Two generations thrive: Bidirectional collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and parents to promote culturally responsive trauma research, practice, and policy.

OBJECTIVE: Prolonged exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the absence of protective relationships and systems contributes to toxic stress and can lead to numerous psychological and physical health consequences. Disproportionate exposure to ACEs and lack of appropriate responses stemming from systemic racism contributes to racial inequities. Culturally responsive practices and policies focused on early childhood are critical to prevent toxic stress and subsequent health inequities. This paper describes a collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and parents of color with lived experiences of ACEs entitled: Two Generations Thrive, which aims to prevent the intergenerational transmission of ACEs through improving practices and policies within the health care, education, and child welfare systems. METHOD: Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) and cultural humility provided a framework and key principles for our collaboration, with an emphasis on critical reflection, mitigating power imbalances, and institutional accountability. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate outcomes. We describe our process of building an infrastructure for bidirectional collaboration and key lessons learned to offer a roadmap for researchers, clinicians, and advocates who seek to partner in preventing ACEs and subsequent health inequities. RESULTS: Key lessons learned include: the importance of building and maintaining trust, consistently working to mitigate power imbalances, and the power of bidirectional collaboration to maximize the benefit of research and action for communities traditionally marginalized in research and practice. CONCLUSIONS: Cultural humility and CBPR provide a strong foundation to promote bidirectional collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and parents with lived experience of ACEs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Bringing Out the Best in Parenting: Translating Community-Engaged Research on Adversity and Parenting to Policy.

BACKGROUND: Although positive parenting protects children against adversity, experiences of adversity can disrupt protective parenting practices. The impact of adversity on the lived experiences of parents living in poverty is lacking attention to specific aspects of the socioecological context. OBJECTIVES: This qualitative research study provides an in-depth exploration of parenting goals, attitudes, and values as well as the mesosystem and chronosystem factors that influence parenting among parents of young children exposed to adversity. The authors also sought to translate research findings into policy initiatives to benefit local families. METHODS: Low-income, primarily Black/African American parents of young children participated in in-depth, semistructured interviews regarding contextual influences on their parenting. Bronfenbrenner's Social-Ecological Model guided coding and analysis. Our Community Action Board (CAB), which endeavors to prevent toxic stress and promote resilience among children and families impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) aided with research study design, implementation, and interpretation of the findings. RESULTS: Healthy, supportive parenting goals and values are hampered by challenging interactions with various levels of the socioecological system. Findings highlight the relevance of the mesosystem and chronosystem to parenting in this sample. CONCLUSIONS: Practice implications include strength-based and trauma-informed parenting interventions. In addition, greater awareness of historical discrimination and intergenerational trauma are needed among systems serving urban children and families to build more effective partnerships with families. Policy initiatives informed by the results and our CAB are described.

Building Leadership, Capacity, and Power to Advance Health Equity and Justice through Community-Engaged Research in the Midwest.

The Health Equity Advancement Lab (HEAL) at the University of Iowa College of Public Health began in 2012 to support students, researchers, and community members interested in tackling persistent health inequities through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Using concepts from critical consciousness theory, we developed an approach to building students', faculty members', and community partners' capacity to engage in CBPR to promote health equity that involved immersion in developing CBPR projects. Our paper describes the evolution of HEAL as a facilitating structure that provides a support network and engages diverse stakeholders in critical reflection as they participate in research to advance health equity, and resulting political efficacy and social action. We describe one HEAL-affiliated research project that employs a CBPR approach and has a strong focus on providing transformative learning experiences for students, faculty, and community members. We highlight challenges, successes, and lessons learned in the application of critical consciousness as a framework that engages diverse academic and community partners seeking to promote health equity. We argue that critical consciousness is a relevant theoretical framework to promote transformative learning among students, faculty, and community partners to promote health equity research in diverse communities.