Peer Recovery Coaches Perceptions of Their Work and Their Implications for Training, Support and Personal Recovery.

The peer recovery workforce, including individuals in sustained recovery from substance use, has grown rapidly in the previous decades. Peer recovery coaches represent a scalable, resource-efficient, and acceptable approach to increasing service delivery, specifically among individuals receiving substance use services in low-resource communities. Despite the potential to improve access to care in traditionally underserved settings, there are a number of barriers to successfully integrating peer recovery coaches in existing recovery services. The current study presents results from two focus groups composed of peer recovery coaches. Findings suggest that peer recovery coaches report discordance between their perceived role and their daily responsibilities and experience both inter- and intrapersonal challenges that impact their own recovery processes. These results point to several promising policy and structural changes that may support and enhance this growing workforce.

Personal justice beliefs, everyday discrimination, and carotid intima media thickness in sexual minority men.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) disproportionately affects sexual minority men (SMM) and is linked to discrimination-related stress. Belief in a just world-including the belief that one personally gets what one deserves (personal justice beliefs)-is a coping strategy that can protect against discrimination-related stress and CVD risk. Here, we examine links between personal justice beliefs, perceived everyday discrimination, and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT)-a measure of atherosclerosis that can indicate subclinical CVD. METHOD: Sexual minority White (29%) and racial minority (African American 18.8%, mixed/other 44.9%) male young adults (N = 69) completed measures of personal justice beliefs and everyday discrimination. cIMT imaging was used to compute common carotid artery (CCA) intima media thickness. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed associations between justice beliefs, perceived discrimination, and cIMT that were moderated by age. Consistent with prior research, personal justice beliefs predicted less perceived discrimination, especially among older SMM. However, personal justice beliefs were also linked to greater rather than less CCA among older SMM. CONCLUSIONS: Relationships between believing in justice and CVD may be complex among minority groups. Among SMM, the belief in personal justice may reduce perceived discrimination, but may be simultaneously deleteriously associated with biological processes that underlie CVD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Is a school's neighborhood physical disorder related to its academic outcomes?

BACKGROUND: Neighborhood environment for student residences has been linked to differences in academic outcomes. However, school neighborhood has not been studied as a potential additional environmental factor in academic outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to explore the association between school neighborhood disorder and academic outcomes. METHODS: School neighborhood physical disorder data were paired with school academic achievement and attendance data. Using regression analyses, we examined whether academic achievement and attendance were predicted using NIfETy neighborhood physical disorder scores for the 21 schools within the boundaries of Flint. RESULTS: Neighborhood physical disorder was significantly negatively associated with mathematics scores (ß=-7.71707, p=0.0430425), but not with English Language Arts (ELA) scores (ß=-4.35, p=0.13). We found a significant curvilinear relationship between neighborhood physical disorder and attendance. CONCLUSIONS: This study supplements existing literature by focusing on neighborhood physical disorder at the school. We found evidence that school neighborhood may impact academic achievement. These findings complement previous research showing that neighborhood of residence factors, such as structural disadvantage, impact school performance. Students exposed to economically disadvantaged neighborhoods at school, regardless of where they live, may have poorer academic skills.