Juvenile probation officers delivering an intervention for substance use significantly reduces adolescents' risky sexual behaviours.

BACKGROUND: Risky sexual behaviour (RSB) is a serious public health problem for adolescents. We examined whether a contingency management intervention implemented by juvenile probation officers (JPOs) targeting substance use also impacted RSB. METHODS: A total of 218 adolescents on probation were randomly assigned to contingency management or to probation as usual. RESULTS: The substance use intervention delivered by JPOs reduced rates of RSB over time (ß =-0.32, P =0.041 at 6months; ß =-0.32, P =0.036 at 9months). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents receiving a substance use intervention from JPOs demonstrated reduced/prevented RSB. Interventions targeting single risk behaviours in juvenile probation populations should measure changes in other risk behaviours . Under-resourced communities lacking clinicians might consider JPOs delivering interventions.

Confronting misconceptions of public housing communities: A qualitative report of community-informed narratives by community members and partners.

Objectives were (a) to understand a community-informed narrative, as told by community members (CMs) and community partners (CPs), about the strengths, experiences, and perspectives of public housing communities; and (b) to analyze similarities and differences between CMs' and CPs' experiences and perspectives. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 CMs of public housing (ages 26-58, 100% female caregivers, 96% Black, 4% multiethnic) and 43 CPs (ages 28-78, 67.4% female, 81.4% Black and African American). Four themes were derived from the CM and CP interviews: (1) counters to public narratives, (2) disinvestment begets disinvestment, (3) community conditions should be better, and (4) community cohesion and connection. Findings from this study present community-centered narratives and experiences that were counter to stereotyped public narratives and could influence public perceptions and behavior to inform policy changes related to improving living conditions and supporting CMs in public and low-income housing communities.

Identifying Protective Factors That Mitigate Relations Between Experiences with Violence and Gun Carriage for Black Young Adults Living in Economically Marginalized Urban Communities.

Gun violence disproportionately impacts Black young adults living in economically marginalized urban communities and results in increased risk for injury and death. This study identifies protective factors across the ecological model for Black young adults experiencing peer-based physical and relational aggression and victimization that can mitigate the likelihood of gun carriage. The sample included 141 Black young adults living in economically marginalized communities who had experienced violence. Regression and moderation analyses indicated (1) peer-based physical and relational aggression and victimization negatively associated with gun carriage, and (2) personal assets, positive outlook, student status, and neighborhood attachment interacted with peer-based violent experiences and had protective associations with gun carriage. Findings from this study indicate a need for tailored prevention, policy efforts in order to support Black young adults and decrease gun carriage.

Ecological promotive and protective factors deterring gun carriage for young adults living in communities with high rates of community violence.

This study identified promotive and protective factors that lessened the likelihood of handgun carriage in a sample of 141 predominantly Black (97%) young adults (ages 18-22) living in high burden communities experiencing elevated rates of violence. Participants completed surveys assessing overall risk and protective factors for violence across ecological contexts (e.g., individual/peer, family, school, and community). A series of regression and moderation analyses were conducted to ascertain direct (promotive) and indirect (protective) relations between factors across the ecological model and likelihood of gun carriage. Results indicated that (1) consistent with previous studies, both witnessing violence and violence victimization were significant risk factors for handgun carriage, (2) ethnic identity was a significant promotive factor related to a lower likelihood of handgun carriage, and (3) lack of family conflict, student status, and community assets were significant protective factors where higher levels of these factors attenuated the relation between exposure to community violence and likelihood of gun carriage. This is one of the first strengths-based studies examining factors that may mitigate the likelihood of gun carriage for young adults in high risk contexts. Our findings suggest that gun violence prevention efforts for high burden communities should support young adults by strengthening factors across the ecological model (e.g., individual, family, school, and community).

Implications of intergenerational trauma: Associations between caregiver ACEs and child internalizing symptoms in an urban African American sample.

OBJECTIVE: The link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and negative mental health outcomes is well established. However, the intergenerational link between caregiver ACE history and their child's psychosocial outcomes is understudied, particularly within minoritized groups. This study aimed to delineate relations between caregiver ACE exposure and their child's depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms by proposing a serial mediation of caregiver PTSD, family management problems, and child ACEs. METHOD: Two hundred seventy-three caregiver (Mage = 39.27; 88% female) and adolescent (Mage = 14.26; 57% female) dyads from low-income urban communities completed electronic questionnaires measuring PTSD symptoms and ACEs. Child participants also completed a measure of depression and family management problems. Regression and serial mediation analyses were conducted to examine associations among these variables. RESULTS: Caregiver ACEs were significantly associated with their child's PTSD symptoms but were not related to their child's depression scores. Serial mediation analyses indicated that child ACEs mediated the relation between caregiver ACEs and their child's PTSD symptoms. Evidence for an overall indirect effect via caregiver PTSD, family management problems, and child ACEs was not found. No indirect effects between caregiver ACEs and child depression were found. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate that higher levels of caregiver ACE exposure are associated with their child's PTSD symptoms in a sample of African American dyads living in urban, high-burden communities. These results suggest a need for ACE screening during medical visits and provides guidance for future clinical interventions. The distinct intergenerational consequences for caregivers with ACEs and their children's psychosocial wellbeing warrant further study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Rethinking flourishing: Critical insights and qualitative perspectives from the U.S. Midwest.

In recent years, human flourishing and its relationship to mental health have attracted significant attention in a wide range of fields. As an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods team with strong roots in critical medical anthropology and critical public health, we are intrigued by the possibility that a focus on flourishing may reinvigorate health research, policy, and clinical care in transformative ways. Yet current proposals to this effect, we contend, must be met with caution. In particular, we call attention to the troubling disconnect between current research on flourishing, on one hand, and the voluminous body of scholarship demonstrating the detrimental impact of structural inequities on health, on the other. We illuminate this blind spot in two ways. We begin with a critical assessment of leading conceptions to flourishing in positive psychology, which are compared to current approaches in the critical social sciences of health. In the second half of the paper, we support our argument by presenting original findings from a mixed-methods study with a diverse sample of interviewees in the Midwestern U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio (n=167). Our interviewees' rich narrative accounts, which we analyze both quantitatively and qualitatively, highlight important ways in which everyday understandings of flourishing diverge from prevailing scholarly accounts. Given these gaps and blind spots, now is an opportune time for robust interdisciplinary discussion about the implicit values and presumptions underpinning leading approaches to flourishing and their wide-ranging implications for research, policy, and clinical care in mental health fields and beyond.

Learning to See Racism: Perspective Transformation Among Stakeholders in a Regional Health and Equity Initiative.

CONTEXT: Achieving a meaningful reduction in health inequities will require not only policy and programmatic changes but also an increased understanding of structural racism and its deleterious impact on health and well-being. One way to enhance understanding is to actively promote "perspective transformation" (PT) around race among health equity stakeholders. Experiences of PT are defined as moments or events that bring about a deepened understanding of racism and that may result in new ways of thinking and acting. OBJECTIVE: To identify catalysts and effects of PT among health equity stakeholders. DESIGN: Semistructured, in-person interviews were conducted with stakeholders (n = 50) as part of a 2-phase, mixed-methods study (n = 170). Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded using a mixed-methods software platform. SETTING: Health Improvement Partnership-Cuyahoga (HIP-Cuyahoga), a regional health and equity initiative in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. PARTICIPANTS: A purposive sample of participants in HIP-Cuyahoga spanning 5 groups: metro-wide decision makers, public health professionals, clinicians, community leaders, and community members. RESULTS: More than two-thirds of interviewees reported at least one discrete experience that catalyzed PT, as defined earlier. Three catalysts were especially common: witnessing, learning, and personally experiencing racism. A fourth, less common catalyst involved getting uncomfortable during discussions of race and racism. Experiences of PT resulted in common effects including acquiring new terms, concepts, and frameworks; carrying the conversation forward; finding fellow travelers; and feeling energized and motivated to confront structural racism and its consequences. People of color tended to experience PT, and its catalysts and effects, differently than White interviewees. CONCLUSIONS: Many health equity stakeholders have experienced PT around racism and its impact. Experiencing PT is associated with new skills, capacities, and motivations to confront racism and its impact on health and well-being. Understanding how different groups experience PT can help advance efforts to promote health equity.

Visualizing Health Equity: Qualitative Perspectives on the Value and Limits of Equity Images.

BACKGROUND: Health educators and advocacy groups often use side-by-side visual images to communicate about equity and to distinguish it from equality. Despite the near-ubiquity of these images, little is known about how they are understood by different audiences. AIMS: To assess the effectiveness of an image commonly used to communicate about health equity. METHOD: In 167 interviews with health stakeholders in Greater Cleveland, Ohio, in 2018 to 2019, a commonly used health equity image was shown to participants, who were asked to interpret its meaning. Interviewees included 21 health professionals, 21 clinicians, 22 metro-wide decision makers, 24 community leaders, and 79 community members. RESULTS: About two thirds of our socioeconomically, racial/ethnically, educationally, and professionally diverse sample said the equity image helped clarify the distinction between "equality" and "equity." Yet less than one third offered an interpretation consistent with the image's goals of foregrounding not only injustice but also a need for systemic change. Patterns of misinterpretation were especially common among two groups: ideological conservatives and those of lower socioeconomic status. Conservatives were most likely to object to the image's message. CONCLUSIONS: Equity images are widely used by public health educators and advocates, yet they do not consistently communicate the message that achieving equity requires systemic change. In this moment of both public health crisis and urgent concern about systemic racism, new visual tools for communicating this crucial message are needed.

Emergency Food Provision for Children and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examples from Five U.S. Cities.

As lockdown and school closure policies were implemented in response to the coronavirus, the federal government provided funding and relaxed its rules to support emergency food provision, but not guidance on best practices for effectiveness. Accordingly, cities developed a diverse patchwork of emergency feeding programs. This article uses qualitative data to provide insight into emergency food provision developed in five cities to serve children and families. Based on our qualitative analysis, we find that the effectiveness of local approaches appears to depend on: (i) cross-sector collaboration, (ii) supply chains, and (iii) addressing gaps in service to increased risk populations.

People and places shaping food procurement among recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

A key gap in existing food environment research is a more complex understanding of the interplay between physical and social contexts, including the influence of social networks on food habits. This mixed methods research examined the nature of social connections at food procurement places among a sample of 30 people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in an urban setting. Results highlight the significance of social connections as motivators to use food places, the value of access to information and other resources at food places, and the role of weak ties with actors within food places to facilitate utilization and interaction. Social connections at the varied places individuals procure food may be leveraged to disseminate information and resources to further healthy food access.

The relationship between child and caregiver sleep in acute lymphoblastic leukemia maintenance.

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study are to describe sleep quality and sleep disturbance among caregivers of children in the maintenance phase of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and to examine the relationship between sleep quality, child sleep disturbance, and caregiver guilt and worry. METHODS: Caregivers of 68 children with ALL, ages 3 to 12 years old, completed measures of caregiver guilt and worry, caregiver sleep quality, and child's developmental history and sleep habits. Demographic and treatment correlates of poor caregiver sleep were examined, and caregiver guilt and worry was tested as a moderator between child and caregiver sleep. RESULTS: More than half of caregivers (55.9%) reported clinically significant poor sleep and less than 40% were obtaining adequate sleep durations. Caregiver sleep was significantly related to child age at diagnosis, child sleep, and caregiver guilt and worry. Caregiver guilt and worry did not moderate the relationship between child sleep and caregiver sleep. CONCLUSIONS: Poor sleep is common in caregivers of children with cancer. Further research on the timing of sleep interventions and the most effective intervention targets are needed to maximize caregiver functioning during a child's cancer treatment. Targeted interventions seeking to improve caregiver sleep should be directed towards caregivers of children diagnosed in early childhood, caregivers of children with poor sleep, and caregivers with high guilt and worry.

Food Melt in Consumer Food Environments in Low-income Urban Neighborhoods.

OBJECTIVES: We systematically evaluated changes in availability, price, and quality of perishable food items from the beginning to the end of the month in lowincome, urban neighborhoods. METHODS: The sample included grocery stores or supermarkets in Cleveland, Ohio, within neighborhoods with >30% of population receiving food assistance. We collected data for 2 sequential months during the first and fourth weeks of each month. Two coders evaluated stores, collecting measures of availability, price, and quality for 50 items. We examined difference in number and proportion of items available at the beginning of the month (BOM) to items remaining available at the end of the month (EOM), as well as quality and price of those items. RESULTS: Across 48 stores, availability at EOM was lower than BOM; as store size increased, reduction in availability (ie, food melt) was significantly (p < .01) less pronounced. Overall, items became less expensive at the EOM whereas quality remained consistent; we noted no statistically significant differences by store type for price or quality. CONCLUSIONS: Food melt differentially affects individuals in neighborhoods without grocery stores. Findings reveal composition of food environments is dynamic rather than static, influencing food-purchasing choices among lowincome consumers.

Symptomless Multi-Variable Apnea Prediction Index Assesses Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk and Adverse Outcomes in Elective Surgery.

Study Objective: To validate that the symptomless Multi-Variable Apnea Prediction index (sMVAP) is associated with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) diagnosis and assess the relationship between sMVAP and adverse outcomes in patients having elective surgery. We also compare associations between Bariatric surgery, where preoperative screening for OSA risk is mandatory, and non-Bariatric surgery groups who are not screened routinely for OSA. Methods: Using data from 40 432 elective inpatient surgeries, we used logistic regression to determine the relationship between sMVAP and previous OSA, current hypertension, and postoperative complications: extended length of stay (ELOS), intensive-care-unit-stay (ICU-stay), and respiratory complications (pulmonary embolism, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and/or aspiration pneumonia). Results: Higher sMVAP was associated with increased likelihood of previous OSA, hypertension and all postoperative complications (p < .0001). The top sMVAP quintile had increased odds of postoperative complications compared to the bottom quintile. For ELOS, ICU-stay, and respiratory complications, respective odds ratios (95% CI) were: 1.83 (1.62, 2.07), 1.44 (1.32, 1.58), and 1.85 (1.37, 2.49). Compared against age-, gender- and BMI-matched patients having Bariatric surgery, sMVAP was more strongly associated with postoperative complications in non-Bariatric surgical groups, including: (1) ELOS (Orthopedics [p < .0001], Gastrointestinal [p = .024], Neurosurgery [p = .016], Spine [p = .016]); (2) ICU-stay (Orthopedics [p = .0004], Gastrointestinal [p < .0001], and Otorhinolaryngology [p = .0102]); and (3) respiratory complications (Orthopedics [p =.037] and Otorhinolaryngology [p =.011]). Conclusions: OSA risk measured by sMVAP correlates with higher risk for select postoperative complications. Associations are stronger for non-Bariatric surgeries, where preoperative screening for OSA is not routinely performed. Thus, preoperative screening may reduce OSA-related risk for adverse postoperative outcomes.

Orthopaedic Snafus: When Adverse Events Happen in Orthopaedics.

The potential for adverse events exists when treating and managing orthopaedic patients in the intraoperative or postoperative environments, especially when it comes to falls, surgical site infections, venous thromboembolism, and injuries to nerves and blood vessels. Orthopaedic nurses play a vital role in the promotion and use of evidence-based interventions to decrease the incidence of these adverse events, improve quality of care, and minimize the financial burden related to these adverse events.