The Nature, Logic, and Significance of Strong Communities for Children.

High levels of stress and low levels of support for parents have significant implications for child safety, particularly for families living in neighborhoods which are dangerous and disadvantaged. Building on this knowledge about the causes and correlates of child maltreatment, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect (1993) recommended a neighborhood-based child protection strategy. This article describes Strong Communities for Children, a community-based child maltreatment prevention intervention designed to carry out the Board's recommendations. During an initial period of development and evaluation (lasting more than 7 years) of the first such initiative (located in communities near Greenville, SC), Strong Communities added substantially to the knowledge base on the role of community factors in children's safety. It also advanced understanding of ways to operationalize some of the ideas underlying the Board's proposed strategy. This article (a) describes the conceptual foundation, the logic model, and the engagement strategies that comprise Strong Communities; (b) provides an overview of the results from the first comprehensive initiative; (c) discusses their significance; and (d) concludes with discussion of the possibilities for Strong Communities in the current context.

Addressing mental health challenges facing the "Next America": A call for culture change.

Provides an editorial addressing future mental health challenges. The articles in this issue highlight the need to create environments conducive to promoting the well-being of future generations. The articles build on symposia held by the American Orthopsychiatric Association in 2015, which focused on the effects on well-being of changing sociodemographics and labor market trends. Included in these pages are articles that lay out some of the challenges young people today face and strategies for helping them transition to adulthood successfully.

Strong Communities for Children: Results of a multi-year community-based initiative to protect children from harm.

This article reports the evaluation results from Strong Communities for Children, a multi-year comprehensive community-based initiative to prevent child maltreatment and improve children's safety. The outcome study consisted of a survey of a random sample of caregivers of children under age 10 in the Strong Communities service area and a set of comparison communities matched at the block group level on demography. Survey data were collected in two waves 4 years apart. Data were collected on (a) perceptions of the neighborhood and neighbors (e.g., neighboring, collective efficacy), (b) perceptions of neighbors' parenting practices, (c) parental attitudes and beliefs (e.g., parental stress; parental efficacy), and (d) self-reported parenting practices. The survey data were supplemented by data on substantiated reported rates of child abuse and neglect per 1,000 children and ICD-9 coded child injuries suggesting child abuse and neglect per 1,000 children. Compared to the non-intervention sample across time, the Strong Communities samples showed significant changes in the expected direction for social support, collective efficacy, child safety in the home, observed parenting practices, parental stress, parental efficacy, self-reported parenting practices, rates of officially substantiated child maltreatment, and rates of ICD-9 coded child injuries suggesting child maltreatment. These promising results, obtained through multiple methods of evaluation, confirm that a community mobilization strategy can shift norms of parents' care for their children and neighbors' support for one another, so that young children are safer at home and in the community. Replications should be undertaken and evaluated in other communities under diverse auspices.

"Someone will notice, and someone will care": How to build Strong Communities for Children.

Derived from the recommendations of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, Strong Communities for Children is a universal community-wide approach to prevention of child maltreatment. It is intended to change community norms-to facilitate informal support for families and to strengthen parents' belief that they can improve the quality of life for their own and their neighbors' families. A phased intervention, Strong Communities begins with recruitment and mobilization of volunteers, initially to spread Strong Communities' messages and ultimately to provide direct assistance to families of young children. Principle-driven, Strong Communities uses assets in the community to expand and strengthen networks of supportive relationships and, in particular, to increase support to parents. At least in concept, Strong Communities appears to be applicable in highly disparate communities and societies.

Community differences in the implementation of Strong Communities for Children.

In 1993, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect recommended a neighborhood-based strategy to prevent child abuse and neglect. The Board further recommended the development of Prevention Zones to allow for testing of the effectiveness of community-wide child protection efforts in neighborhoods of differing population density, ethnic and cultural composition, and social and economic resources. Following the Board's recommendation, this article presents the results of a trial of the effectiveness of a neighborhood-based strategy in low- and high-resource communities. Using management, survey, and administrative data, the research showed that both community types experienced declines in founded cases of and injuries suggesting child maltreatment for children under age 5. Low-resource communities experienced greater levels of mobilization, as measured by community and institutional engagement, and a greater number of positive outcomes related to changes in the quality of life for families and community norms relative to child and family well-being. In particular, the low-resource communities experienced the largest increases in receiving help from neighbors, neighboring, perceived household safety for neighborhood children, and observed positive parenting. High-resource communities experienced greater increases in intermediate outcomes related to self-reported parenting practices. The findings suggest that, ultimately, community mobilization can occur and be an effective means of preventing child maltreatment across community types. It appears, however, that community mobilization may play a more significant role in low-resource communities.

Editing on the edge in Denver, New Orleans, and Williamston-and soon in Dallas and Lincoln, too.

This editorial provides a farewell from the coeditors of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Milt Shore: editor and advocate.

This editorial pays tribute to former editor, Milton F. Shore, who has for many years been one of Ortho's most dedicated members.

Hospitality: transformative service to children, families, and communities.

Hospitality is an ancient moral practice that was deeply embedded in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Hospitality requires acceptance of, service to, and respect for people who lack a place in the community. The contemporary importance of this practice reflects the social disconnection and economic disadvantage of many young parents and the high frequency of separation of young people, including many young parents, from their communities. Such social deterioration substantially increases the risk of child maltreatment. Building on the proposals of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, Strong Communities for Children demonstrated the effectiveness of community building in reducing such risk. It further suggested the importance of both relying on and learning from hospitable people in strengthening support for children and their parents.

Keeping the doors to the community open.

Polls show that Americans of all races now believe that social class and national origin are more potent bases for discrimination than race. However, this assessment is rendered more complicated by (a) the high rate of exclusion of people on the basis of behavioral characteristics and (b) the strikingly disparate impact of such decisions on people of color. America's high rates of (a) incarceration in the criminal and juvenile justice system, (b) visa denials, detention, and removal in the immigration system, and (c) suspensions and expulsions in the schools all have the effect of excluding many Latinos and African Americans from ordinary life in the community. Although norms of inclusion are adaptive for communities, such an approach is intrinsically difficult to achieve. Attention should be given to (a) facilitation of the exercise of moral leadership and (b) design of settings that ''demand'' notice of, and care for, all participants.

Putting the "community" back into "mental health": the challenge of a great crisis in the health and well-being of children and families.

For more than a generation, the levels of anxiety, depression, and misconduct among young people in the United States have been steadily increasing. So too have isolation, alienation, mistrust, and boredom, with the result that ongoing social support has been diminishing, particularly for young people. These trends constitute a national public health crisis affecting young people in general, those already defined as having mental health problems, and their families. To respond adequately, the child mental health system must change dramatically--away from the provision of units of service defined by protocols, time, and professionals' presence and toward the engagement of primary community institutions in the creation and maintenance of new norms of giving and receiving help. Initial evidence suggests that such a shift requires massive effort but that it is feasible and potentially effective.

In search of the highest attainable standard of mental health for children.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) may be a leading example of psychological jurisprudence. By its emphasis on promotion of the "child's sense of dignity and worth," the CRC offers a framework for comprehensive child policy in a manner that is consistent with the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental health problems.