Promotion of social change: a conceptual framework

Identifying abolitionist alignments in community psychology: A path toward transformation

Psychology is grounded in the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, that is, "do no harm." Yet many have argued that psychology as a field is attached to carceral systems and ideologies that uphold the prison industrial complex (PIC), including the field of community psychology (CP). There have been recent calls in other areas of psychology to transform the discipline into an abolitionist social science, but this discourse is nascent in CP. This paper uses the semantic device of "algorithms" (e.g., conventions to guide thinking and decision-making) to identify the areas of alignment and misalignment between abolition and CP in the service of moving us toward greater alignment. The authors propose that many in CP are already oriented to abolition because of our values and theories of empowerment, promotion, and systems change; our areas of misalignment between abolition and CP hold the potential to evolve. We conclude with proposing implications for the field of CP, including commitments to the belief that (1) the PIC cannot be reformed, and (2) abolition must be aligned with other transnational liberation efforts (e.g., decolonization).

The Roles of Settings in Supporting Immigrants' Resistance to Injustice and Oppression: A Policy Position Statement by the Society for Community Research and Action: A Policy Statement by the Society for Community Research and Action: Division 27 of the American Psychological Association

In 2018, in response to increasingly oppressive and widespread federal immigration enforcement actions in the United States (U.S.) and around the globe - including family separation, immigration raids, detention, deportation of people who have lived in the country for much of their lives - the Society for Community Research & Action produced a statement on the effects of deportation and forced separation on immigrants, their families, and communities (SCRA, 2018). The statement focused exclusively on the impacts of deportation and forced family separation, documenting the damage done by oppressive U.S. policies and practices. We felt it was imperative to document this harm, and yet were uncomfortable producing a narrow paper that focused solely on harm. There are multiple ways immigrants and their allies resist deportation and other forms of oppression. This resistance is done individually, collectively, and in settings that vary in size and scope, including community-based, faith-based, direct care, and educational settings, as well as entire municipalities and transnational organizing settings. Settings facilitate resistance in many ways, focusing on those who are oppressed, their oppressors, and systems of oppression. In this statement, we describe the unique and overlapping ways in which settings facilitate resistance. We situate this review of the scientific and practice literature in the frameworks of change through social settings, empowering settings, healing justice, and decolonization. We also document recommendations for continued resistance.

Immigration Policy as a Social Determinant of Health: Development and Initial Validation of a Measure to Assess Attitudes toward Immigrant Integration

Anti-immigrant policymaking in the U.S. is a critical social determinant of health compromising the wellbeing of immigrants and, by extension, communities of color. It is imperative that social work, public health, and other allied professions unite to address anti-immigrant policymaking by improving intergroup attitudes and building broader public support for immigrant integration. This study fills a gap in the literature by psychometrically developing and initially validating a measure of attitudes toward integrationist immigration policymaking. A three-stage study was conducted to explore, calibrate, and validate the factor structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Findings suggest there are two distinct but interrelated dimensions of attitudes toward integrationist immigration policies: support for the (a) extension of pathways to legal status and (b) expansion of eligibility for social rights and benefits. Initial evidence of criterion validity for the scale is offered. The utility of the measure for intergroup intervention testing is discussed.

Theorizing Safety Informed Settings: Supporting Staff at Youth Residential Facilities

Each year approximately 48,000 youth are incarcerated in residential placement facilities (YRFs) in the United States. The limited existing literature addressing the workforce in these settings paints a complicated picture. The YRF workforce is highly motivated to work with legal system involved youth. However, YRF staff report high rates of burnout, job fatigue, and work-related stress. The current paper proposes solutions to persistent problems faced by staff in these settings by integrating literature from criminology, organizational psychology, trauma-informed care, and community psychology. In doing so, we highlight previously overlooked aspects of intervention for trauma-organized settings and respond to recent calls for community psychologists to take a more active role in the adaptation of trauma-informed care in community settings. We conclude by advancing three recommendations, drawn from setting-level theory and inspired by the principles of trauma-informed care, to transform YRFs.

Transforming Social Regularities in a Multicomponent Community-Based Intervention: A Case Study of Professionals' Adaptability to Better Support Parents to Meet Their Children's Needs

This paper presents an in-depth case study of the dynamic processes of mutual adjustment that occurred between two professional teams participating in a multicomponent community-based intervention (CBI). Drawing on the concept of social regularities, we focus on patterns of social interaction within and across the two microsystems involved in delivering the intervention. Two research strategies, narrative analysis and structural network analysis, were used to reveal the social regularities linking the two microsystems. Results document strategies and actions undertaken by the professionals responsible for the intervention to modify intersetting social regularities to deal with a problem situation that arose during the course of one intervention cycle. The results illustrate how key social regularities were modified in order to resolve the problem situation and allow the intervention to continue to function smoothly. We propose that these changes represent a transition to a new state of the ecological intervention system. This transformation appeared to be the result of certain key intervening mechanisms: changing key role relationships, boundary spanning, and synergy. The transformation also appeared to be linked to positive setting-level and individual-level outcomes: confidence of key team members, joint planning, decision-making and intervention activities, and the achievement of desired intervention objectives.

Training Counseling Psychologists as Social Justice Agents

Despite recent calls for counseling psychology to embrace social justice-oriented work, there has been little discussion about what such work actually looks like. The first part of this article derives a set of principles from feminist and multicultural counseling theories that counseling psychologists should consider as they engage in social justice work. These include (a) ongoing self-examination,(b) sharing power, (c) giving voice, (d) facilitating consciousness raising, (e) building on strengths, and(f) leaving clients the tools to work toward social change. The second part of the article describes a program designed to integrate social justice work into the core curriculum of the Boston College doctoral program. The authors discuss ways in which the above principles have shaped students; activities, and some of the ethical dilemmas that have emerged. Finally, the article under-scores professional obstacles that counseling psychologists doing social justice work are likely to face, and offers recommendations for overcoming them.

An investigation of the dynamic processes promoting citizen participation

This study expanded the citizen participation literature by examining the dynamic nature of citizen participation and the extent to which the factors associated with citizen participation may be moderated by resident leadership status. Longitudinal survey data collected from 542 residents in one small Midwestern city implementing a community change initiative provide some insight into the challenges surrounding the promotion of an active citizenry. Within this one community, citizenship behaviors of emergent resident leaders and residents uninterested in a leadership role were influenced, to some extent, by different factors and the importance of these factors shifted in only a 2 years time span. Future research is needed to determine if the dynamics uncovered in this study were due to the initiative or to the nature of citizen participation processes.

The ABLe change framework: a conceptual and methodological tool for promoting systems change

This paper presents a new approach to the design and implementation of community change efforts like a System of Care. Called the ABLe Change Framework, the model provides simultaneous attention to the content and process of the work, ensuring effective implementation and the pursuit of systems change. Three key strategies are employed in this model to ensure the integration of content and process efforts and effective mobilization of broad scale systems change: Systemic Action Learning Teams, Simple Rules, and Small Wins. In this paper we describe the ABLe Change Framework and present a case study in which we successfully applied this approach to one system of care effort in Michigan.

Social Justice and Counseling Psychology: Listening to the Voices of Doctoral Trainees

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand counseling psychology doctoral trainees’ perceptions of social justice training in their academic programs. Participants ( N = 66) completed an online social justice survey with open-ended questions. Researchers identified major themes of participants’ responses (e.g., promotion of social equality, infusion across training contexts, training opportunities outside of programs, importance of “walking the talk”). Implications, future directions, and limitations of the study are presented.

Toward a multi-level, ecological approach to the primary prevention of sexual assault: prevention in peer and community contexts

Although sexual assault prevention programs have been increasingly successful at improving knowledge about sexual violence and decreasing rape-supportive attitudes and beliefs among participants, reducing sexually assaultive conduct itself remains an elusive outcome. This review considers efforts to support change for individuals by creating prevention strategies that target peer network and community-level factors that support sexual violence. To this end, the article examines successful ecological prevention models from other prevention fields, identifies the components of multilevel prevention that appear critical to efficacy and discusses their application to existing and emerging sexual violence prevention strategies.

Identifying common practices in community-based rape prevention programs

Community-based rape prevention programs have received little attention in the research literature. In this study qualitative methods were used to describe such programs and to assess the degree of homogeneity in their practices. In-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of 10 community-based prevention programs in a single state. Findings suggest that two typologies exist: short programs and extended programs. Homogeneity across programs was common as most programs emphasized secondary and tertiary prevention and relied on short curricula that are implemented with mixed-gender groups of students. A comparison to practices found in the research literature indicate that they are mostly using the same practices and these practices have not been demonstrated to have sustained behavioral effects that would reduce the incidence of sexual violence. Implications for future practice are discussed.

The ecology of adolescent substance abuse service utilization

This paper presents an ecological-community model toward the explanation of variation in patterns of substance abuse (SA) service utilization among adolescents who are enrolled in Tennessee's Medicaid program (TennCare). Guided by a theoretical framework that draws from the social ecology work of Bronfenbrenner and health services utilization models promoted by Aday and Andersen, we apply a social indicators approach toward explaining the impact of community ecology on identification of SA and treatment engagement. Both county-level rates and individual-level treatment utilization are examined and hierarchical linear modeling is incorporated to examine the individual-in-community phenomenon. This study is an expansion of previous service utilization research and suggests that explanations of youth's service utilization must necessarily include not only individual, familial, and service system characteristics, but community factors, as well.

Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators

Measuring progress toward systems change, sustainable efforts that address root causes of an issue by changing policies and practices, is a difficult task for communities, evaluators, and foundations. Tracking and documenting changes in resources, power, policy, sustainable funding, structured relationships and roles, and underlying values require multi-level analyses. Systems change analysts must consider at least four "strata" at once: (1) events and trends, (2) patterns of interaction, (3) context and cultural or social models, and (4) the systems themselves. In this paper we provide a brief overview of systems change; a discussion of collaboratives as one "engine" of social change; a discussion of benchmarks and indicators of collaboratives focused on systems change; and suggestions for further research. The analysis draws upon several analytic frameworks described in the literature. We illustrate these concepts with examples from six systems change initiatives funded by The California Endowment. The need for further research is outlined.

Capturing system level activities and impacts of mental health consumer-run organizations

Since the 1970s mental health consumer-run organizations have come to offer not only mutual support, but they have also adopted agendas for broader social change. Despite an awareness of the need for system level efforts that create supportive environments for their members, there has been limited research demonstrating how their system level activities can be documented or their impacts evaluated. The purpose of this paper is to feature a method of evaluating systems change activities and impacts. The paper is based on a longitudinal study evaluating four mental health consumer-run organizations in Ontario, Canada. The study tracked system level activities and impacts using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The article begins by describing the development and implementation of these methods. Next it offers a critical analysis of the methods used. It concludes by reflecting on three lessons learned about capturing system level activities and impacts of mental health consumer-run organizations.

Effects of positive youth development programs on school, family, and community systems

A review of efforts at social system change in 526 universal competence-promotion outcome studies indicated that 64% of the interventions attempted some type of microsystemic or mesosystemic change involving schools, families, or community-based organizations in an attempt to foster developmental competencies in children and adolescents. Only 24% of the reports provided quantitative data on the change that occurred in targeted systems. However, studies containing the necessary information produced several mean effect sizes that were statistically significant, and ranged from modest to large in magnitude. These data indicate that attempts to change social systems affecting children and adolescents can be successful. Future work should measure more thoroughly the extent to which the systemic changes that are targeted through intervention are achieved, and investigate how such changes contribute to the development and sustainability of the outcomes that might be demonstrated by participants of competence-promotion programs.

Systems change reborn: rethinking our theories, methods, and efforts in human services reform and community-based change

This article introduces the reader to this special issue on Systems Change and highlights six lessons learned about theory, methods, and interventions for systems change that emerged across the included articles. The value of a systems approach to systems change is examined, including the need for frameworks, methods, and change activities that attend to the characteristics of systems.

Introduction to the special section on multicultural and community psychology: clinical psychology in context

Human behavior occurs in the contexts of culture and community. Yet, clinical psychology has traditionally focused on the individual, neglecting the individual's context. The purpose of this Special Section is to address the underlying conceptual issues in integrating multicultural and community psychology within a common framework. The integration of etic and emic approaches distinguishes the research programs in these articles from others that have solely focused on universal or culture-specific approaches. Issues facing ethnic minority populations are addressed, including identification of risk and protective factors, obstacles to mental health service use, and optimal treatment effectiveness. The integration of culture and community contexts into clinical psychology is necessary for it to remain relevant in an increasingly diverse 21st century.

Getting the big picture in community science: methods that capture context

Community science has a rich tradition of using theories and research designs that are consistent with its core value of contextualism. However, a survey of empirical articles published in the American Journal of Community Psychology shows that community scientists utilize a narrow range of statistical tools that are not well suited to assess contextual data. Multilevel modeling, geographic information systems (GIS), social network analysis, and cluster analysis are recommended as useful tools to address contextual questions in community science. An argument for increased methodological consilience is presented, where community scientists are encouraged to adopt statistical methodology that is capable of modeling a greater proportion of the data than is typical with traditional methods.

Contextual competence: multiple manifestations among urban adolescents

The authors develop and validate multidimensional and contextual profiles of competence among low-income, urban, middle adolescents (N = 560). The assessment of contextual competence was based on youth self-reports of involvement, performance, and relationship quality in the peer, school, athletic, employment, religious, and cultural contexts. A principal components analysis of these engagement indices revealed the six expected components with the addition of a component labeled "self-in-context." To identify holistic, multidimensional profiles of contextual competence, scores along the seven domains were cluster analyzed. Nine clusters emerged, each representing a distinct constellation of youth experience. Profiles were associated with demographic variables and youth adjustment. Profiles reflecting high engagement in two or more contexts predicted higher self-esteem and lower depression. In contrast, profiles marked by high engagement in the contexts of athletics or employment predicted more serious delinquency. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future research and intervention.