Community Psychology and Community Mental Health: A Call for Reengagement

Community psychology is rooted in community mental health research and practice and has made important contributions to this field. Yet, in the decades since its inception, community psychology has reduced its focus on promoting mental health, well‐being, and liberation of individuals with serious mental illnesses. This special issue endeavors to highlight current efforts in community mental health from our field and related disciplines and point to future directions for reengagement in this area. The issue includes 12 articles authored by diverse stakeholder groups. Following a review of the state of community mental health scholarship in the field's two primary journals since 1973, the remaining articles center on four thematic areas: (a) the community experience of individuals with serious mental illness; (b) the utility of a participatory and cross‐cultural lens in our engagement with community mental health; (c) Housing First implementation, evaluation, and dissemination; and (d) emerging or under‐examined topics. In reflection, we conclude with a series of challenges for community psychologists involved in future, transformative, movements in community mental health.     

Community Psychology Doctoral Theses: A South African University Case Study

The present investigation analysed the Community Psychology doctoral thesis trends with respect to student demographics, thesis topics, research methodology, research participant demographics, rural/urban focus, community empowerment focus, and programme development and evaluation at one institution. Of the 51 students who completed the course, 45.1% were Educational Psychologists, 33.3% Clinical Psychologists and 21.6% Counselling Psychologists. Self-help programmes, school-based programmes and non-professional-help programmes predominated. Of the 51 theses, seven addressed HIV and AIDS and one studied sexual violence. The majority used qualitative methodologies, and focused on adults. Only 11.8% focused specifically on rural communities, while 74.5% included community empowerment, 62.7% were programme evaluations.     

Predicting the Emergence of Community Psychology and Community Development in 91 Countries with Brief Case Studies of Chile and Ghana

Using a mixed‐method analysis, we propose and test a framework for predicting the international development of community psychology (CP) and community development (CD) as two examples of applied community‐based research (CBR) disciplines aiming to link local knowledge generation with social change. Multiple regressions on an international sample of 91 countries were used to determine the relative influences of preexisting grassroots activism, population size, social and economic development, and civil liberties on estimates of the current strength of CP and CD based on Internet search and review of training courses and programs, published articles and journals, and professional organizations and conferences in these countries. Our results provide support for the proposed model and suggest that grassroots activism positively accounts for the development of CP and CD, above and beyond the influences of the other predictors. Brief qualitative case‐study analyses of Chile (high CP, low CD) and Ghana (high CD, low CP) explore the limitations of our quantitative model and the importance of considering other historical, sociopolitical, cultural, and geographic factors for explaining the development of CP, CD, and other applied community studies.     

The Application of Community Psychology Practice Competencies to Reduce Health Disparities

This article demonstrates the application of community psychology practice competencies to health disparities reduction. It begins with a discussion of changes and evolution of the maternal child health field over nearly three decades, then describes implications for community psychology practice and the application of practice competencies.     

Practicing Community Psychology Through Mixed Methods Participatory Research Designs

Community psychologists address social inequalities and problems by employing ecological principles, multiple methodologies, and participatory approaches to empower individuals, organizations, and communities to organize action and systems change. This article aims to contribute to mixed methods literature by presenting three models of mixed methods participatory research across a variety of geographic and sociocultural contexts. The models outline participatory processes and points of qualitative and quantitative data integration. Challenges related to the interplay between participatory approaches and mixed methods studies as well as implications on social science research are discussed.     

The Stories We Tell: Introduction to the Special Issue on Ethical Challenges in Community Psychology Research and Practice

This Special Issue examines ethical challenges in community psychology research and practice. The literature on ethics in community psychology has remained largely abstract and aspirational, with few concrete examples and case studies, so the goal of this Special Issue was to expand our written discourse about ethical dilemmas in our field. In these articles, researchers and practitioners share stories of specific ethical challenges they faced and how they sought to resolve them. These first‐person narratives examine how ethical challenges come about, how community psychology values inform ethical decision making, and how lessons learned from these experiences can inform an ethical framework for community psychology.     

Complicating Narratives: Defining and Deconstructing Ethical Challenges in Community Psychology

In this concluding essay, we review the case studies presented in this Special Issue and examine whether community psychology has a distinctive approach to defining and resolving the core ethical canons of the Belmont Report (1979): Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice. For two of these Principles—Respect for Persons and Beneficence—community psychologists elaborate upon and extend their definitions to consider their meaning in community‐based, social justice‐oriented research. The field's approach to Respect for Persons is multilevel in nature; in addition to respecting individuals and their diverse identities, we also have obligations to respect our community partnerships, the communities with whom we work, and the populations and cultures represented in our work. Similarly, for community psychologists, Beneficence is a multilevel construct that considers risks and benefits at the group, community, and cultural levels of analysis. With respect to Justice, community psychologists’ views of our ethical responsibilities are qualitatively different in meaning from the original Belmont Report and from disciplinary‐specific interpretations of this principle in ethical guidance documents from psychology, sociology, and evaluation. Our valuing of social change demands that we contribute to individual and group empowerment and liberation, and in so doing, that we avoid collusion with oppressive systems. Thus, we define our ethical responsibilities for promoting Justice as more action‐oriented than do other disciplines. The essay closes with an exploration of future directions for developing a comprehensive ethical framework for community psychology.     

Community Data Collection with Children of Mothers Living with HIV: Boundaries of the Researcher Role

The TRACK‐II program is a multi‐site, community‐based randomized controlled trial evaluating an intervention to assist mothers living with HIV (MLH) in disclosing their HIV status to their young children. Many participants—both mothers and children—reported significant depression and/or suicidal ideation, a phenomenon that presented ethical challenges. This article focuses on participants at one site (Atlanta). Through the vignette of “Jordan,” we describe ethical challenges that may arise when faced with the responsibility of maximizing participants’ safety while maintaining the boundaries of the researcher role. Guided by community psychology values, our team has taken measures within our role as researchers to empower and protect children and mothers endorsing suicidal ideation. For example, we have relied on relationships with community‐based organizations and AIDS service organizations to connect HIV‐affected families to mental health services. Furthermore, we have expanded our system of documentation to follow‐up adequately with families at risk, and we track family resources to promote a strengths‐based framework. We have solicited families’ feedback about their supports and needs to understand how we may best serve them by connecting them to the resources they report needing most and empowering them to care for themselves.     

Highlighting the Way Forward: A Review of Community Mental Health Research and Practice Published in AJCP and JCP

Articles published in the two most prominent journals of community psychology in North America, the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) and Journal of Community Psychology (JCP), provide a clear indicator of trends in community research and practice. An examination of community psychology's history and scholarship suggests that the field has reduced its emphasis on promoting mental health, well‐being, and liberation of individuals with serious mental illnesses over the past several decades. To further investigate this claim, the current review presents an analysis of articles relevant to community mental health (N = 307) published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) and Journal of Community Psychology (JCP) from 1973 to 2015. The review focuses on article characteristics (e.g., type of article and methods employed), author characteristics, topic areas, and theoretical frameworks. Results document a downward trend in published articles from the mid‐1980s to mid‐2000s, with a substantial increase in published work between 2006 and 2015. A majority of articles were empirical and employed quantitative methods. The most frequent topic area was community mental health centers and services (n = 49), but the past three decades demonstrate a clear shift away from mental health service provision to address pressing social issues that impact community mental health, particularly homelessness (n = 42) and community integration of adults with serious mental illnesses (n = 40). Findings reflect both the past and present state of community psychology and suggest promising directions for re‐engaging with community mental health and fostering well‐being, inclusion, and liberation of adults experiencing serious mental health challenges.     

Global Aging: Challenges for Community Psychology

Older persons are among the major marginalized, disenfranchised citizens worldwide, yet this group has generally been ignored in the community psychology literature. In this paper, we trace the demographic trends in aging worldwide, and draw the field’s attention to the United Nations Program on Aging, which structures its policy recommendations in terms of concepts that are familiar to community psychologists. A central theme of the paper is that community psychology can have a role in producing the conceptual shifts needed to change societal attitudes now dominated by negative age stereotypes.     

Community Psychology at the Crossroads: Prospects for Interdisciplinary Research

Effective engagement in interdisciplinary work is critical if community psychology is to achieve its promise as a field of ecological inquiry and social action. The purpose of this paper and special issue is to help make the benefits of interdisciplinary community research clearer and to identify and begin to address its challenges. Although some areas of psychology (e.g., biological, cognitive and health) have made substantial interdisciplinary strides in recent decades, progress in community psychology (and related areas) is more modest. In this article we explore the prospects for expanding and improving interdisciplinary community research. Challenges include designs, measures, and analytical frameworks that integrate multiple levels of analysis from individuals through families, organizations, and communities to policy jurisdictions, and the complexities involved in simultaneously bringing together multiple disciplinary collaborators and community partners. Challenges to interdisciplinary collaboration common to all disciplines include the disciplinary nature of academic culture and reward structures, limited funding for interdisciplinary work and uncertainties related to professional identity and marketability. Overcoming these challenges requires a synergy among facilitative factors at the levels of the interdisciplinary project team (e.g., the framing question; embedded relationships; leadership), the investigators (e.g., commitment to new learning; time to invest), and the external context (e.g., physical, administrative, economic and intellectual resources and support for interdisciplinary work). We conclude by identifying several exemplars of effective interdisciplinary collaborations and concrete steps our field can take to enhance our development as a vibrant community-based, multilevel discipline increasingly devoted to interdisciplinary inquiry and action.     

Gendered adversity and mental health of adolescents orphaned by AIDS in a rural South African community: An exploratory study

This study explored gender differences in adversity and mental health among South African adolescents orphaned by AIDS. Adolescents (N = 121; females = 45.5%; mean age 14.14 years, SD = 2.09) self-reported their childhood adversities and probable mental ill health on the Child Trauma and General Health Questionnaire. Results revealed that female participants orphaned by AIDS were significantly more likely to report childhood adversity at total score level as compared to male participants. However, both male and female participants reported comparable scores on subscales of childhood adversity (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect). Moreover, female participants displayed higher composite mental ill health and all its subscales except for social dysfunction. Our findings suggest that gender-sensitive programmes and policies to address the effect of childhood adversity and mental ill health among adolescents orphaned by AIDS, are urgently needed.     

Cultivating Community Psychology for Future Generations: Symbiosis,Synergy, and Separation

As we near the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of a community psychology division of the American Psychological Association, there are reasons to be concerned about the sustainability of the field. This commentary proposes a need for deliberate, systematic efforts to cultivate settings that can sustain the field. A framework for outreach to build symbiotic relationships and synergistic collaborations with persons who do not identify as community psychologists is proposed. Simultaneously, a strategy of separation from other disciplines may be needed in some circumstances to conserve settings that sustain the field. Finding a balance in these strategies is necessary to cultivate community psychology for future generations.     

Exploring the Role of Social Support in Promoting Community Integration: An Integrated Literature Review

Community integration has emerged as a priority area among mental health advocates, policy makers, and researchers (Townley, Miller, & Kloos, 2013; Ware, Hopper, Tugenberg, Dickey, & Fisher, 2007). Past research suggests that social support influences community integration for individuals with serious mental illnesses (Davidson, Haglund, Stayner, Rakfeldt, Chinman, & Tebes, 2001; Davidson, Stayner, Nickou, Styron, Rowe, & Chinman, 2001; Wong & Solomon, 2002), but there has not yet been a systematic review on this topic. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to explore the influence of social support on community integration through a review of the existing literature. An extensive literature search was conducted, resulting in 32 articles that met the search criteria. These articles were organized into three categories: defining community integration, supportive relationships, and mental health services. The search results are analyzed according to the types of support being provided. Article strengths, limitations, implications, and future directions are also addressed. Overall, the findings of this review suggest that social support, which may be provided by a variety of individuals and services, plays an important role in promoting community integration for individuals with serious mental illnesses. Therefore, as community mental health research and practice continues to promote community integration for individuals with serious mental illnesses, the mental health field should emphasize the importance of social support as a key factor influencing community integration.     

贫困问题:基于心理学的视角

贫困心理学,是在心理学视角下研究贫困问题的一种新研究取向,是心理学在贫困领域的最新运用。现阶段贫困心理学研究主要集中在主观幸福感、心理健康、行为决策等三个方面。贫困文化理论、稀缺理论、自我损耗论分别从贫困文化、稀缺心态以及意志力资源视角解释了贫困产生的心理机制。在摆脱贫困过程中需要打破贫困循环,未来贫困心理学研究需要进一步探讨贫困的产生机制、神经生理机制,贫困心理学的本土化研究以及心理学在扶贫工作中的应用等。     

Development of Community Psychology

The growth and development of community psychology in Zambia has been necessitated by many social problems encountered by Zambians be they health, economic or psychological. The work of governmental and nongovernmental organizations at community level has contributed to the development of this sub-field of psychology. Community psychology in Zambia has many challenges to overcome, including the lack of trained manpower and availability of funds. Community psychology has great potential to contribute to the wellbeing of different communities in Zambia.     

Power and Action in Critical Theory Across Disciplines: Implications for Critical Community Psychology

Although critical scholarship and community psychology share similar aspirations, the links between them remain unexplored and under-theorized. In this article we explore the implications of critical scholarship in various specialties for the field of community psychology. To understand the contributions of critical scholarship to a theory of power and action for social change, we conducted a systematic analysis of a ten-year period of publications in seven journals associated with the critical scholarship tradition. We created precise criteria for the concepts of power and action and applied them to the publications. Results indicate an interesting paradox at play. Whereas community psychology is more action oriented than critical scholarship, its actions fall short of challenging institutionalized power structures and the status quo; and whereas critical scholarship is more challenging of the status quo than community psychology in theory, it has failed to produce viable actions that challenge the status quo. We discuss the implications of this state of affairs for the development of a more critical community psychology.     

Reflecting on Participatory,Action‐Oriented Research Methods in Community Psychology: Progress,Problems, and Paths Forward

This paper provides a critical reflection on participatory action research (PAR) methods as they pertain to community psychology. Following a brief review of the fundamental aspects of PAR, key developments in the field are examined. These developments include the redefinition of the research enterprise among groups such as Indigenous and consumer/survivor communities, challenges that attend the “project” framing of PAR, academic and practice context challenges, and important domains in which PAR methods need to become more engaged (e.g., social media and disenfranchised youth). Three illustrative case studies of programs of work in the areas of youth homelessness, consumer/survivor engagement, and Indigenous research are provided to illustrate these contemporary challenges and opportunities in the field. The authors make the argument that without an effort to reconsider and redefine PAR, moving away from the stereotypical PAR “project” frame, these methods will continue to be poorly represented and underutilized in community psychology.     

Challenging the Frontiers of Community Psychology: A South African Experience

The development of community psychology is of vital importance in South Africa because of the historical context, questions about the relevance of mainstream western psychology and the current social change in the country in the post-apartheid era. Accordingly successful community psychology practices for a South Africa in transition need greater dissemination for access and utilization in the communities. This article draws on the community work conducted at the Itsoseng Clinic to show how and why community psychology could be made more relevant to the new South Africa. The Itsoseng Clinic is a psychology clinic that is situated in the township of Mamelodi. The clinic provides several services including counselling, psychometric assessment, psycho educational workshops, and HIV/AIDS pre and post-test counselling. The clients and community that the clinic serves are of low socio-economic status and struggle with a lack of material and personnel resources. The individuals working within the Itsoseng Clinic represent a diversity that is in itself a valuable resource for supporting the core activities of the clinic. This article explores various themes that were identified within the research study such as, making community, entering the ecology of life, closing the divide and bridging the boundaries.     

从批判到重构:女性主义心理学的历史发展

女性主义心理学产生于20世纪60、70年代的女性主义运动,经历了从对主流心理学的批判到重构心理学认识论与方法论的历史发展轨迹。20世纪60、70年代,女性主义心理学着重于对主流心理学中的男性中心主义偏见的揭露与批判;从80年代起,女性主义心理学将重点转向对心理学学科基础假设的挑战,试图重构心理学的认识论与方法论。