Ecological Research to Promote Social Change

by Revenson, Tracey A.; D'Augelli, Anthony R.; French, Sabine E.; Hughes, Diane L.; Seidman, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780306467288
• ISBN10: 0306467283
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: Plenum Pub Corp

Summary

During the past quarter century, community psychologists have worked to make relevant contributions to human welfare in community settings and to effect social change. Working with and in schools, neighborhood organizations, religious institutions, social programs, and government agencies, the community psychologist has come to understand how social settings and social policy influence behavior and foster change that promotes individual health and well-being. Using a social ecological paradigm as their guiding framework, they focus on the interactions between persons and their environments, cultural diversity, and local empowerment for understanding organizational, community, and social change. Community psychologists have relied on multiple methods of obtaining data but more often, they have had to develop new methodologies or adapt existing ones. These innovative methods have been recorded in the American Journal of Community Psychology throughout the years of its history and have changed the way that researchers in the field have gathered data. Some of the areas covered in this volume include: - intervention; - prevention research; - ecological assessment; and - culturally anchored research. This volume will be of interest to community, developmental, social and clinical psychologists, public health and behavioral medicine researchers, cultural intervention researchers, and community mental health and health workers.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
Tracey A. Revenson
I. DESIGN ISSUES IN INTERVENTION RESEARCH
Part Overview
Anthony R. D'Augelli
Probing the Effects of Individual Components in Multiple Component Prevention Programs	9	(34)
Stephen G. West
Leona S. Aiken
Michael Todd
From Field Experiments to Program Implementation: Assessing the potential Outcomes of an Experimental Intervention Program for Unemployed Persons	43	(20)
Amiram D. Vinokur
Richard H. Price
Robert D. Caplan
Research on the Cost Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention: Implications for Research and Policy	63	(36)
W. Steven Barnett
Colette M. Escobar
II. ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Part Overview
Marybeth Shinn
Measuring Neighborhood Context for Young Children in an Urban Area	99	(28)
Claudia J. Coulton
Jill E. Korbin
Marilyn Su
Ecological Assessments of Community Disorder: Their Relationship to Fear of Crime and Theoretical Implications	127	(44)
Douglas D. Perkins
Ralph B. Taylor
Detecting ``Cracks'' in Mental Health Service Systems: Application of Network Analytic Techniques	171	(16)
Mark Tausig
Social Support Processes in Early Childhood Friendship: A Comparative Study of Ecological Congruences in Enacted Support	187	(30)
Thomas A. Rizzo
William A. Corsaro
Setting Phenotypes in a Mutual Help Organization: Expanding Behavior Setting Theory	217	(26)
Douglas A. Luke
Julian Rappaport
Edward Seidman
III. CULTURALLY ANCHORED RESEARCH
Part Overview
Tracey A. Revenson
In Pursuit of a Culturally Anchored Methodology	243	(14)
Diane L. Hughes
Edward Seidman
Using Focus Groups to Facilitate Culturally Anchored Research	257	(34)
Diane L. Hughes
Kimberly DuMont
The Structure of Problem and Positive Behavior among American Indian Adolescents: Gender and Community Differences	291	(32)
Christina M. Mitchell
Janette Beals
About the Editors	323	(4)
Index	327