articles on civic engagement and well-being in young adults. Five key themes emerged: (1) varying associations between type of civic engagement and well-being, (2) duration and frequency of civic behaviors, (3) directionality in the civic-to-well-being pathway, (4) mediation and moderation factors affecting the civic-to-well-being pathway, and (5) civic engagement as a tool for coping with adversity or systemic oppression. Civic engagement demonstrates a heterogeneous relationship to well-being; future research should focus on the explanatory pathways for positive, negative, and null correlations particularly among historically marginalized young adults.

A Study on Exploring the Path of Psychology and Civics Teaching Reform in Universities Based on Artificial Intelligence

The development of precise teaching of civics with artificial intelligence not only is the realistic need of the development of the times and technological innovation but also provides a new picture to solve the problem of the relevance of civics, so it is the inevitable requirement for the quality and efficiency of civics teaching. Curriculum Civics is an important support for the cultivation of innovation ability of college students. To effectively identify the state categories of college students' psychology and civics and to fully consider the emotional factors between teachers and college students, this paper proposes a psychological civics teaching model based on graphical convolutional neural network. First, the dialog texts of psychology and civics teaching between teachers and students are coded in sequence context using Bi-GRU to obtain discourse text representations; then, a directed graph is constructed based on the order of the dialog between teachers and students in psychology and civics teaching, and a new text representation vector for each discourse text is obtained using graph convolutional neural network; finally, the two discourse representation vectors obtained are connected, and a similarity-based attention mechanism is used. Finally, the final discourse text representation is obtained using an attention-based mechanism to perform psychological and ideological state. The proposed method is conducive to the implementation of the teaching practice exploration of organic integration of ideals and beliefs with the cultivation of innovation ability in colleges and universities.

Aligning personal and collective interests in emerging adults during the COVID-19 emergency in Italy

This study investigated the relations of emerging adults' personal (civic competence and interdependent self-construal) and community-based (sense of community and civic engagement) resources as predictors of appraisal of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) and attitudes toward preventing contagion in Italy. Participants were 2873 Italian emerging adults (71% females) aged 19-30 years (M = 22.67, SD = 2.82). Structural equation modeling revealed both direct and indirect positive associations among study variables. Civic competence and interdependent self-construal were related to sense of community and civic engagement behavior which, in turn, predicted appraisal of PHEM. Appraisal of PHEM in turn predicted attitudes toward preventing contagion. Overall, findings highlight the importance of examining the alignment between personal and collective interests to understand emerging adults' evaluative and attitudinal experiences during a period of crisis, such as that created by COVID-19.

Social prescribing from the patient's perspective: A literature review

Social prescribing (SP) has aroused widespread interest across countries. SP is a way of linking patients in primary care with sources of support within the community by empowering patients to coproduce solutions to improve their health and well‐being. While previous research has demonstrated that SP contributes to reducing the total cost of the National Health Service, the analysis of its effects on patients is still inadequate. This literature review critically evaluated SP from the patient's perspective through the lens of medical anthropology. The review was made with respect to the three key concepts: treatment evaluation, coproduction, and empowerment. The study revealed that SP services in the UK enabled patients to feel comfort in many cases, but general practitioners, link workers, and patients should be collaborative with each other, and their interrelationships should not be hierarchical. Nevertheless, certain modifications may be needed to introduce SP in other healthcare systems.

Facing the pandemic lockdown questionnaire - FPLQ: A brief tool to assess individual differences in front of pandemic experience

This paper presents the development and the initial validation of a self-report questionnaire (the Facing the Pandemic Lockdown Questionnaire - FPLQ) focused on the way in which people faced the impact of the lockdown related to the Coronavirus Disease 19. 504 adults (81.55% females; M age = 32.71 years, SD = 11.19) took part to the study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a 15-item 4-factor structure, invariant for gender and age: two dimensions related to maladaptive processes (i.e., "Perception of low social connectedness and lack of routines" and "Health worry") and two dimensions related to adaptive processes (i.e., "Positive re-thinking" and "Perception of online social connectedness"). Further, we investigated the associations between these dimensions and measures pertaining cognitive (i.e., internal and external health locus of control), emotional (i.e., positive and negative affect), and relational (i.e., attitude and behaviors toward civic engagement) processes, also testing the moderating role of gender and age. Finally, the potential usefulness of this new tool for both extant and future psychological research was highlighted.

“We Were Loving Warriors!”: A Content Analysis of Black Women’s Resistance Within Psychological Science

Though findings are mixed, collective action engagement has been shown to be positively associated with greater academic success, social support, political efficacy, and well-being with racially marginalized individuals. Despite these findings, however, investigations of collective action engagement with Black American adult women within psychological science are scarce. Consistent with Black feminist thought, the construct of resistance may provide a necessary expansion to include all the ways that Black women actively work to transform their communities toward justice, beyond collective action. To ascertain the breadth and scope of psychological research related to Black women’s resistance (i.e., collective action engagement) to interpersonal discrimination and structural oppression, in this systematic review and content analysis we sought to identify participants’ and scholars’ definitions of resistance, as well as thematic dimensions and specific strategies of resistance. Additionally, we sought to determine the outcomes of resistance that have been assessed and the degree to which psychological health and well-being have been examined as an outcome of resistance within the literature. Findings from the analysis suggest the need for future examinations of the specific influence of Black American women’s collective action engagement and resistance to oppression on their well-being. Additionally, the findings of this review may have important implications for Black women’s well-being and as such, we discuss resistance work as a therapeutic intervention that can be encouraged by therapists, healers, community leaders, and educators.

Examining social context and the pathways to mental wellness in young adults during social movement: A parallel mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

Good family relationships are important for mental health. However, the mechanism linking family perceptions to mental wellness during political and social turmoil remains unclear. This study aimed to examine whether psychological and social factors could protect university students from detrimental mental health conditions in a time of social chaos.

METHODS

Participants included young adults (n = 1874, mean age = 22.19 years) who had been enrolled in Hong Kong local tertiary intuitions during Hong Kong's 2019 social movement. An online survey assessing various conditions, including family satisfaction, social support, personal resilience, negative moods, sense of school belonging, and mental health conditions before and during the movement, was administered to these students. Mediation analyses were performed to examine the role of negative affect, support from family, and school belongingness as mediators of the association between family satisfaction and mental health condition during the movement overall and by resilience subgroups.

RESULTS

Higher levels of satisfaction with family relationships before the onset of movement was associated with lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of support from family and school belongingness during the movement, in turn benefiting the student's mental health. The links of family satisfaction and school belongingness with mental wellness were particularly strong among low-resilient students.

LIMITATIONS

Mediation analysis using retrospective survey data CONCLUSIONS: Family conditions would interact with personal resilience to influence mental health status during social turmoil. The findings underscore the importance of early interventions particularly for those students facing family difficulties to enhance their social chaos and emergency preparedness.

Children and Youth Environmental Action: The Case of Children and Youth with Disabilities

Youth environmental activism is on the rise. Children and youth with disabilities are disproportionally impacted by environmental problems and environmental activism. They also face barriers towards participating in activism, many of which might also apply to their participation in environmental activism. Using a scoping review approach, we investigated the engagement with children and youth with disabilities by (a) academic literature covering youth environmental activism and their groups and (b) youth environmental activism group (Fridays For Future) tweets. We downloaded 5536 abstracts from the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST and Scopus and 340 Fridays For Future tweets and analyzed the data using directed qualitative content analysis. Of the 5536 abstracts, none covered children and youth with disabilities as environmental activists, the impact of environmental activism or environmental problems such as climate change on children and youth with disabilities. Fourteen indicated that environmental factors ‘caused’ the ‘impairments’ in children and youth with disabilities. One suggested that nature could be beneficial to children and youth with disabilities. The tweets did not mention children and youth with disabilities. Our findings suggest the need for more engagement with children and youth with disabilities in relation to youth environmental activism and environmental challenges.

Resistance as a form of resilience in sexual and gender minorities: Differential moderating roles of collective action on the discrimination-depression relationship among sexual minority men and women

BACKGROUND

As a fundamental means for transforming and advancing the conditions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, collective action has gained increasing attention in research, policy, and practice over the past decade. While collective action is influential in driving public awareness and policy changes, less is known about its psychological effects on individuals undertaking collective action.

METHODS

The present study developed a scale to measure collective action for LGBT rights and examined the underlying dimensions of collective action in a sample of 1050 LGBT individuals in Hong Kong. The moderating roles of collective action on the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms were also examined.

RESULTS

The LGBT Collective Action Scale measured two dimensions of collective action, i.e., private and public collective action. Private collective action moderated the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among sexual minority men and women; however, the moderating effect of public collective action was only found in sexual minority women.

CONCLUSIONS

These differential moderating effects could be attributed to gender role socialization and gender-specific coping mechanisms in response to minority stress. Although public collective action is more powerful in triggering structural changes than private collective action, individuals in less democratic societies may not necessarily have access to public collective action due to the absence of opportunity structures. Private collective action, which is able to be initiated and undertaken individually, can be directed to transform heterosexist biases in interpersonal context. For LGBT individuals in less democratic societies, private collective action may be a more manageable way to maintain mental health in the face of stigmatization.