Odyssey of a community psychologist practitioner

Carolyn Swift has pioneered new professional roles in unconventional settings, including a Midwestern city hall and an interactive TV network. Her career-long interest in the prevention of rape began when she learned of the sexual abuse of adolescent males in the city's jail, and projected the long-term implications of such abuse for reducing its incidence in future generations. She explored the use of QUBE, an experimental interactive TV network, as a platform for teaching prosocial behavior to children-a preliminary step in violence prevention. Empowering women and men in relationships was a theme throughout her career. Her life path reflects her challenge as an early feminist-to combine a devotion to family with a passion to build a more just world.     

A Political Economy of Rank: the territorial administrative hierarchy and leadership mobility in urban China

The level or rank of an administrative division (行区等级 or 政区级别) in China—a structural condition of the sub-national territorial administrative system—is a correlate of administrative rank (行政级别). State reterritorialization of the administrative divisions (行政区划), through establishment and expansion of hundreds of cities, introduces a political economy of differentiation and change by which city governments take the measure of their administrative reach and economic capacity. How do changes to the administrative divisions involve administrative rank, economic status and territorial governing power? In Suzhou, a prefecture-level city, incommensurability between the economic status of the city and its administrative rank reveals how ‘unfair’ rank in the administrative hierarchy becomes implicated in negotiations over territorial adjustments and cadre appointments, leading to creative forms of rank adjustment. Dynamics of the administrative divisions reflect rank consciousness, influence official positions and structure urban transformation in contemporary China.     

The role of community in facilitating service utilization

Guided by an integrated theory of parent participation, this study examines the role community characteristics play in influencing a parent's decision to use voluntary child abuse prevention programs. Multiple regression techniques were used to determine if different community characteristics, such as neighborhood distress and the community's ratio of caregivers to those in need of care, predict service utilization levels in a widely available home visiting program. Our findings suggest that certain community characteristics are significant predictors of the extent to which families utilize voluntary family supports over and above the proportion of variance explained by personal characteristics and program experiences. Contrary to our initial assumptions, however, new parents living in the most disorganized communities received more home visits than program participants living in more organized communities. The article concludes with recommendations on how community capacity building might be used to improve participant retention.     

Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement

Interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. has rapidly increased over the past two decades, including increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the revival of workplace raids under the Trump administration. We contribute to the body of research that aims to better understand the consequences of immigration enforcement for children in targeted communities, including on their education, health, and socioemotional well-being. We employ a mixed methods research design to investigate the effects of the sweeping April 2018 Morristown, Tennessee immigration raid on children's health and education outcomes. We utilize linked, longitudinal health and education data on children and a quasi-experimental design to analyze the effects of the raid on those residing in close proximity to the raid. Interview data from community members and organizations in the affected area aid in better understanding how the raid unfolded and the mechanisms through which a community trauma such as this might affect children both directly and indirectly. Our results indicate negative effects across multiple education and behavioral health outcomes for children of immigrants living in the area targeted by the raid, including a substantial spike in absences from school in the month of the raid and significant increases in exclusionary disciplinary actions and in diagnoses of substance use disorder, depression, self-harm, suicide attempts or ideation, and sexual abuse in the year following the raid.