"You Have to Humanize Your feelings:" Black fathers' Reflections on How Youth Violence Prevention and Perpetration Influence Their Overall Health and Fathering Practices.

In Baton Rouge, LA, and nationally, youth violence is a serious public health problem affecting the lives of community members. Fortunately, Black fathers have responded to the urgent call to prevent youth violence in Louisiana. In 2021, the SUPPORT project was launched to unearth stories of Black fathers' prevention practices and interventions. Since relationships are embedded within and across various systems, the Social-Ecological Model for Violence Prevention was applied to a semi-structured interview approach to investigate two aims with 12 Black fathers from Baton Rouge: (1) how their experiences with youth violence influence their mental and social health, and their children's violence exposure, and (2) the benefits of addressing youth violence. Using Braun and Clarke's (2021) thematic analysis, the three major themes that emerged related to Black fathers' history with violence were: (1) self-reflexive moments on lessons learned, (2) the impacts of victimization and bullying, and (3) socioemotional responses to youth violence. Related to the second aim, the salutary impact on the neighborhood and improvement of the school community were the major themes that emerged regarding the perceived benefits of addressing youth violence. These findings demonstrate that interviewees are cognizant of how their history of violence led to maladaptive coping mechanisms in response to youth violence and influenced their fathering ideologies; moreover, they were concerned with familial betterment. Further research is needed to deepen understanding of how Black fathers' socioemotional responses to youth violence impact their wellness and fathering practices as their children mature.

"We Raise our Grandchildren as our Own:" Alaska Native Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Southwest Alaska.

This study explores continuity and change in the roles of rural Alaska Native grandparents, describing their importance in contemporary Yup'ik social life and structure. The study is distinctive in its focus on the experiences of Yup'ik grandparents who are primary caregivers raising their grandchildren in Southwest Alaska. Qualitative data were gathered using a semi-structured interview from 20 Yup'ik grandparents, ages 46 to 95, who raised their grandchildren as the primary caregiver for at least one year. Content analysis was used to establish a culturally grounded understanding of the role of a grandparent raising grandchildren and meanings of these roles to Yup'ik grandparents. Findings reveal areas of continuity and change in the role and place of grandparents in Yup'ik families and communities. Important continuities persist in the role of Yup'ik grandparents, who continue to be a vital resource within their families and communities. As in the past, the grandparent role is essential in passing down cultural knowledge, upholding traditional Yup'ik values and teachings, and facilitating development of a strong and healthy cultural identity among youth. However, significant change has taken place within Yup'ik communities as a result of Western colonization. Grandparent roles are also shifting and expanding as a result of these changes, as part of an adaptive community response to ensure the safety and well-being of youth during times of great change and disruption.

Challenges to older women's sense of self in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

We examined the personal challenges older women faced as they began to rebuild their sense of self after Hurricane Katrina. In-depth interviews with 74 older women approximately 6 months after the disaster revealed challenges in four domains: maintaining social connections, family connections but loss of independence, reestablishing a sense of place, and managing their own health or the health of a loved one. Follow-up data gathered several months after the initial interviews from 21 of the older women indicated that feelings of displacement persisted as they dealt with health concerns, found a place to live, and managed family roles.

Mental health issues and the foster care system: an examination of the impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act.

Although marriage and family therapists are being called on to help at-risk families, some say that clinicians have insufficient knowledge about the impact of policies on families involved in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify how the Adoption and Safe Families Act informs decision making, to recognize trends in decisions regarding termination of parental rights of parents with mental health issues, and to explore treatment issues of families involved in the foster care system. Results indicate that court cases decided after the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act are likely to result in termination of parental rights. Implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed.

Grandma's hands: black grandmothers speak about their experiences rearing grandchildren on TANF.

Based on the guiding principles of the symbolic interactions theory, the authors used symbolic interaction theory to understand the views and meanings attached to welfare, poverty, and poor families, as well as to decipher grandmothers' policy recommendations. The culturally variant perspective provided a conceptual lens that placed grandmothers' adaptive behaviors in a historical, socio-political context. Using Grounded Theory Methods, the authors analyzed 20 personal interviews from a larger multiple-case study that examines the influence of TANF on grandparent-led families in southwest Virginia. Grandparents' views create a continuum of beliefs toward poverty, TANF, and personal responsibility with themes of individualistic, structural, and fatalistic views. They made distinct policy recommendations to remove the penalties attached to kinship care. Kinship care continues to be an adaptive family feature, but Black grandmothers' maintain some of the same societal and familial values as the larger society.