Background: Slavery, convict leasing, the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration have created a legacy of systemic oppression that disproportionately targets families and communities of color. Mass incarceration, rooted in historical injustices and maintained through systemic racism, continues to fracture communities. Structural barriers such as economic disenfranchisement, discriminatory policies, and social stigma contribute to disproportionate incarceration rates and the significant challenges that follow for families and communities. Objective: This article aims to explore the role of intergenerational trauma in perpetuating incarceration among Black American communities. It seeks to examine how historical and behavioral patterns contribute to the cycle of imprisonment and identify how the risk of incarceration may be transmitted across generations. Methods: A conceptual and theoretical review approach is employed, integrating frameworks including posttraumatic slave syndrome (PTSS), the minority stress model (MSM), critical race theory (CRT), and Intersectionality. These frameworks are used to analyze how systemic and historical oppression shape present-day disparities in incarceration and affect family structures and mental health. Findings: The analysis reveals that the intergenerational transmission of trauma, compounded by systemic racism and structural inequities, plays a significant role in the continued overrepresentation of Black Americans in the carceral system. Divided community perspectives on how to address crime further complicate responses. The compounded effects of overlapping marginalized identities intensify the impact of incarceration on individuals and families. Conclusions: Mass incarceration cannot be fully addressed without acknowledging and dismantling the historical and structural forces that sustain it. Understanding incarceration through the lenses of PTSS, MSM, CRT, and intersectionality provides critical insight into the lived experiences of Black American communities. The article concludes with clinical implications for supporting affected families and proposes future directions for research and systemic change.
Background: Illegal housing in South Korea persists amid rapid urbanization and economic transformation, creating insecure tenancy and substandard housing conditions. The mismatch between legal frameworks and on-the-ground realities generates a broad spectrum of residential vulnerabilities. Objective: The study aims to analyze the evolution of tenants’ rights and housing conditions within illegal housing, examine the interplay between law and lived practice, classify forms of illegality, and assess implications for tenancy security and housing adequacy. Methods: We conduct a comprehensive review of national legislation, municipal regulations, and relevant case law, alongside multiple case studies of squatter settlements and non-compliant building practices. The typology developed by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless is applied to categorize housing situations and is complemented by international comparative examples. Findings: The legal landscape governing tenants in illegal housing is complex and fragmented. Protections for marginalized populations are incomplete and unevenly enforced, producing varied but generally high levels of vulnerability across tenure security and habitability. Policy intent and administrative practice often diverge, leaving persistent gaps in effective protection. Conclusions: Findings underscore the need for reforms that bridge the gap between housing policy and enforcement. The study advances the discourse on urban informality and offers insights to inform policy-making aimed at mitigating housing insecurity in South Korea and in comparable contexts globally.
Background: This was a phenomenological study that highlighted how culture, spirituality, and coping mechanisms influenced Hispanic and Latino community grief. Objective: A purposively selected sample of recordings of participant life review interviews from client records at the end-of-life comfort home identified themes on death beliefs, traditional grieving practices, cultural taboos, family roles, and religious faith, providing rich data on cultural and spiritual factors in grief. Methods: The themes that emerged from the analysis were related to death beliefs, traditional grieving practices, cultural taboos, family roles, and religious faith. The theoretical framework mixed deduction-induction approaches and was culture-sensitive to social work interventions. Findings: Findings supported a second line of evidence that diverse subgroups and the longitudinal grief experience may better inform understandings of, and improve cultural competency in, bereavement support. Conclusions: This study adds to the body of knowledge on bereavement among Hispanic and Latino communities and, potentially, to the establishment of culturally adapted interventions.
Background: Black women represent approximately 70% of sole or primary breadwinners in the United States. However, their experiences with wealth accumulation are often overlooked. Objective: This article used Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model to describe the structural, interpersonal, disciplinary, and hegemonic forces that impact wealth accumulation among 13 Black women who identified as heads of households. Methods: This study employed a phenomenological approach to qualitative inquiry and thematic analysis to reveal multiple themes that emerged. Findings: Participants emphasized wealth as a multidimensional concept rooted in wellness, holistic well-being, financial ease, and cultural values that shape how they conceptualize wealth. Challenges, including economic precarity, lack of generational wealth, and societal pressure to conform to narrow definitions of wealth, were also reported. Conclusion: Reconceptualizing how Black women define and measure wealth can help guide social policy and practice.
Background: A person’s social relationships provide a sense that one is valued and supported in ways that improve quality of life outcomes. However, a person’s social networks may include negative or ambivalent relationships that provide access to resources. Objective: The objective of this study was to understand the contribution of negative relationships, social capital, and perceived support on a person’s quality of life. Method: This study uses an egocentric social network design ( N = 305) to examine whether social capital associated with negative relationship networks provides benefits to a person’s quality of life. Findings: Although perceived support demonstrated a consistent relationship across all domains, the social capital associated with negative relationship networks was significantly related to respondents’ social and environmental quality of life. Conclusion: Capturing information about the social capital associated with negative social exchange is essential to develop a complete understanding of the role of social relationships in supporting health.
Youth experiencing housing instability are among the fastest growing groups of individuals diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The unpredictable nature of the lives of youth experiencing housing instability can lead to inconsistent health care, leaving gaps about the most prominent needs for intervention. We examined factors associated with housing instability in a national sample of 2,228 sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth aged 16-24 who were having sex with men. Behavioral risk factors for STI and reported sex work were associated with housing instability. Social support, health insurance, older age, and partner violence were associated with stable housing. Implications for addressing risks for STIs and housing instability in urban areas among adolescent SGM men having sex with men are discussed.
Background: Despite rising mental health concerns, African American students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) face barriers that limit their awareness and use of counseling services, emphasizing the need to examine how communication strategies affect access. Objective: This article examines the effectiveness of communication strategies used by HBCUs to promote mental health services and identifies gaps between available support and student awareness. Methods: This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 14 African American students at a public HBCU to explore how communication strategies affect awareness and use of mental health services. Findings: HBCU students had limited awareness of mental health services, relied on traditional communication methods, preferred digital platforms like social media, and reported infrequent messaging. Conclusion: The findings suggest that HBCU students have general knowledge of mental health services, current communication relies on traditional methods often overlooked, students prefer digital platforms like social media, and messaging is infrequent. Future research should explore gender differences, regional variations, and effective social learning strategies to further enhance outreach and service utilization.
Background: Drug overdoses continue to plague communities. Despite the crisis, it is difficult for local city and/or county-level officials to make timely, data-driven decisions on prevention and intervention strategies. Objective: The purpose of this manuscript is to provide local government decision-makers with a blueprint for the collection and analysis of readily available jurisdictional data on drug overdoses. Methods: A total of 7,102 drug overdose calls for service were placed to the City of Detroit 911 center in 2022. These calls were examined for temporal and spatial clustering using ArcGIS Pro. Findings: Overdose incidents were more likely to occur on Saturday and Sunday in the hours from 8:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. There was a seasonal trend, with most overdose calls occurring during the summer months. A contiguous hot spot that measured 7 square miles was also identified in the downtown area, which accounted for nearly 17% of the calls for service. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the fact that overdose incidents were not randomly distributed but were concentrated in specific times and locations. This suggested the potential for strategic resource allocation to maximize impact.
Background: While research on coping strategies among Black men is extensive, insufficient attention has been given to understanding how coping strategies impact the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores among Black men in the state of Maryland. Objectives: This study investigates coping strategies and their impact on depression scores, with a specific focus on the Caribbean context within Maryland’s diverse Black male population. Given the various Caribbean ethnic groups present in Maryland, exploring coping strategies becomes important for comprehending mental health disparities. This study sought to provide a comprehensive examination of coping strategies and their implications for depression scores, with an emphasis on Caribbean Black Americans. Methods: Secondary data analyses were conducted using the coping strategy analysis questionnaire conducted in Maryland in 2021–2022. The sample includes 125 Black men aged 18–75 years who completed the survey electronically. Findings: The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between avoidant coping and PHQ-9 scores, indicating higher depression scores associated with increased use of avoidance coping. Conversely, a negative relationship is observed between problem-focused coping and PHQ-9 scores, suggesting lower depression scores among those employing problem-focused coping. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for further research on the intersection of culture and race in the coping strategies of Black men with depression in Maryland, with particular attention to the Caribbean context.
Background: Youth with sickle cell disease (SCD) often rely on insurance coverage to manage progressively debilitating disease-related symptoms; yet, the relationship between Medicaid receipt and health outcomes among this population is not well understood. Literature examining the role of insurance on patients with sickle cell disease remains mixed with little support emphasizing the efficacy of health insurance for this population. Objective: The aim of the current study is to examine whether the receipt of Medicaid is associated with health outcomes in youth diagnosed with sickle cell disease. We hypothesize that the receipt of Medicaid is connected to pain severity and the frequency of disease-related symptoms. Methods: This cross-sectional research study includes 150 parents of pediatric patients with SCD to investigate whether Medicaid receipt predicts the frequency of disease-related symptoms. Parents completed a demographic information questionnaire, which gathered Medicaid status and the frequency the patient experiences pain and disease-related symptoms. Findings: A linear regression model showed Medicaid receipt was associated with whether patients experienced pain never (p < .001) or often (p < .01). The model shows that a higher frequency of pain was connected with Medicaid receipt. In addition, Medicaid receipt predicted the frequency of disease-related symptoms (p < .001), suggesting that youth with SCD who are enrolled in Medicaid may expect a higher frequency of disease-related symptoms. Conclusions: These findings highlight the complexities that encompass Medicaid research involving youth with chronic illness and provide implications for policy reform. Future research should deploy a longitudinal research design that examines health outcomes pre and post Medicaid receipt.
Background:Youth, including those experiencing housing instability, are among the fastest growing groups of individuals with new STI diagnoses, including HIV. The unpredictable nature of the lives of youth experiencing housing instability often leads to inconsistent or non-existent health care and preventive follow up, leaving gaps in our knowledge about the most prominent needs for intervention. Methods:Using data from the Together 5000 (T5K) study, we examined factors associated with housing instability in a sample of 2,228 youth between the ages of 16-24 who identified as sexual and gender minority (SGM) men having sex with men. Logistic regression was used to assess the most prominent factors associated with housing instability. The model included seven significant factors - former peer victimization, gender, age, sex work, IPV, social support, and health insurance status. Findings:Participants who reported more behavioral risk factors for STI and those who reported sex work in the last three months were more likely to experience housing instability (OR = 2.5 and 2.76 respectively). Youth with higher levels of reported social support, health insurance, and older age were more likely to report stable housing (OR = .98, 1.61, and 1.13 respectively). Surprisingly, youth with stable housing were more likely to report intimate partner violence than those experiencing housing instability (OR = .89). Discussion:Implications for addressing STIs among adolescent SGM men having sex with men are discussed including bolstering support systems and addressing basic needs deficits and trauma associated with sex work and behavioral risk factors for STI. Implications and contributions statement:The study examines correlates of housing instability among a sample of young sexual and gender minority men who have sex with other men. Correlates of housing instability included behavioral risk factors for sexually transmitted infection and reporting sex work in the last three months. Health insurance, older age, and higher levels of social support were correlated with more stable housing.
Background:Race-based traumatic stress is defined as psychological and emotional stress induced by race-based offenses in the lifespan. Examples of this include but are not limited to overt verbal and physical racist encounters, microaggressions, housing discrimination, racist policies, racist policing practices, employment discrimination, and economic disenfranchisement. African Americans are disproportionately affected, and it is not clear if mental health treatment is effective.Objective:The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of race-based traumatic stress on African Americans and to examine if eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an effective treatment modality. The author sought to answer the following question: If African Americans who have been exposed to race-based traumatic stress receive EMDR therapy, will it reduce emotional and psychological distress associated with race-based trauma?Methods:A literature review was conducted between January 22 and April 26 of 2024. The following online databases contributed to the selection of peer-reviewed articles for this literature review: APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL Complete, and Educational Resources Information Center. Gray literature such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s database was also explored to locate additional statistics and information concerning mental health, race-based traumatic stress, and African Americans. Reference lists of the identified articles were manually reviewed, and additional relevant articles such as primary research articles were included in the literature review.Findings:It could not be concluded that EMDR therapy is an effective modality for treating race-based traumatic stress in African Americans. Thus, the answer appears to be unclear currently.Conclusions:The findings suggest that further research and advocacy are necessary to better understand the effectiveness of specialized modalities and mental health care concerning treatment for African Americans.
Background:This case study explores the dynamic inclusion of interprofessional education (IPE) in Lehman College Undergraduate Social Work Program, a Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Bronx.Objectives:We aim to contextualize the case within social work’s historical engagement in healthcare and evolving interprofessional practices, with an emphasis on the role of social work in healthcare.Methods:A comprehensive literature review was conducted to connect theoretical foundations to practical implementation, highlighting IPE’s significance as a student-centered pedagogy and its potential impact on patient care. The narrative details the transition from individual classroom use to widespread adoption in the practicum seminars in the undergraduate program.Results:The program demonstrates a proactive response to healthcare changes, underscoring a commitment to comprehensive education.Conclusion:This case study makes Lehman College’s program a valuable resource for educators, practitioners, and policymakers by showcasing its effective incorporation of IPE, ultimately enhancing patient care through improved interprofessional collaboration.
Although incarceration impacts the entire family system, the input of those impacted is often ignored or not sought out when discussing reform within the criminal justice system. Individuals in a romantic relationship with an incarcerated individual were interviewed to understand the lived experience using a phenomenological approach. The question “What would improve your relationship?” was asked to gain an understanding of what suggestions and recommendations individuals engaged in this relationship would share. Within the eight interviews, the theme, suggestions, was present in all and the codes of visitation, physical interaction, quality time, and lower cost communication will be explored. To better understand how to best advocate for and promote policy change, it is crucial to listen to and understand the input that those within these situations offer to improve their experience with incarceration.
Background:The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak significantly impacted those across the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a mental health strain particularly among college students.Objective:This article examines the mental health of college students and the challenges they experience surrounding COVID-19.Methods:This literature reviews the on-campus infrastructure, resources, and support during the pandemic.Findings:The common theme in the findings throughout the literature is the increase and prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression among college students, with worsening results for students of color.Conclusion:The implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed to set future direction. Recommendations are provided to support the mental health of college students during future pandemics. Colleges and universities need to look to the schools of social work and social work educators for leadership and guidance in improving future outcomes.
Background:First-generation Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students’ graduation rates are lower than those of White students. Systemic racism, stereotypes, inequitable treatment from instructors, microaggressions, uncharted paths, and lack of support are major contributors to the onset of mental health challenges for these groups.Objective:The purpose of this article is to critically review the experiences of BIPOC college students, focusing on their mental health challenges and the barriers they encounter in college, and to offer implications for social work practice.Methods:This article draws on existing research to explore the factors contributing to the mental health challenges faced by BIPOC and first-generation college students (FGCS), and examines the role of social workers in addressing these issues.Findings:Despite the significant stressors they face, BIPOC and FGCS students are less likely to seek mental health support and are more likely to drop out. There is a lack of effective approaches to encourage BIPOC students to seek the mental health services they need.Conclusion:Social workers are well-suited to dismantle racial injustices and empower individuals. This article highlights the critical role of social work in addressing the mental health needs of BIPOC students and promoting their academic success.
Background:Black youth are overrepresented in the foster care system, and research is needed to reveal the impact of their overmedication (Cénat et al., 2021; Dettlaff & Boyd, 2020; Godoy et al., 2022; Lee et al., 2015; Montgomery, 2022; Williams-Butler, 2023).Objective:This article examines misdiagnoses, overprescribed psychotropics, and off-label medication use to address behavioral concerns (American Civil Liberties Union Maryland v. Maryland, 2023; Cullins & Moore, 2020; Fadus et al., 2020; Mizock & Harkins, 2011) and investigate the contribution of implicit bias to find equitable and nondiscriminatory solutions.Methods:A systematic literature review was conducted to identify themes surrounding racial disparities within the child welfare system. Articles that were published within the last five years were prioritized, except for those with unique findings or a specific lens of inquiry. Foundational references such as relevant legislation were also used to support the research questions.Findings:The literature reveals significant and clear disparities in the treatment of Black youth within the child welfare system. Black foster care youth are often medicated at disproportionately high rates.Conclusions:The findings suggest that more culturally intelligent interventions are necessary to ensure Black foster care youth receive adequate and appropriate assessment and treatment.
Background:The Transitional Hotel Project (THP) is a noncongregate emergency hotel initiative with comprehensive wraparound services implemented at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was designed to address the emergency housing needs of adults transitioning from incarceration (returning citizens) to community reintegration.Objective:The study aims to explore the external and internal recovery needs of returning citizens participating in the THP, with a focus on their housing stability, mental and behavioral health, employment, and the development of prosocial relationships.Methods:This mixed-methods case study used de-identified case management data, focus groups, and interviews with 24 participants, including employees, key partners, and returning citizens. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify key themes related to the recovery process of returning citizens.Findings:A thematic analysis revealed three primary themes: (a) safety, including both physical and psychological aspects; (b) mutual empathy; and (c) person-centered decision-making. Two subthemes emerged under the safety theme: (a) physical safety and (b) psychological safety. Mutual empathy between participants and peer mentor staff played a critical role in fostering the recovery of returning citizens.Conclusions:The findings suggest that the physical and psychological safety provided within the hotel setting, along with the empathy and support from peer mentor staff, were significant factors contributing to positive changes in returning citizens. These elements of the THP appear to have facilitated improvements in both external recovery needs (e.g., housing stability and employment) and internal recovery processes (e.g., restructured self-identity, human agency, and perceptions of hope).
