American journal of community psychology
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Am J Community Psychol · Sep 2016
ReviewCollege Campus Community Readiness to Address Intimate Partner Violence Among LGBTQ+ Young Adults: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination.
This paper provides an overview of a conceptual model that integrates theories of social ecology, minority stress, and community readiness to better understand risk for and outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) among LGBTQ+ college students. Additionally, online survey data was collected from a sample of 202 LGBTQ+ students enrolled in 119 colleges across the United States to provide preliminary data on some aspects of the proposed model. Results suggested that students generally thought their campuses were low in readiness to address IPV; that is, students felt that their campuses could do more to address IPV and provide IPV services specific to LGBTQ+ college students. ⋯ Greater sense of community was marginally and inversely related to IPV victimization and perpetration. Sense of community and LGBTQ+ campus climate also varied to some extent as a function of region of the country and type of institution. Implications for further development and refinement of the conceptual model, as well as future research applying this model to better understand IPV among sexual minority students are discussed.
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Am J Community Psychol · Aug 1994
ReviewA contextual-behavioral model of empowerment: case studies involving people with physical disabilities.
When people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, older adults, women, and others lack power, they usually experience adverse conditions disproportionate to other members of society. Empowerment--the process by which people gain some control over valued events, outcomes, and resources--is an important construct for understanding and improving the lives of people of marginal status. ⋯ The case studies show the use of different combinations of empowerment tactics in a variety of contexts: (a) setting improvement agendas from the perspective of people with disabilities, (b) enforcing ordinances that preserve access to parking spaces designated for people with disabilities, (c) enabling access to homes through housing modifications, (d) enhancing support available through mutual-aid groups, (e) developing skills for recruiting mentors, (f) promoting self-directed behavior change with personal and health concerns, (g) enhancing skills for personal self-advocacy, and (h) building the capacities of groups of people with disabilities for systems advocacy. Finally, we discuss issues that may contribute to research and action related to empowerment.
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Am J Community Psychol · Apr 1994
ReviewThe continuity principle: a unified approach to disaster and trauma.
The continuity principle stipulates that through all stages of disaster, management and treatment should aim at preserving and restoring functional, historical, and interpersonal continuities, at the individual, family, organization, and community levels. Two misconceptions work against this principle and lead to decisional errors: the "abnormalcy bias" which results in underestimating victims' ability to cope with disaster, and the "normalcy bias" which results in underestimating the probability or extent of expected disruption. This article clarifies these biases and details the potential contributions of the continuity principle at the different stages of the disaster.
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Am J Community Psychol · Dec 1990
Comment ReviewCommunity treatment for the seriously mentally ill: is this community psychology?
Reviewed the study by Bond et al. (1990) on assertive community treatment (ACT) for the seriously mentally ill and raised questions as to why community psychologists have not been more involved in this research area. The relevance of ACT to community psychology was described in 6 areas: ecological approach, advocacy orientation, promotion of competence, prevention of psychopathology, integration of services, and systems theory. Three other areas were identified as critical for ACT and as domains in which community psychologists could provide future expertise: empowerment, research design, and community context effects. Community psychologists were challenged to reach out to the seriously mentally ill and demonstrate the relevance of this discipline to all disenfranchised persons.