Exploring community stress and empowerment among stakeholders and youth in an urban community

ABSTRACT

Community-level stress, such as pervasive substance abuse and violence, can yield negative health and mental heath outcomes for youth from disadvantaged communities. Community empowerment is a process whereby community members work together to increase control in their community. This qualitative inquiry analyzed in-depth interviews with adult stakeholders (n = 17) as well as focus group interviews with token youth (n = 85) to explore perceptions of community stress and empowerment in one disadvantaged locale. Each of the 102 total participants helped interrogate the research questions: What does it mean to live in a stressed community? How might youth and adults perceive themselves capable of impacting a stressed community’s quality of life? Emergent themes, which include a nod to the utility of coalition building, are explored. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.     

Resilience as Effective Functional Capacity: An Ecological-Stress Model

This article presents the premise that resilience rests on an ecological-systems conceptual base that explains how people adapt to stress and maintain their daily functioning. The resilience ecological-stress model presented here uses the ecological-systems perspective, commonly known as the person-environment approach, as a unifying, overarching framework to describe an integrated approach for social work research, education, and practice. It evolved over two decades as theory related to ecological systems theory and risk and resilience approaches were synthesized into a coherent whole.     

Navigating the Concrete Jungle

Abstract

The multi-methodological study examines behavioral and educational outcomes of children and adolescents who live in public housing in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The children (N = 46) were from 14 different families and ranged in age from 1-10 (60.8%), followed by 11-18 (30.4%). Almost 60% were males. The female heads of household were interviewed repeatedly from July 1997-March 2000. Results indicated high levels of parental stress. Adolescents (12–17 years of age) had substantially higher levels of negative school and behavioral outcomes, including those who became adolescents during the course of the research. Ethnographic analysis indicated that stressful life events and violence, child supervision issues, parent-child conflicts, and family health situations were key contributors to negative outcomes. Positive outcomes may be associated with child involvement in organized neighborhood activities.     

Meeting Life Challenges

SUMMARY

Mental health and social service providers need to understand the contextual experience of diverse aging populations and the types of life challenges they have encountered. This research examined the life challenges specified by a purposive sample of 75 urban community-dwelling low-income older adults from four high-rise housing facilities. Thirty-four study participants were Jewish American and 41 were African American. Results indicate that many participants of both groups identified personal events such as bereavement and health as stressors, but only the Jewish Americans identified societal events such as World War II. Both groups found social resources moderately valuable in meeting life challenges, but religious resources were frequently identified by African American older adults and personal resources were highly endorsed by Jewish Americans, resulting in a hierarchy of coping styles for each group. Results suggest that mental health and social service providers can create interventions to reinforce and strengthen natural client resources that may vary according to ethnic and racial differences     

Work–family conflict and stress: indications of the distinctiveness of role combination stress for Belgian working mothers

Research on the relation between work-family conflict (WFC) and stress focuses either on domain/role-specific stress (e.g. work stress), which is by definition and, operationalisation attributed to the respective role, or it focuses on ‘general’ stress, which can be a too broad or too general concept to measure stress related to WFC. This study introduces the concept of ‘role combination stress’ to indicate a stress that is more specifically related to the work-family role system and WFC than general and role-specific stress. The analysis of data on 429 Flemish working mothers shows that role combination stress is indeed a distinct type of stress.     

The Role of Worker Support and Religious Support in African American Special Needs Adoption: The Bennett Chapel Experience

Between 1998 and 2003 members and friends of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in rural East Texas adopted 70 African American special needs children. Data from surveys of 113 Texas and Louisiana adoptive families, including 14 Bennett Chapel families, found that the amount of anticipated worker support influenced the decision to adopt, particularly for Bennett Chapel families, and actual worker support was significantly related to positive adoption impact on the family. Comparisons of Bennett Chapel with other families highlight the uniqueness of this initiative. Findings underscore the importance of worker support for facilitating adoptions in faith and rural communities and increasing adoptions of African American children.     

Traumatic Responding in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Abstract

The present cross-cultural study summarizes the traumatic responses of Mexican, Mexican American, and non-Mexican American children who were residents of three shelters for battered women in Monterrey Mexico, McAllen Texas, and Ft. Worth Texas. Sixty-eight mothers reported on their children's (n = 90) individual and total traumatic symptoms. Findings revealed very slight differences in individual responses with no overall trauma symptom differences. Multiple regression analyses revealed that mothers' experiences of physical, and sexual abuse predicted greater trauma responses in children. Implications for practice with children and mothers in shelters for battered women are highlighted.     

Cultural Change and Chinese Immigrants' Distress and Help-Seeking in Hong Kong

Abstract

The study examined, within a stress-coping paradigm, the contribution of acculturation, enculturation, and acculturative stress to distress and help-seeking among Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. One hundred and thirty-one female immigrants were recruited from community service centers. Hierarchical regression results showed that general stress and acculturative stress were linked to distress. Social support did not play a buffering role on distress. Whereas length of residence and social support were strongly related to informal helpseeking, acculturation, along with age and social support, were related to professional help-seeking. Given the differential effects of various cultural change variables, the importance of independently assessing their influence on immigrant mental health and help-seeking is warranted.     

Prevalence of Traumatic Events and PTSD Symptomatology Among a Selected Sample of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

University faculty and mental health counselors often work with students in distress which may be related to their experiences with traumatic accidents, interpersonal violence, or natural disaster. Traumatic events can have long-lasting effects, which include somatic complaints, substance abuse, “flashbacks,” and a reduction in memory and recall. The purpose of this study is to identify the number, types and severity of traumatic events that occur among a student sample from three academic departments (Sociology and Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Human Development) at a rural southern university. The sample of 234 undergraduate students confirmed previous research regarding the high number of self-reported traumas among college students. The study found that college-aged women are much more likely than men to report trauma and to seek counseling and treatment for its effects. Significant differences were noted in distributional patterns for men and women when reporting exposure to stressful events. The study's findings serve as an important indicator of the need for prevention, early recognition, and treatment for trauma victims. Suggestions are also provided to assist administrators in implementing the appropriate workplace and academic accommodations for PTSD victims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504).     

刚性圆柱形平压头作用下的梯度夹层界面应力场

本文主要研究均匀涂层-功能梯度材料界面层-均匀半空间三层结构模型中均匀涂层与功能梯度材料层之间界面处的无摩擦轴对称接触问题的界面应力场。文中建立三层结构的理论计算模型,利用积分变换技术将数学模型转化为奇异积分方程,得到梯度材料夹层轴对称接触问题的表面位移解,再通过数值方法,得到梯度材料夹层的界面应力场。文中分析讨论了刚性圆柱形平压头作用下的均匀涂层与梯度材料夹层界面处的应力分布情况,探讨了剪切弹性模量比值、接触半径对界面处正应力、剪切应力分布的影响。研究表明,剪切弹性模量比值对界面处应力均产生重要的影响,随着剪切弹性模量比值的递增,界面层正应力呈递减趋势,而界面层剪切应力呈递增趋势,且接触半径的不同,也会改变影响的幅度。调整剪切弹性模量,是实现抑制裂纹萌生的一种有效途径。此外,作者主要从事新型功能材料接触力学的研究工作。