Mexican-origin women's individual and collective strategies to access and share health-promoting resources in the context of exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies.

BACKGROUND: A growing literature has documented the social, economic, and health impacts of exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies in the early 21st century for Latiné communities in the US, pointing to immigration and immigrant policies as forms of structural racism that affect individual, family, and community health and well-being. Furthermore, the past decade has seen an increase in bi-partisan exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies. Immigration enforcement has been a major topic during the 2024 Presidential election cycle, portending an augmentation of exclusionary policies towards immigrants. Within this context, scholars have called for research that highlights the ways in which Latiné communities navigate exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies, and implications for health. This study examines ways in which Mexican-origin women in a midwestern northern border community navigate restrictive immigration and immigrant policies to access health-promoting resources and care for their well-being. METHODS: We conducted a grounded theory analysis drawing on interviews with 48 Mexican-origin women in Detroit, Michigan, who identified as being in the first, 1.5, or second immigrant generation. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish, depending on participants' preferences, and were conducted at community-based organizations or other locations convenient to participants in 2013-2014. RESULTS: Women reported encountering an interconnected web of institutional processes that used racializing markers to infer legal status and eligibility to access health-promoting resources. Our findings highlight women's use of both individual and collective action to navigate exclusionary policies and processes, working to: (1) maintain access to health-promoting resources; (2) limit labeling and stigmatization; and (3) mitigate adverse impacts of immigrant policing on health and well-being. The strategies women engaged were shaped by both the immigration processes and structures they confronted, and the resources to which they had access to within their social network. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a complex interplay of immigration-related policies and processes, social networks, and health-relevant resources. They highlight the importance of inclusive policies to promote health for immigrant communities. These findings illuminate women's agency in the context of structural violence facing immigrant women and are particularly salient in the face of anti-immigrant rhetoric and exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies.

Validation of the Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) Questionnaire.

Conceptualizing and testing factors that contribute to the success of community-academic partnerships are critical to understanding their contributions to the health and well-being of communities. Most measures to date focus on factors that contribute to the development of new partnerships, and only a few have been adequately tested and validated. Methods. The Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study followed a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and a multiphase process that included the construction and pilot testing of a questionnaire, and a national survey to validate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire in long-standing CBPR partnerships (existing ≥ six years). All members within partnerships were recruited to complete the survey (55 partnerships with 563 partners). We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Cronbach's alpha statistics, and a pairwise correlations approach to assess discriminant and convergent validity, and assessed internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Results. All MAPS Questionnaire dimensions demonstrated strong validity and reliability and demonstrated agreement over time. Conclusion. The MAPS Questionnaire includes seven dimensions and 81 items related to the MAPS conceptual model and provides a scientific, in-depth measurement tool that allows long-standing CBPR partnerships to evaluate their work toward achieving health equity.

Cultivating an ecosystem: A qualitative exploration of sustainability in long-standing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships.

Background: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence ≥ 6 years) CBPR partnerships. Objectives: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Methods: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS), a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined "success" and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Thematic analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews was conducted, including 10 academic and 11 community experts of long-standing CBPR partnerships. Results: The key defining components of sustainability we identified include: distinguishing between sustaining the work of the partnership and ongoing relationships among partners; working towards a common goal over time; and enduring changes that impact the partnership. We further identified strengthening and capacity building practices at multiple levels of the partnership that served to promote the sustainability of the partnership's work and of ongoing relationships among partners. Conclusions: Sustainability can be understood as supporting an ecosystem that surrounds the beneficial relationships between academic and community partners. Ongoing evaluation and application of practices that promote the sustainability of partnership activities and relationships may strengthen the long-term effectiveness of CBPR partnerships in advancing health equity.

Cultivating an Ecosystem: A Qualitative Exploration of Sustainability in Long-Standing Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships.

BACKGROUND: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence 6 years or longer) CBPR partnerships. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships. METHODS: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success, a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined "success" and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Thematic analysis of 21 semistructured interviews was conducted, including 10 academic and 11 community experts of long-standing CBPR partnerships. RESULTS: The key defining components of sustainability we identified include: distinguishing between sustaining the work of the partnership and ongoing relationships among partners; working towards a common goal over time; and enduring changes that impact the partnership. We further identified strengthening and capacity building practices at multiple levels of the partnership that served to promote the sustainability of the partnership's work and of ongoing relationships among partners. CONCLUSIONS: Sustainability can be understood as supporting an ecosystem that surrounds the beneficial relationships between academic and community partners. Ongoing evaluation and application of practices that promote the sustainability of partnership activities and relationships may strengthen the long-term effectiveness of CBPR partnerships in advancing health equity.

Erratum: Building the foundation for equitable and inclusive research: Seed grant programs to facilitate development of diverse CBPR community-academic research partnerships - CORRIGENDUM.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1017/cts.2022.495.].

Building the foundation for equitable and inclusive research: Seed grant programs to facilitate development of diverse CBPR community-academic research partnerships.

Introduction: The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships to address health inequities is well documented. CBPR integrates knowledge and perspectives of diverse communities throughout the research process, following principles that emphasize trust, power sharing, co-learning, and mutual benefits. However, institutions and funders seldom provide the time and resources needed for the critical stage of equitable partnership formation and development. Methods: Since 2011, the Detroit Urban Research Center, collaborating with other entities, has promoted the development of new community-academic research partnerships through two grant programs that combine seed funding with capacity building support from community and academic instructors/mentors experienced in CBPR. Process and outcomes were evaluated using mixed methods. Results: From 2011 to 2021, 50 partnerships received grants ranging from $2,500 to $30,000, totaling $605,000. Outcomes included equitable partnership infrastructure and processes, innovative pilot research, translation of findings to interventions and policy change, dissemination to multiple audiences, new proposals and projects, and sustained community-academic research partnerships. All partnerships continued beyond the program; over half secured additional funding. Conclusions: Keys to success included participation as community-academic teams, dedicated time for partnership/relationship development, workshops to develop equity-based skills, relationships, and projects, expert community-academic instructor guidance, and connection to additional resources. Findings demonstrate that small amounts of seed funding for newly forming community-academic partnerships, paired with capacity building support, can provide essential time and resources needed to develop diverse, inclusive, equity-focused CBPR partnerships. Building such support into funding initiatives and through academic institutions can enhance impact and sustainability of translational research toward advancing health equity.

Antiracism and Community-Based Participatory Research: Synergies, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Structural racism causes stark health inequities and operates at every level of society, including the academic and governmental entities that support health research and practice. We argue that health research institutions must invest in research that actively disrupts racial hierarchies, with leadership from racially marginalized communities and scholars. We highlight synergies between antiracist principles and community-based participatory research (CBPR), examine the potential for CBPR to promote antiracist research and praxis, illustrate structural barriers to antiracist CBPR praxis, and offer examples of CBPR actions taken to disrupt structural racism. We make recommendations for the next generation of antiracist CBPR, including modify health research funding to center the priorities of racially marginalized communities, support sustained commitments and accountability to those communities by funders and research institutions, distribute research funds equitably across community and academic institutions, amplify antiracist praxis through translation of research to policy, and adopt institutional practices that support reflection and adaptation of CBPR to align with emergent community priorities and antiracist practices. A critical application of CBPR principles offers pathways to transforming institutional practices that reproduce and reinforce racial inequities. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(1):70-78. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307114).

Understanding the Benefit-Cost Relationship in Long-standing Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) Partnerships: Findings from the Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) Study.

As part of the Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study, we investigated the relationship between benefits and costs of participation in long-standing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships using social exchange theory as a theoretical framework. Three major findings were identified: (1) the concept of benefits and costs operating as a ratio, where individual benefits must outweigh costs for participation, applies to early stages of CBPR partnership formation; (2) as CBPR partnerships develop, the benefits and costs of participation include each other's needs and the needs of the group as a whole; and (3) there is a shift in the relationship of benefits and costs over time in long-standing CBPR partnerships, in which partners no longer think in terms of costs but rather investments that contribute to mutual benefits.

A CBPR-Enhanced Delphi Method: The Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success Case Study.

As part of a 5-year study to develop and validate an instrument for measuring success in long-standing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, we utilized the Delphi method with a panel of 16 community and academic CBPR experts to assess face and content validity of the instrument's broad concepts of success and measurement items. In addition to incorporating quantitative and qualitative feedback from two online surveys, we included a 2-day face-to-face meeting with the Expert Panel to invite open discussion and diversity of opinion in line with the CBPR principles framing and guiding the study. The face-to-face meeting allowed experts to review the survey data (with maintained anonymity), convey their perspectives, and offer interpretations that were untapped in the online surveys. Using a CBPR approach facilitated a synergistic process that moved above and beyond the consensus achieved in the initial Delphi rounds, to enhance the Delphi technique and the development of items in the instrument.

Mexican-Origin Women's Construction and Navigation of Racialized Identities: Implications for Health Amid Restrictive Immigrant Policies.

This study examines how Mexican-origin women construct and navigate racialized identities in a postindustrial northern border community during a period of prolonged restrictive immigration and immigrant policies, and it considers mechanisms by which responses to racialization may shape health. This grounded theory analysis involves interviews with 48 Mexican-origin women in Detroit, Michigan, who identified as being in the first, 1.5, or second immigrant generation. In response to institutions and institutional agents using racializing markers to assess their legal status and policing access to health-promoting resources, women engaged in a range of strategies to resist being constructed as an "other." Women used the same racializing markers or symbols of (il)legality that had been used against them as a malleable set of resources to resist processes of racialization and to form, preserve, and affirm their identities. These responses include constructing an authorized immigrant identity, engaging in immigration advocacy, and resisting stigmatizing labels. These strategies may have different implications for health over time. Findings indicate the importance of addressing policies that promulgate or exacerbate racialization of Mexican-origin communities and other communities who experience growth through migration. Such policies include creating pathways to legalization and access to resources that have been invoked in racialization processes, such as state-issued driver's licenses.

A Participatory, Mixed Methods Approach to Define and Measure Partnership Synergy in Long-standing Equity-focused CBPR Partnerships.

Understanding what contributes to success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships is essential to ensuring their effectiveness in addressing health disparities and health inequities. Synergy, the concept of accomplishing more together than separately, is central to partnership effectiveness. However, synergy specific to long-standing, equity-focused CBPR partnerships has not been closely examined. To address this, we defined and developed measures of partnership synergy as one dimension of a participatory mixed methods study, Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS), to develop a validated instrument to measure success in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Framed by a conceptual model and scoping literature review, we conducted in-depth interviews with a national panel of academic and community experts in CBPR and equity to develop partnership synergy measures. Items were refined through an iterative process, including a three-stage Delphi process, comparison with existing measures, cognitive interviews, and pilot testing. Seven questionnaire items were developed to measure synergy arising from equitable partnerships bringing together diverse partners across power differences to promote equity. Defining and measuring synergy in the context of long-standing partnership success is central to understanding the role of synergy in collaborative approaches to research and action and can strengthen CBPR partnerships to promote healthy communities and advance health equity.

Independent and joint contributions of economic, social and physical environmental characteristics to mortality in the Detroit Metropolitan Area: A study of cumulative effects and pathways.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have demonstrated associations between race-based residential segregation, neighborhood socioeconomic and physical environmental characteristics, and mortality. Relatively few studies have examined independent and joint effects of these multiple neighborhood characteristics and mortality, including potential mediating pathways. In this study we examine the extent to which associations between race-based residential segregation and all-cause mortality may be explained by multiple socioeconomic indicators and exposure to air pollutants. METHODS: Drawing on data from multiple sources, we assessed bivariate associations between race-based residential segregation (operationalized as percent non-Hispanic Black), education (percent with graduate equivalency degree), poverty (percent below poverty), income inequality (GINI coefficient) and air pollution (ambient PM2.5) and age adjusted all-cause, all race mortality (henceforth all cause mortality) at the census tract level in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. We used inequality curves to assess the (in)equitable distribution of economic and environmental characteristics by census tract racial composition. Finally, we used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to examine independent and joint associations among percent NHB, education, income inequality, and air pollution to all-cause mortality, and test for mediating effects. RESULTS: Bivariate associations between racial composition, education, poverty, income inequality, PM2.5 and all-cause mortality were statistically significant. Census tracts with higher concentrations of NHB residents had significantly lower educational attainment, higher poverty, and greater exposure to PM2.5. In multivariate models, education, income inequality and PM2.5 fully attenuated associations between racial composition and all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Results are consistent with the hypothesis that race-based residential segregation is associated with heightened all-cause mortality, and that those effects are mediated by education, income inequality, and exposure to air pollution at the census tract level. Public health and cross-sector interventions to eliminate race-based residential segregation or to eliminate the maldistribution of educational and economic resources, and environmental exposures, across census tracts could substantially reduce regional inequities in all-cause mortality.

Moving Health Education and Behavior Upstream: Lessons From COVID-19 for Addressing Structural Drivers of Health Inequities.

In this Perspective, we build on social justice and emancipatory traditions within the field of health education, and the field's long-standing commitment to building knowledge and shared power to promote health equity, to examine lessons and opportunities for health education emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining patterns that emerged as the pandemic unfolded in Metropolitan Detroit, with disproportionate impacts on African American and low-income communities, we consider conditions that contributed to excess exposure, mortality, and reduced access to critical health protective resources. Using a life course framework, we consider enduring impacts of the pandemic for health equity. Finally, we suggest several strategic actions in three focal areas-environment, occupation, and housing-that can be taken by health educators working in partnership with community members, researchers, and decision makers, using, for example, a community-based participatory research approach, to reduce adverse impacts of COVID-19 and promote long-term equity in health.

Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success: Theory and Methods for Measuring Success in Long-Standing Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Numerous conceptual frameworks have been developed to understand how community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships function, and multiple measurement approaches have been designed to evaluate them. However, most measures are not validated, and have focused on new partnerships. To define and assess the meaning of success in long-standing CBPR partnerships, we are conducting a CBPR study, Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS). In this article we describe the theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches used. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study are to 1) develop a questionnaire to evaluate success in long-standing CBPR partnerships, 2) test the psychometric qualities of the questionnaire, 3) assess the relationships between key variables and refine the questionnaire and theoretical model, and 4) develop mechanisms and a feedback tool to apply partnership evaluation findings. METHODS: Methodological approaches have included: engaged a community-academic national Expert Panel; conducted key informant interviews with Expert Panel; conducted a scoping literature review; conducted a Delphi process with the Expert Panel; and revised the measurement instrument. Additional methods include: conduct cognitive interviews and pilot testing; revise and test final version of the questionnaire with long-standing CBPR partnerships; examine the reliability and validity; analyze the relationship among variables in the framework; revise the framework; and develop a feedback mechanism for sharing partnership evaluation results. CONCLUSIONS: Through the application of a theoretical model and multiple methodological approaches, the MAPS study will result in a validated measurement instrument and will develop procedures for effectively feeding back evaluation findings in order to strengthen authentic partnerships to achieve health equity.

Applying Experiential Action Learning Pedagogy to an Intensive Course to Enhance Capacity to Conduct Community-Based Participatory Research.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is widely recognized as an effective approach to understand and address health inequities. Opportunities for public health practitioners and researchers to engage jointly with community partners in intensive colearning processes can build capacity for CBPR. Using active learning approaches that engage diverse partners can enhance partnership development, competence, and equity. Examination of such pedagogical approaches can strengthen understanding of their contributions to the effectiveness of CBPR capacity-building programs. This article describes a weeklong intensive course carried out by the Detroit Urban Research Center as the foundation for a yearlong training program to build the capacity of community-academic partnership teams to engage in CBPR in their own communities. The in-person CBPR course was developed and implemented by expert academic and community instructors and used an experiential action learning model that integrated CBPR principles and processes. We describe the course content and application of our collaborative, experiential action learning model to course design; present results from participant evaluation of course effectiveness, CBPR competence, and equitable partnership development; and examine the contributions of the pedagogical approach to outcomes central to successful CBPR. The participatory, formative course evaluation used multiple methods that included closed- and open-ended questionnaires to assess instructional effectiveness, participant competence on 12 core components of CBPR, and course impact on partner relationships. Evaluation findings suggest that an experiential action learning approach with attention to colearning, collaboration among diverse instructors and participants, and an environment that fosters and models equitable and trusting relationships can be effective in building CBPR capacity.

Enhancing Capacity of Community-Academic Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity: Results From the CBPR Partnership Academy.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an equitable partnership approach that links academic researchers, community organizations, and public health practitioners to work together to understand and address health inequities. Although numerous educational materials on CBPR exist, few training programs develop the skills and knowledge needed to establish effective, equitable partnerships. Furthermore, there are few professional development opportunities for academic researchers, practitioners, and community members to obtain these competencies in an experiential co-learning process. In response, the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center developed the CBPR Partnership Academy, an innovative, yearlong capacity-building program facilitated by experienced community and academic partners, involving an intensive short course, partnership development, grant proposal preparation and funding, mentoring, online learning forums, and networking. Three diverse cohorts (36 teams) from 18 states and 2 tribal nations have participated. We describe the rationale and components of the training program and present results from the first two cohorts. Evaluation results suggest enhanced competence and efficacy in conducting CBPR. Outcomes include partnerships established, grant proposals submitted and funded, workshops and research conducted, and findings disseminated. A community-academic partner-based, integrated, applied program can be effective for professional development and establishing innovative linkages between academics and practitioners aimed at achieving health equity.

Impact of change over time in self-reported discrimination on blood pressure: implications for inequities in cardiovascular risk for a multi-racial urban community.

Objectives: The 21st century has seen a rise in racism and xenophobia in the United States. Few studies have examined the health implications of heightened institutional and interpersonal racism. This study examines changes in reported discrimination and associations with blood pressure over time among non-Latino Blacks (NLBs), Latinos, and non-Latino Whites (NLWs) in an urban area, and variations by nativity among Latinos.Design: Data from a probability sample of NLB, Latino, and NLW Detroit, Michigan residents were collected in 2002-2003, with follow-up at the same addresses in 2007-2008. Surveys were completed at 80% of eligible housing units in 2008 (n = 460). Of those, 219 participants were interviewed at both time points and were thus included in this analysis. Discrimination patterns across racial/ethnic groups and associations with blood pressure were examined using generalized estimating equations.Results: From 2002 to 2008, NLBs and Latinos reported heightened interpersonal and institutional discrimination, respectively, compared with NLWs. There were no differences in associations between interpersonal discrimination and blood pressure. Increased institutional discrimination was associated with stronger increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure for NLBs than NLWs, with no differences between Latinos and NLWs. Latino immigrants experienced greater increases in blood pressure with increased interpersonal and institutional discrimination compared to US-born Latinos.Conclusions: Together, these findings suggest that NLBs and Latinos experienced heightened discrimination from 2002 to 2008, and that increases in institutional discrimination were more strongly associated with blood pressure elevation among NLBs and Latino immigrants compared to NLWs and US-born Latinos, respectively. These findings suggest recent increases in discrimination experienced by NLBs and Latinos, and that these increases may exacerbate racial/ethnic health inequities.

Success in Long-Standing Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Partnerships: A Scoping Literature Review.

Background. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is increasingly used by community and academic partners to examine health inequities and promote health equity in communities. Despite increasing numbers of CBPR partnerships, there is a lack of consensus in the field regarding what defines partnership success and how to measure factors contributing to success in long-standing CBPR partnerships. Aims. To identify indicators and measures of success in long-standing CBPR partnerships as part of a larger study whose aim is to develop and validate an instrument measuring success across CBPR partnerships. Methods. The Joanna Briggs Institute framework and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guided searches of three databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus) for articles published between 2007 and 2017 and evaluating success in CBPR partnerships existing longer than 4 years. Results. Twenty-six articles met search criteria. We identified 3 key domains and 7 subdomains with 28 underlying indicators of success. Six partnerships developed or used instruments to measure their success; only one included reliability or validity data. Discussion. CBPR partnerships reported numerous intersecting partner, partnership, and outcome indicators important for success. These results, along with data from key informant interviews with community and academic partners and advisement from a national panel of CBPR experts, will inform development of items for an instrument measuring CBPR partnership success. Conclusion. The development of a validated instrument measuring indicators of success will allow long-standing CBPR partnerships to evaluate their work toward achieving health equity and provide a tool for newly forming CBPR partnerships aiming to achieve long-term success.

Social relationships, neighbourhood poverty and cumulative biological risk: findings from a multi-racial US urban community.

Prior research has established associations between neighbourhood poverty and cumulative biological risk (CBR). CBR is conceptualized as indicative of the effects of stress on biological functioning, and is linked with increased morbidity and mortality. Studies suggest that supportive social relationships may be health protective, and may erode under conditions of poverty. This study examines whether social relationships are inversely associated with CBR and whether associations between neighbourhood poverty and CBR are mediated through social relationships. Data were from a stratified probability sample community survey (n=919) of residents of Detroit, Michigan, USA (2002-2003) and from the 2000 US Census. The outcome variable, CBR, included anthropometric and clinical measures. Independent variables included four indicators of social relationships: social support, neighbourhood satisfaction, social cohesion and neighbourhood participation. Multilevel models were used to test both research questions, with neighbourhood poverty and social relationships included at the block group level, and social relationships also included at the individual level, to disentangle individual from neighbourhood effects. Findings suggest some associations between social relationships and CBR after accounting for neighbourhood poverty and individual characteristics. In models that accounted for all indicators of social relationships, individual-level social support was associated with greater CBR (ß=0.12, p=0.04), while neighbourhood-level social support was marginally significantly protective of CBR (within-neighbourhood: ß=-0.36, p=0.06; between-neighbourhood: ß=-0.24, p=0.06). In contrast, individual-level neighbourhood satisfaction was protective of CBR (ß=-0.10, p=0.02), with no within-neighbourhood (ß=0.06, p=0.54) or between-neighbourhood association (ß=-0.04, p=0.38). Results indicate no significant association between either social cohesion or neighbourhood participation and CBR. Associations between neighbourhood poverty and CBR were not mediated by social relationships. These findings suggest that neighbourhood-level social support and individual-level neighbourhood satisfaction may be health protective and that neighbourhood poverty, social support and neighbourhood satisfaction are associated with CBR through independent pathways.