Perils and Possibilities: Sexual Violence Preventionists' Perspectives on Gathering Community Input on Prevention Practice.

There is relatively little research unpacking provider processes or tensions (e.g., leadership decision-making) when attempting to gather and incorporate community feedback into gender-based violence work. Across focus groups with 18 sexual violence preventionists, we explored experiences collecting information and perspectives from or with community members; barriers, and facilitators; and how they navigate possibilities of community-informed sexual violence prevention. We learned that preventionists want to gather input, and they gather it in nonsystematic ways; they face barriers familiar to many community-informed processes; and the topic of sexual violence complicates community-informed processes. Determining boundaries of possibility is central to navigating practice. Further, organizational settings are influential in determining boundaries.

Looking back, moving forward: 50 years of the American Journal of Community Psychology.

The American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) was founded in 1973 and has since its inception has been the flagship journal for the Society of Community Research and Action. AJCP publishes leading scholarship in community psychology and social action research. This special issue celebrates the 50 years of scholarship in AJCP by curating and assembling previously published articles in virtual special issues (VSIs) with accompanying commentaries. Nine VSIs were compiled as part of this special issue. Each of these VSIs were organized around themes that are of critical importance to community psychology and each VSI summarizes what has been learned from their included articles and future directions for the field. In this paper, we introduce this special issue on this collection of VSIs, discussing how each of these VSIs endeavor to push the field forward.

Mixed methods in community psychology: A values-forward synthesis.

Mixed methods research (MMR) combines multiple traditions, methods, and worldviews to enrich research design and interpretation of data. In this virtual special issue, we highlight the use of MMR within the field of community psychology. The first MMR studies appeared in flagship community psychology journals over 30 years ago (in 1991). To explore the uses of MMR in the field, we first review existing literature by identifying all papers appearing in either Journal of Community Psychology or American Journal of Community Psychology in which the word "mixed" appeared. A total of 88 publications were identified. Many of these papers illustrate the pragmatic use of MMR to evaluate programs and to answer different research questions using different methods. We coded articles based on Green et al.'s classifications of the purpose of the mixing: triangulation, development, complementarity, expansion, and initiation. Complementarity was the most frequently used purpose (46.6% of articles), and nearly a quarter of articles mixed for multiple purposes (23.86%). We also coded for any community psychology values advanced by the use of mixed methods. We outline three themes here with corresponding exemplars. These articles illustrate how MMR can highlight ecological analysis and reconsider dominant, individual-level paradigms; center participant and community member experiences; and unpack paradoxes to increase the usefulness of research findings.

Contradictions in change: Ecological factors in the implementation of outer layer sexual violence prevention.

This study examined the adoption and implementation process in early efforts to implement ecological ("outer layer") sexual violence (SV) prevention strategies. Interviews with 28 preventionists from 26 local sites within a large, midwestern state, were conducted to examine individual preventionists' problem definitions of SV and ecological factors surrounding implementation. Findings suggest that SV prevention in the state is primarily implemented at the individual-level; when preventionists described engaging in or anticipating outer layer interventions, they were often tertiary (i.e., responding after perpetration; e.g., Sexual Assault Response Teams). A majority expressed problem definitions rooted within the individual (e.g., perpetration due to a lack of consent education), and a majority of implemented efforts matched this individual-level conceptualization. Yet, contradictions between problem definitions (e.g., SV stemming from oppression) and implemented activities (e.g., single-session educational interventions) emerged. Such contradictions may be best understood in light of contextual implementation influences: diverse preventionist job responsibilities, less training/support for outer layer prevention, preventionist autonomy, leadership messaging, time requirements, partner reticence, and extensive work with schools. Inner layer influences, including identification with job roles, preference for, and a sense of urgency toward inner layer work, appeared to interact with contextual factors. Implications across community psychology domains are discussed.

Reflecting and rejuvenating our work, together: One team's consideration of AJCP publications on gender-based violence.

Community psychology has long valued reflexive praxis as a critical part advancing our research and action. In this Virtual Special Issue (VSI), we, a group of community psychologists and gender-based violence (GBV) researchers at many different points in our careers, reflected on GBV publications that have appeared in AJCP. We examine the ways in which community psychology broadly and articles in AJCP more specifically have conceptualized GBV as a sociocultural issue, how GBV intersects with other oppressions and forms of violence, the tension when systems that aspire to support survivors are inequitable and focused on ameliorative change, and the importance of interventions being locally informed and locally driven. By highlighting selected GBV-focused articles published in AJCP, this VSI discusses (a) understanding and transforming culture via robust research and local partnerships, (b) targeting effective interventions for survivors, (c) invoking systems and targeting change in institutional environments, and (d) making connections between local efforts and broader social movements. To continue to move forward, we conclude we must reflect, embrace methodological plurality, partner, and push for structural change. Reflective questions regarding research and action are offered, to address gender-based violence.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence in the United States: Framework and policy recommendations.

OBJECTIVE: In response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, portions of the U.S. government implemented social distancing policies that, while necessary, yield unintended consequences. This article explores how risk for gender-based violence (GBV) has been exacerbated across the social-ecological model (SEM; e.g., by increasing economic stress and decreasing social support) and highlights differential impact across social locations (e.g., considering race, gender, social class). METHOD: Drawing on gender-based violence prevention and response research, considerations for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are delineated. RESULTS: A comprehensive framework adapting an intersectional lens and the SEM is used to explain the changes in risk and protective factors for GBV. Policy recommendations that serve to augment (not replace) social distancing policies are proposed. CONCLUSION: The pandemic has uprooted life in a way that impacts GBV prevention and response. Yet, this is also an opportunity to define a new way forward rather than return to "business as usual"; psychologists should strive to improve social services by utilizing the SEM and intersectionality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Empowering Practices With Domestic Violence Survivors in India.

There is a growing concern about women's safety in India. This study examined a grassroots agency's response to domestic violence in the community by examining their empowerment-focused work with survivors through crisis intervention centers. Multi-informant perspectives examined (a) the organizational process of facilitating or strengthening empowerment of survivors and (b) the mechanisms central to this process. Results highlight various salient mechanisms, namely, the adoption of a survivor-centered approach, collaborative relationships with staff, meeting women where they are, systems advocacy, fostering independence, and building long-term networks with formal and informal supports. Implications for intervention and prevention work are discussed.

Community Organizing and Counter Narratives in the Response to Domestic Violence in India.

Domestic violence affects women globally. Domestic violence in India is embedded in structures of patriarchy, cultural norms, and a conservative social structure (Biswas, 2017). Community narratives help to create meaning and impact human behavior and can be tools of empowerment (Rappaport, 1995). They can also provide an important means of detecting changes in norms. Community engagement efforts that focus on empowering communities can play an important role in creating empowering narratives. Organizational settings like grassroots agencies can play a salient role in providing opportunities for community engagement leading to the creation of new community narratives and personal stories. This study sought to examine the work of a grassroots agency in India engaged in community action aimed at social change in the response to domestic violence, with a special focus on understanding shifting community narratives related to the response to domestic violence. Based on data from semi-structured interviews, archival data, and participant-observations, and using a modified-grounded theory approach, our results identified five major themes reflecting counter narratives on domestic violence. These included (a) awareness and discourse on gender related issues, (b) framing domestic violence as a social issue, (c) supporting the empowerment of women, (d) supporting disclosure of violence, and (e) supporting intervening in cases of violence. Implications of our findings for social change work in the response to domestic violence are discussed.

Exploring Community Narratives of Violence Against Women among Domestic Violence Responders in Guam.

In the Pacific Island of Guam, recent high-profile incidents of violence against Indigenous Chamoru women have sparked growing local concerns regarding rates of domestic violence and sexual assault. These and other indicators of elevated rates of violence against women in Guam are discordant with historical narratives of gender egalitarianism and community-based sanctions regarding violence against women in Chamoru culture. Using qualitative interviews with responders to violence against women in Guam, this study investigated current community narratives surrounding violence against women. Findings highlighted the centrality of culture in participant understandings of violence against women, particularly the complex interplay of themes of Indigenous cultural loss and desire for revitalization alongside a preference for Western cultural ideals. Curiously, in spite of a strong cultural framework in participant understandings of violence against women, few participants framed their professional response in cultural terms, other than to describe "culturally competent" approaches for commonly scapegoated communities in Guam. Study findings highlight the need for a closer analysis of culture in understandings of and responses to violence against women in Indigenous communities.

Community Organizing and Transformative Change in the Response to Domestic Violence in India.

Pervasive cultural narratives that normalize domestic violence have made efforts to respond to domestic violence in India challenging. An effective response to domestic violence in India needs to be transformative in nature, supporting the empowerment of survivors of violence and empowering communities to support survivors. Various studies have highlighted the importance of settings like grassroots organizations for promoting empowerment of members through community organizing. This qualitative study builds on this growing body of research using a grassroots agency in India as an exemplar to understand (a) empowering processes at the individual and community level associated with the agency's community organizing efforts; and (b) salient mechanisms associated with social change and action in the response to domestic violence in the community. At the individual level, the agency's organizing efforts provided knowledge, skills and resources, and opportunities for participation and leadership. At the community level, the agency engages in capacity building and increases social capital of members. The mechanisms that emerged as salient were increased critical consciousness of members, an emphasis on breaking the silence around domestic violence, community trust and cohesion, and capacity for informal social control. Implications of our findings for intervention and prevention work are discussed. HIGHLIGHTS: Community organizing is an important avenue for change in the response to domestic violence. Community organizing can facilitate empowering processes like participation and leadership. Building capacity and social capital is central to facilitating empowerment of communities.

Examining Correctional Staff Members' Engagement in Rehabilitation as Part of Their Everyday Practices in Short-term Juvenile Detention.

Research on the rehabilitation of juvenile justice-involved youth is often focused on specific evidence-based interventions. Less attention has been paid to everyday interactions that correctional staff members have with detained youth and, further, how these may align with trauma-informed care principles and thus encourage a more supportive setting. Using an ethnographic case study approach, this study addressed this gap in knowledge by documenting the nature of rehabilitative practices as they naturally occurred in the context of short-term detention staff members' daily routine and interactions with detained youth. This study found evidence for three primary forms of routine rehabilitative practices: (a) promotion of youths' emotional safety and well-being, (b) provision of rights-based information and explanations, and (c) encouraging youths' success in and beyond detention. These practices were observed across several key setting contexts: (a) staff-led group activities, (b) routine contact between individual youth and staff (e.g., formal procedures, informal conversations), and (c) staff-only spaces. Our findings highlight the need for ongoing research to effectively translate promising intervention approaches, such as trauma-informed care, into juvenile detainment settings.

The Formal Systems Response to Violence Against Women in India: A Cultural Lens.

Violence against women (VAW) has become an increasingly salient issue in India, with women at risk for different forms of gendered violence. While there may be universal elements in the international phenomenon of violence against women, it is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that takes shape in a particular sociocultural context. The current study employs a narrative framework to systematically examine how culture is expressed in the formal systems response and women's help-seeking in two metropolitan cities in India. Specifically, we sought to understand, among formal system responders (a) what characterizes the dominant cultural narratives on violence against women in India; and (b) how these are reflected in community narratives of formal responders. Interviews were conducted with formal responders working in different types of local agencies (e.g., police, health centers, and non-governmental agencies). The paper illustrates the major themes that emerged from participants' narratives describing the multilevel influences that shape the formal system response to violence against women and women's help-seeking efforts. The implications of these findings for effective response and directions for future research are summarized.

A Qualitative Investigation of the Role of Gender in Young Women's Dating Violence in the United States.

The relevance of gender has been a central debate in the intimate partner violence (IPV) literature. The current qualitative study explored the role of gender in shaping the social context, meaning, and reception of young women's IPV in the United States. A total of 36 undergraduate women were recruited from a larger sample for in-depth interviews. Emergent themes suggest that women's violence was construed as nonequivalent to men's violence, including the perceived triviality of women's violence, contingencies under which women's violence is deemed acceptable, and the status of male IPV as unacceptable. Gender was important for participants and bystanders in determining whether they interpreted behaviors as meaningful acts of violence.

Seeing Roses in the Thorn Bush: Sexual Assault Survivors' Perceptions of Social Reactions.

OBJECTIVE: After sexual assault, survivors often reach to others for support and receive a range of reactions. Although these reactions have been characterized by researchers as positive (e.g., emotional support) or negative (e.g., victim blaming), survivors vary in their perceptions in ways that do not always match this framework. The goal of this research was to examine the degree to which designations of reactions as "positive" or "negative" fits across types of reactions and explain instances of mismatch between these designations and survivors' perceptions. METHOD: We conducted a qualitative analysis of interviews with 26 survivors of sexual assault to identify themes in their perceptions of social reactions. RESULTS: Although social reactions were generally perceived in a manner that matched researcher categorizations, there was significant variation. Perceptions could be characterized in terms of whether the reaction felt comfortable/soothing, consistent with survivors' needs/hopes/expectations, and helpful in the long term. The closeness of survivors' relationships with responders, the degree to which they were impacted by the assault, and the presence of other social reactions explained variation from researcher designations of reaction types. CONCLUSION: This study clarifies the considerations that survivors make when evaluating social reactions and what accounts for discrepant perceptions of these reactions; in particular, they highlight that there is no "one size fits all" reaction to survivors of sexual assault and the context in which reactions occur may affect how they are seen.

Evaluating Food Policy Councils Using Structural Equation Modeling.

At least 282 Food Policy Councils (FPCs) are currently working to improve access to healthy foods in their communities by connecting food system sectors, gathering community input, and advising food policy. Empirical research on FPCs is limited. This study empirically evaluates FPCs to better understand the relationships between Organizational Capacity, Social Capital, and Council Effectiveness by testing a FPC Framework adapted from Allen and colleagues (2012). Members of all FPCs in the U.S., Canada, and Native American Tribes and First Nations were invited to complete the Food Policy Council Self-Assessment Tool (FPC-SAT). Structural equation modeling was used to test the FPC Framework. Three hundred and fifty-four FPC members from 95 councils completed the FPC-SAT. After slight modification, a revised FPC Framework was a good fit with the data (χ2  = 40.085, df = 24, p-value = .021, comparative fit index = 0.988, Tucker Lewis index = 0.982, root mean squared error of approximation = 0.044, p-close = .650). A moderation analysis revealed that community context influences the relationship between Social Capital and Council Effectiveness within the FPC Framework. The FPC Framework can guide capacity building interventions and FPC evaluations. The empirically tested framework can help FPCs efficiently work toward achieving their missions and improving their local food system.

For the Good of the Group? Balancing Individual and Collective Risks and Benefits in Community Psychology Research.

Balancing risks and benefits is a necessary ethical task for social science researchers. Community psychologists must often consider risks and benefits not just for individual participants, but also for the group, system, or society that those individuals inhabit. Little ethical guidance currently exists for how to navigate this ethical challenge across these multiple levels. In this article, we use a case example of social network research incorporating multiple levels of analysis to identify common risks and benefits and understand their relationship to each other. We conclude by discussing distinctive ethical considerations revealed by this case example.

Sexual assault victimization and psychopathology: A review and meta-analysis.

Sexual assault (SA) is a common and deleterious form of trauma. Over 40years of research on its impact has suggested that SA has particularly severe effects on a variety of forms of psychopathology, and has highlighted unique aspects of SA as a form of trauma that contribute to these outcomes. The goal of this meta-analytic review was to synthesize the empirical literature from 1970 to 2014 (reflecting 497 effect sizes) to understand the degree to which (a) SA confers general risk for psychological dysfunction rather than specific risk for posttraumatic stress, and (b) differences in studies and samples account for variation in observed effects. Results indicate that people who have been sexually assaulted report significantly worse psychopathology than unassaulted comparisons (average Hedges' g=0.61). SA was associated with increased risk for all forms of psychopathology assessed, and relatively stronger associations were observed for posttraumatic stress and suicidality. Effects endured across differences in sample demographics. The use of broader SA operationalizations (e.g., including incapacitated, coerced, or nonpenetrative SA) was not associated with differences in effects, although including attempted SA in operationalizations resulted in lower effects. Larger effects were observed in samples with more assaults involving stranger perpetrators, weapons, or physical injury. In the context of the broader literature, our findings provide evidence that experiencing SA is major risk factor for multiple forms of psychological dysfunction across populations and assault types.

Food Policy Council Self-Assessment Tool: Development, Testing, and Results.

A large number of food policy councils (FPCs) exist in the United States, Canada, and Tribal Nations (N = 278), yet there are no tools designed to measure their members' perceptions of organizational capacity, social capital, and council effectiveness. Without such tools, it is challenging to determine best practices for FPCs and to measure change within and across councils over time. This study describes the development, testing, and findings from the Food Policy Council Self-Assessment Tool (FPC-SAT). The assessment measures council practices and council members' perceptions of the following concepts: leadership, breadth of active membership, council climate, formality of council structure, knowledge sharing, relationships, member empowerment, community context, synergy, and impacts on the food system. All 278 FPCs listed on the Food Policy Network's Online Directory were recruited to complete the FPC-SAT. Internal reliability (Cronbach's α) and inter-rater reliability (AD, rWG(J), ICC [intraclass correlations][1], ICC[2]) were calculated, and exploratory and a confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Responses from 354 FPC members from 94 councils were used to test the assessment. Cronbach's α ranged from 0.79 to 0.93 for the scales. FPC members reported the lowest mean scores on the breadth of active membership scale (2.49; standard deviation [SD], 0.62), indicating room for improvement, and highest on the leadership scale (3.45; SD, 0.45). The valid FPC-SAT can be used to identify FPC strengths and areas for improvement, measure differences across FPCs, and measure change in FPCs over time.

Food Policy Council Case Study Describing Cross-sector Collaboration for Food System Change in a Rural Setting.

PROBLEM: Food Policy Councils (FPCs) are cross-sector collaborations that bring representatives from across the food system together to identify issues, coordinate programs, and inform policy. Little is known about how rural FPCs operate to influence food access in their communities. PURPOSE: To explore how a rural FPC facilitates cross-sector partnerships and influences food system change through interviews with eight members of the Adam's County FPC. RESULTS: Connections developed through the FPC helped council members work more effectively in their home organizations. Four themes were discussed: council dynamics and structure; sharing resources, expertise, and information; promoting healthy food access through programs; and food policy opportunities and challenges. CONCLUSIONS: This case study illustrates connections between FPC members in a rural county and identifies how FPCs can facilitate food system change in their communities. Improving our understanding of how rural FPCs function can help to advance the potential public health impact of councils.

Disclosing Sexual Assault Within Social Networks: A Mixed-Method Investigation.

Most survivors of sexual assault disclose their experiences within their social networks, and these disclosure decisions can have important implications for their entry into formal systems and well-being, but no research has directly examined these networks as a strategy to understand disclosure decisions. Using a mixed-method approach that combined survey data, social network analysis, and interview data, we investigate whom, among potential informal responders in the social networks of college students who have experienced sexual assault, survivors contact regarding their assault, and how survivors narrate the role of networks in their decisions about whom to contact. Quantitative results suggest that characteristics of survivors, their social networks, and members of these networks are associated with disclosure decisions. Using data from social network analysis, we identified that survivors tended to disclose to a smaller proportion of their network when many network members had relationships with each other or when the network had more subgroups. Our qualitative analysis helps to contextualize these findings.