Learning to Speak Out About Racism: Youths' Insights on Participation in an Intergroup Dialogues Program

This case study of an intergroup dialogue program explores youth engagement and learning about race in a group setting and includes a youth-led participatory program evaluation. The case study offers insights on the learning experience and context of youth engagement in community-based intergroup dialogues. Themes include (1) discussing race, (2) learning skills to communicate across different races, (3) grappling with privilege and oppression, and (4) developing leadership. Implications for social work practice with groups for community changes are discussed.     

Learning about Difference, Learning with Others, Learning to Transgress

Emerging work in intergroup contact has vitalized a focus on processes affecting the impact of interventions on outcomes. We theorized that intergroup learning—learning about other groups, educating others about one's own groups, intention to bridge intergroup differences, and reflecting on one's own group—mediates the effect of a combined enlightenment-encounter curricular intervention on assessments of importance and confidence in taking action to reduce prejudice and promote diversity. Results from a pretest/posttest design with a diverse group of undergraduate social welfare majors (n = 175) show (a) increased motivation for intergroup learning, and importance of taking action, and confidence in doing so, and (b) intergroup learning partially or fully mediates the impact of enlightenment and/or encounter on taking action .     

Are middle schoolers with diverse friends liked,disliked, or unnoticed - and by whom?

Having cross-ethnic friends in early adolescence is associated with more positive intergroup attitudes, but little is known about the social signaling function of the diversity of friends. The current study examined how the ethnic diversity of students’ friends in seventh grade is related to their social status (e.g., acceptance, rejection, and social impact) by eighth grade in multi-ethnic schools. It is hypothesized that friend diversity is (a) related to higher social status among ethnic out-group peers as it signals inclusiveness, but (b) related to lower in-group social status as diversity of friends may threaten the ethnic in-group. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of ethnically diverse youth (n = 4653) from 26 middle schools, the study capitalizes on outgoing friendship nominations in seventh grade and incoming acceptance and rejection nominations in eighth grade, while controlling for overall social status in grade seven. A novel index was used to calculate the diversity of youth's friend groups, and precise coding was done to retain biracial youth in the analytic sample. Results showed that having diverse friends was related to higher visibility (i.e., social impact) and greater acceptance from ethnic out-group members. In contrast, adolescents with diverse friend groups were less visible and less accepted by their in-group. Diversity of friends was not associated with out-group or in-group rejection. Findings highlight the importance of understanding how the composition of friend groups may signal intergroup attitudes and in-group solidarity in ways that have social status trade-offs among out- and in-group members.     

“Keeping It Real”: An Evaluation Audit of Five Years of Youth-Led Program Evaluation

Youth are increasingly seen as competent in participating in research and program evaluation, two activities previously reserved for adults. This article is a report of the findings from an evaluation audit of Stand Up! Help Out!, a participatory action after-school youth leadership development program for disadvantaged urban youth that utilized youth evaluations to develop a best practices service model. The youths' feedback assisted providers in improving services so that youth engagement in the program was 99% (by comparison with national highs of 79%). Here, the authors describe an important aspect of the process of youth-led program evaluation leading to such high youth engagement: how youth interviewed each other so as to optimize the authenticity of their program evaluations and contributions to program design. Drawing from over 5 years of program evaluation data collected by youth, the authors report on the youths' experiences as informants and coresearchers, consider strategies used to help youth best describe their experiences in the program, and describe implications for other settings looking to incorporate youth-led program evaluation. Youth-led program evaluation has considerable promise for helping service providers make programs more meaningful for disadvantaged youth.     

Themes in Group Work with Lesbian and Gay Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Lesbian and gay youth often face severe isolation, growing up in an environment that is frequently ignorant of their unique needs and hostile toward them. Youth groups can serve a vital role in overcoming this isolation in addition to providing a safe space for working out the various problems surrounding the stigma of growing up gay. This article presents several themes in group work with lesbian and gay adolescents based on the author's experience as a group worker at a lesbian and gay youth project. Isolation, coming out, learning/re-learning, and initiation into a community are offered as four main themes which provide a foundation for understanding how to help lesbian and gay adolescents in groups.     

Strengths-based creative mindfulness-based group work with youth aging out of the child welfare system

ABSTRACT

This article describes the outcomes of a doctoral study exploring the facilitation of an arts and mindfulness-based group for youth aging out of the child welfare system. Although there has been an upsurge in attention to the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) with children, there are still significant knowledge gaps regarding the use of MBIs with older youth who have experienced trauma, loss, and marginalization. At the same time, there is increasing attention to the importance of relationships to successful transitions in the lives of youth aging out of child welfare system. This research is qualitative and sought to explore how an innovative MBI was experienced by these youth. Data from semistructured interviews revealed key themes related to the unique challenges of being involved in the child welfare system and the aging-out process, the participants’ understanding and benefits of learning mindfulness, as well as their experience of social support through a collaborative group participation. The benefits of group participation, including meaningful engagement in the group process, are considered.     

Using Photovoice to Identify Service Needs of Older African American Methadone Clients

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a photovoice project designed to identify service needs of older-adult African American methadone clients, as well as their current barriers to and supports for abstinence. The project involved 10 participants (aged 53 to 63 years old) recruited from a methadone maintenance program in a large Northeastern U.S. city. Thematic analysis techniques were used to analyze participants’ narratives of their pictures. Transportation emerged as a significant challenge to accessing services, and caregiving was a motivation for remaining abstinent. Future research should use similar participatory methods and engage a broader group of aging people struggling with substance abuse.     

家庭背景、班级情境与青少年的跨群体交往

通过分析“中国教育追踪调查”（CEPS）数据,本文考察了家庭背景和班级情境对流动儿童和本地儿童跨群体交往的影响。研究发现,家庭社会经济地位对流动儿童的跨群体交往具有积极作用,但本地儿童的家庭社会经济地位越高,跨群体朋友数量反而越少。总体而言,班级异质性与学生的跨群体朋友数量之间呈倒“U”型关系,但随着班级异质性的上升,流动儿童的跨群体朋友数量呈下降趋势,本地儿童则正好相反。所属群体跨群体社会交往越多,学生拥有的跨群体朋友数量越多,并且这种积极作用对本地儿童的影响更大。而外部群体的封闭性越强,学生跨群体朋友数量就越少,并且这种消极作用对流动儿童更强。最后还发现,上述班级情境影响效应的群体性差异主要存在于本地儿童数量占优势的班级。     

Making the case for youth participatory action research opportunities to enhance social developmental scholarship

Youth are capable agents with the capacity to engage with and shape issues pertinent to their lives. In the field of social development, we are witnessing an exciting increase in children and adolescent involvement in the research process. Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) is one such method, encompassing youth participation in identifying pressing issues within their own communities, collectively gathering, and systematically analyzing data to understand the root causes of such issues, and organizing for social change informed by rigorous empirical evidence. YPAR provides an opportunity to strengthen our understanding of social development processes. Using three illustrative case studies from YPAR projects engaging elementary, high school, and college-age children and adolescents, I discuss the connections between YPAR as a mechanism for enhancing social developmental research designs, an intervention in and of itself fostering key social-emotional competencies, and a process for facilitating more equity-oriented scholarship. The paper concludes with strategies for how researchers new to YPAR may incorporate this practice into their research and key training considerations.     

Collective Action—and Then What?

Two aspects of the social psychology of collective action are of particular interest to social movement organizers and activists: how to motivate people to engage in collective action, and how to use collective action to create social change. The second question remains almost untouched within social psychology. The present article delineates research from political science and sociology concerning variables that moderate the effectiveness of collective action and maps these variables against intergroup research. Within intergroup social psychology, there is a theoretical literature on what needs to be done to achieve change (e.g., changing identification, social norms, or perceptions of legitimacy, stability, permeability). The article considers possible testable hypotheses concerning the outcomes of collective action which can be derived from intergroup research and from the synthesis of the three disciplines. For theoreticians and practitioners alike, a program of research which addresses the social-psychological outcomes of collective action and links these to identities, norms, intentions, and support for social change in bystanders, protagonists, and opponents has a great deal of interest.     

Breaking Barriers, Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: Communication Processes in Intergroup Dialogues

Research in intergroup contact and intergroup education is increasingly focused on the psychological and pedagogical processes to explain the impact of interventions on desired outcomes. This emerging scholarship has enriched our understanding about what types of interventions are effective or not and how these interventions impact outcomes of prejudice reduction and social inclusion. In the present study, a new theoretical dimension of processes operating in intergroup contact and education is investigated: communication processes. Factor analyses of communication processes within an intergroup encounter, using data from a pretest/posttest design with a diverse group of students ( n = 211), revealed four factors: (1) appreciating difference, (2) engaging self, (3) critical self-reflection, and (4) alliance building. Furthermore, path analysis shows that these communication processes fully mediate the impact of intergroup dialogue on bridging differences. The communication processes illuminate a deeper understanding of what happens within the context of intergroup encounters and provide a link between pedagogical strategies and psychological processes.     

The social adaptation of multiple sclerosis patients 1

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Puzzachera, 2013), there were approximately 1.47 million arrests of juveniles in the United States reported in 2011, including 68,150 serious violent crimes and 190,000 simple assaults. These data demonstrate that violent crimes are a significant national issue. Past studies have indicated that court-involved and delinquent adolescents frequently report a history of trauma symptoms and exposure to violence. The goal of this article is to present a framework for practice with court-involved youth that reflects the intersection of literature on adolescent development, trauma, and court-involved youth. Improving our understanding of the influence that trauma has on court-involved adolescents will support our ability to better understand the needs of this population in terms of treatment and crime prevention. This article presents a trauma-specific context for addressing the needs of court-involved youth from developmental, neurobiological, and trauma informed perspectives. One of the central components of this article is the inclusion of the TARGET model, a research-informed exemplar for the treatment of adjudicated adolescents who have histories of trauma. A review of the literature is followed by the presentation of a case composite vignette that exemplifies the need for a trauma-informed approach to working with court-involved adolescents.     

Building Intergroup Relations After September 11

The events of September 11 gave rise to new opportunities to think about intergroup relations and how they can be strengthened. This article summarizes how communities across the nation have initiated activities to help people grieve and to prevent further violence against Arabs, Muslims, and other Middle Easterners and applies a set of research-based principles on intergroup relations to communities' responses to September 11. The article also demonstrates the importance of moving beyond the current responses to more comprehensive community strategies that are informed by these principles and other lessons learned. These strategies include multipronged approaches that help individuals grieve and heal, engage institutional leaders, and support community action.     

Five-Year Follow-Up Study of the Qualitative Experiences of Youth in an Afterschool Arts Program in Low-Income Communities

ABSTRACT

Semistructured follow-up interviews were conducted with 32 Canadian youth ages 14 to 20 years old; 5 years prior, these youth had participated in a structured arts program. Given that little is known about the long-term effects of afterschool arts-based programs, interviews took a qualitative approach to delineate adolescents’ experiences with the program and their subsequent development. The findings from the qualitative interviews suggest that skill acquisition, positive staff-youth relationships, development of team building, positive peer relationships, a sense of belonging, and program flexibility were pertinent to sustained positive youth development 5 years following program completion. This article discusses the importance of follow-up studies and implications for future research and practice.     

The Use of the Group and Group Work Techniques in Resolving Interethnic Conflict

This article explores the area of interethnic conflict and, based on a case study involving a dialogue group of American Arabs and Jews, proposes a conflict resolution model that, combined with group process and group techniques, might be used to reduce tension and promote understanding among other ethnic groups in conflict. The model was successfully used in Los Angeles to engage the disputants in social action during a five year period and shows promise of being employed in a new form of "intergroup work."     

Social Empathy as a Framework for Adolescent Empowerment

ABSTRACT

Adolescent empowerment has been used to develop programs addressing a variety of issues that put young people at risk. Empowerment has been associated with positive outcomes in youth, including increases in resilience, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and civic engagement. This article reviews a selection of applications of empowerment with adolescents to identify how the concept is defined, applied, and measured. Key challenges to implementing adolescent empowerment programs are identified. Based on the review, social empathy is proposed as a framework for adolescent empowerment program developers. Using social empathy as a framework allows for consistency in definition and flexibility in application to apply to diverse groups of youth in various settings. A social empathy framework also establishes key outcomes that can be measured to ensure program effectiveness. By employing social empathy as a framework, service providers can draw on the value that empowerment, both as a process and an outcome, brings to their work with adolescents.     

Looking Back as We Look Ahead: Integrating Research, Theory, and Practice on Intergroup Relations

This article looks back at the origins of intergroup relations in social psychology just over 50 years ago. Pioneers in the field—Robin Williams, Gordon Allport, and Kurt Lewin—were all deeply concerned with integrating social science and social action. We seek to re-center this mutuality of research and practice, and to expand the focus of intergroup relations from prejudice reduction to social inclusion. The articles in this issue document cutting-edge research, theory, and practice, and make substantive contributions to the future of intergroup relations. A unique feature of this issue is a set of commentaries by prominent scholars and practitioners in the fields of intergroup relations and education. Walter Stephan, James Banks, Thomas Pettigrew, and Patricia Gurin each reflect on the collection of articles through the lens of their own personal and professional biographies to help define the intersections of research, theory, and practice on intergroup relations.     

Economic and social inclusion of person with disability and transgender through skills development program of BRAC: A qualitative study

This article is based on the Skills Training for Advancing Resources (STAR) project for the youth initiative of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Bangladesh. The objective was to explore the consequences of social and economic inclusion of this project for the persons with disability (PWDs) and transgender (TG) youth people. The research focused on how inclusive programmatic interventions created multidimensional impacts among the “marginalized” and “excluded” PWD and TG youths at the grassroots level. This study adopted a qualitative approach where in-depth case interviews and observation were applied for data collection. PWD and TG graduates, master craft persons (MCPs), employers, and program staff members were the participants in this study. Results found that PWD and TG youths faced vulnerabilities and social stigma in their lives and livelihood trajectories due to their physical inability and low level of social dignity. The STAR project has a certain level of contribution to the livelihoods of PWD and TG people, where these helped them to gain their social, cultural, and economic capital. Findings would be an important guideline for policymakers, NGO managers, and human rights workers.     

Planned Encounters Between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis: A Social-Psychological Perspective

Several ideas derived from Social Identity Theory are used to analyze intergroup processes taking place in planned encounters between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. In addition to the interpersonal dimension of such encounters, the article focuses on the importance of intergroup variables (e.g., power and status differences) in understanding psychological and behavioral reactions of majority and minority group members. The theoretical analysis brought here is used to suggest ways that can improve the management of structured Jewish-Palestinian meetings.     

Indigenous Elder Insights About Conventional Care Services in Alaska: Culturally Charged Spaces

Indigenous peoples around the world endure health and social disparities. In the United States, such disparities are typically ameliorated through conventional care services and organizations. Purpose: To examine points of tension that characterize culturally pluralistic care services in the United States, specifically Alaska, within context of Indigenous colonial histories. Design and Methods: The research design is ethnographic and multisited, comprising 12 months of fieldwork across urban, rural and remote village sites in Alaska. A conceptual lens that accounts for culturally diverse social spaces where relations of power are at stake frames research presented here. This work incorporates relational and participatory action research principles with Alaska Native Elders. Ethnographic evidence was collected through multiple methods, including field notes, documents, and interviews, with ethnographic analysis involving atlas.ti. Findings: Alaska Native Elders describe salient points of tension characterizing Alaska’s conventional care services through the following insights: generational curses-—a pain, prejudice on both sides—wounded, and value-systems clash—fighting. Conclusion: This article concludes with discussion about collective anxieties and implications for care services.