Reinforcing or challenging the status quo: A grounded theory of how the model minority myth shapes Asian American activism.

Compared to other People of Color in the United States, Asian Americans are often seen as uninterested in activism. Furthermore, the widespread model minority myth (MMM) perpetuates the monolithic image of Asian Americans as successful in society and thus unaffected by racial oppression and uninterested in activism. Despite others' perceptions, Asian American college students have historically engaged in activist efforts and worked to reject the stereotypical views of their racial group as apolitical under the MMM.

Examining awareness of privilege among midwestern college students: An analysis of race/ethnicity, gender, and religion.

Dominant group members often are not aware of the privileges they benefit from due to their dominant group membership. Yet individuals are members of multiple groups and may simultaneously occupy multiple categories of dominance and marginality, raising the question of how different group memberships work in concert to facilitate or inhibit awareness of multiple forms of privilege. Examining awareness of privilege is important as awareness may be linked to action to dismantle systems of privilege that maintain oppression and inequality.

Pride in our community: Reflecting on LGBTQ publications in the American Journal of Community Psychology.

In this Virtual Special Issue (VSI), we curate and discuss a set of 28 articles previously published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. The purpose of this VSI is to bring visibility to this body of scholarship in AJCP and to reflect on how the strengths of our field have been used throughout this work in pursuit of supporting LGBTQ wellbeing. In this VSI, we first discuss articles that help to set the historical background for publications in AJCP.

Ignoring race and denying racism: A meta-analysis of the associations between colorblind racial ideology, anti-Blackness, and other variables antithetical to racial justice.

One critical role counseling psychologists can play in dismantling anti-Blackness and eradicating systemic racism is to build on the field's strength in understanding individual-level processes (i.e., systems are created and maintained by individual actors).

Remembering where we're from: Community- and individual-level predictors of college students' White privilege awareness.

Scholars in the field of community psychology have called for more research dedicated to examining White privilege as part of a system of White supremacy in the United States. One branch of this work focuses on awareness of White privilege, yet to date, this research has typically investigated awareness of White privilege at individual levels of analysis instead of also focusing on neighborhoods, schools, and other levels of analysis beyond the individual. In this study, we combine survey and U.

Focusing the Lens to See More Clearly: Overcoming Definitional Challenges and Identifying New Directions in Racial Microaggressions Research.

Despite significant advances in research on racial microaggressions, key challenges remain regarding how to define and classify them. Resolving these challenges is necessary to reduce misunderstanding and the subsequent minimization of racial microaggression research. Our goals in this article are to discuss the definitional challenges, to discuss implications for the creation of taxonomies, and to offer directions for how a revised definition and corresponding taxonomies can be used to further racial microaggression research.

Internalized model minority myth among Asian Americans: Links to anti-Black attitudes and opposition to affirmative action.

Objectives: The current study contributes to the field's limited knowledge about the sociopolitical consequences of internalized Model Minority Myth (MMM) among Asian Americans. In particular, we examine how the MMM serves as a legitimizing ideology, in which the perpetuation of beliefs about society as fair ultimately maintain racial inequality.

Methods: Using path analysis with 251 Asian American college students, we tested a model linking internalized MMM (i.

Distinguishing "I don't see color" from "Racism is a thing of the past": Psychological correlates of avoiding race and denying racism.

Scholars have proposed 2 separable dimensions of racial colorblind ideology: the first is centered on "not seeing color" (i.e., color evasion), and the second is centered on denying racism (i.

Christian and Political Conservatism Predict Opposition to Sexual and Gender Minority Rights through Support for Christian Hegemony.

Although significant strides have been made for sexual and gender minority (SGM) rights in the United States, there continues to be opposition to SGM rights from many conservative Christians and political conservatives. In this study, we investigate this opposition by examining support for Christian hegemony (i.e.

Racial Colorblindness and Confidence in and Likelihood of Action to Address Prejudice.

In this study, we examined the association between racial colorblindness and inaction to address prejudice. Conceptualized as a type of legitimizing ideology that maintains societal inequality, we hypothesized that colorblindness would be associated with less confidence in and lower likelihood of engaging in action to address prejudice. Our study examined the role of affective variables in explaining the link between colorblindness and inaction, as well as explored potential racial group differences.

A Social Network Analysis of Friendship and Spiritual Support in a Religious Congregation.

Religious congregations are social settings where people gather together in community to pursue the sacred (Pargament, 2008). Such settings are important to understand as they provide a context for individuals to develop relationships, share ideas and resources, and connect individuals to larger society (Todd, 2017a). Yet, research to date has not deeply examined the inherently relational nature of religious congregations.

Overcoming the "Holy Hush": A Qualitative Examination of Protestant Christian Leaders' Responses to Intimate Partner Violence.

Described as a "holy hush," past research has noted a general silence about and reluctance to address intimate partner violence (IPV) in religious congregations. To explore this, we interviewed 20 Protestant Christian religious leaders about how they understood and responded to IPV. Based on a thematic content analysis, our study revealed some of the challenges, tensions, and complexities that may be barriers to leaders speaking about and responding to IPV, and also the ways religious leaders in our sample attempted to overcome these challenges.

Okay to say?: Initial validation of the Acceptability of Racial Microaggressions Scale.

Unlabelled: Despite a growing body of research documenting the negative impact of racial microaggressions on racial and ethnic minorities' wellbeing, there remains debate in society about whether it is acceptable to say racially microaggressive statements. However, no scale exists to assess attitudes about the acceptability of saying such statements.

Objectives: In this study we present an initial validation of a new scale, the Acceptability of Racial Microaggressions Scale (ARMS), which assesses attitudes about how "okay" it is for White individuals to say different types of racially microaggressive statements to racial and ethnic minorities in an interpersonal interaction.

Ethical Challenges of Personal Disclosure in Gaining Entry with Religious Congregations.

This is a story about learning how to navigate my social identities as a non-religious gay man attempting to conduct data-based consultation with a religious congregation. Beyond my own growth in knowing myself better, this story speaks to the larger ethical challenge of how we build trust in community relationships, and in particular how much of our personal selves we need to disclose in the process of an individual or group deciding to work with us. Individuals and groups make decisions to work with us based on who they perceive us to be; thus, what is our ethical obligation to disclose aspects of who we are to promote full informed consent? To illustrate this ethical challenge of personal disclosure, I tell the story of discussions I had with three different religious leaders and a congregational committee about potentially working together.

Interfaith Groups as Mediating Structures for Political Action: A Multilevel Analysis.

This study investigates interfaith groups from across the United States to understand how these religious settings may serve as mediating structures to facilitate individual political action. Based on a multilevel modeling analysis with 169 individuals from 25 interfaith groups, we found that core activities of the group, such as group members sharing community information (e.g.

Examining the Presence of Congregational Programs Focused on Violence Against Women.

Religious congregations are uniquely poised to provide programs to support survivors of violence against women; yet little is known regarding the prevalence of such programs. In this study, we used data from three waves of the National Congregation Study (N = 3334) to examine change across time in the presence of a congregational program to support survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence. We also explored results among different Christian religious traditions across time.

Complicating Counterspaces: Intersectionality and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.

The counterspaces framework articulated by Case and Hunter (2012), follows from community psychology's long-standing interest in the potential for settings to promote well-being and liberatory responses to oppression. This framework proposes that certain settings (i.e.

Preliminary Validation of the Sex Trafficking Attitudes Scale.

This study presents the Sex Trafficking Attitudes Scale (STAS), assessing cognitive, behavioral, and affective attitudes toward the sex trafficking of women and girls. Across two studies, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed and confirmed six subscales: (a) Knowledge About Sex Trafficking, (b) Awareness of Sex Trafficking, (c) Attitudes Toward Ability to Leave Sex Trafficking, (d) Attitudes Toward Helping Survivors, (e) Empathic Reactions Toward Sex Trafficking, and (f) Efficacy to Reduce Sex Trafficking. Results showed support for convergent validity as the subscales were associated with related measures.

Trans women and Michfest: An ethnophenomenology of attendees' experiences.

The rise of queer and transgender studies has greatly contributed to feminist and lesbian understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality and also has resulted in rifts, tensions, and border wars. One such tension is around the inclusion of trans women in women-only space, such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (Michfest). In this ethnophenomenological study, we interviewed and surveyed 43 cisgender women who attended Michfest in 2013.

Ethnography in community psychology: promises and tensions.

Community psychology recognizes the need for research methods that illuminate context, culture, diversity, and process. One such method, ethnography, has crossed into multiple disciplines from anthropology, and indeed, community psychologists are becoming community ethnographers. Ethnographic work stands at the intersection of bridging universal questions with the particularities of people and groups bounded in time, geographic location, and social location.

The role of attitudes toward White privilege and religious beliefs in predicting social justice interest and commitment.

The current study examines links among attitudes toward White privilege, religious beliefs, and social justice interest and commitment for White Christian students. Two distinct patterns of results emerged from a path analysis of 500 White Christian students. First, a willingness to confront White privilege was positively associated with the sanctification of social justice (i.

Religious congregations and social justice participation: a multilevel examination of social processes and leadership.

Religious congregations have potential to be mediating structures for social justice participation. However, research has yet to examine the specific social processes or leadership characteristics within congregations that may promote social justice participation. In this study, we use data from 176,901 participants nested within 1,938 congregations to test how social processes (i.

Council-based approaches to intimate partner violence: evidence for distal change in the system response.

Communities across the United States are collaborating to create a coordinated response to intimate partner violence (IPV); ideally, this involves promoting best practices in the justice and human service systems and engaging a broad array of community sectors (e.g., human service; criminal justice; faith; business; education) to promote victim safety and batterer accountability (Pence, 1999).

Examining patterns of political, social service, and collaborative involvement of religious congregations: a latent class and transition analysis.

This investigation examines typologies of congregations based on patterns of congregational political and social service activities and collaborative partners. Based on a latent class analysis of a national random sample of 2,153 congregations, results indicated four distinct types of congregations with unique patterns of political, social service, and collaborative partnerships labeled: (a) Active, (b) Not Active, (c) Social Service Not Political, and (d) Political Not Social Service. Moreover, congregational characteristics such as religious tradition and clergy characteristics predicted membership in certain types.

Predicting school sense of community: students' perceptions at two Catholic universities.

Understanding the factors that predict sense of community (SOC) among college students has important implications for higher education policy and practice. The present study determined whether perceptions of inclusion and religious pluralism across 2,199 university students' (1,442 women, 757 men; M age = 23.42, SD =7.