Ecological Research to Promote Social Change

During the past quarter century, community psychologists have worked to make relevant contributions to human welfare in community settings and to effect social change. Working with and in schools, neighborhood organizations, religious institutions, social programs, and government agencies, the community psychologist has come to understand how social settings and social policy influence behavior and foster change that promotes individual health and well-being. Using a social ecological paradigm as their guiding framework, they focus on the interactions between persons and their environments, cultural diversity, and local empowerment for understanding organizational, community, and social change.

I. Design Issues in Intervention Research.- 1. Probing the Effects of Individual Components in Multiple Component Prevention Programs.- 2. From Field Experiments to Program Implementation: Assessing the Potential Outcomes of an Experimental Intervention Program for Unemployed Persons.- 3. Research on the Cost Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention: Implications for Research and Policy.- II. Ecological Assessment.- 4. Measuring Neighborhood Context for Young Children in an Urban Area.- 5. Ecological Assessments of Community Disorder: Their Relationship to Fear of Crime and Theoretical Implications.- 6. Detecting "Cracks'' in Mental Health Service Systems: Application of Network Analytic Techniques.- 7. Social Support Processes in Early Childhood Friendship: A Comparative Study of Ecological Congruences in Enacted Support.- 8. Setting Phenotypes in a Mutual Help Organization: Expanding Behavior Setting Theory.- III. Culturally Anchored Research.- 9. In Pursuit of a Culturally Anchored Methodology.- 10. Using Focus Groups to Facilitate Culturally Anchored Research.- 11. The Structure of Problem and Positive Behavior among American Indian Adolescents: Gender and Community Differences.- About the Editors.