US universities are built on stolen land and sustained through hierarchies of power that produce what migrant justice scholars name as b/order regimes. As institutions that claim to be sites of learning and inclusion, universities are fraught with contradictions as simultaneously sites of dispossession, exclusion, and control. To resist institutional violence, counterspaces emerge as fragile yet powerful sites where freedom dreaming is possible. Drawing from a migrant justice framework, we examine how counterspaces navigate and contest the neocoloniality of the university while creating alternative possibilities for belonging and collective care. Through a critically reflexive praxis, in this article, we grapple with these tensions that entangle us given our positionalities as faculty. We ask: How do we resist institutional violence and b/order regimes within the university to embody migrant justice? We engage this question through two case studies: the Cultural Identity Project, an Alaska Native Elder- and student-centered space for identity affirmation and belonging, and the Undocumented Students & Allies Association, a student-led space for solidarity and resistance. We illuminate how these counterspaces reveal the power of collective freedom dreaming while also being contained and co-opted by power. We argue that freedom dreaming deepens our praxis toward liberation and transformative futures.

This introduction to the special issue Advancing Immigrant and Refugee Rights: Promoting Empowerment, Justice, Equity, and Liberation situates contemporary migration within a context of escalating global displacement, structural violence, and political backlash. It highlights the urgent need for community psychology to respond to these conditions through praxis that centers migrant voices, challenges exclusionary systems, protects human rights, and promotes social justice and migrant well-being. Drawing from empirical studies across diverse geographic and sociopolitical contexts, the special issue explores how culturally grounded, participatory, and community-based approaches affirm migrant dignity, expand access to opportunity, and foster community resilience. The articles collectively address the psychosocial impacts of hostile immigration policies, the significance of culturally responsive interventions, and the transformative potential of migrant-led advocacy. Through the interconnected themes of empowerment, social justice and equity, and liberation, this issue offers a roadmap for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers committed to co-creating systems rooted in dignity, inclusion, and collective thriving. It concludes with a call for community psychologists to reject neutrality and engage boldly, urgently, and collectively in scholarship and practice that advance migrant justice.

Although acculturation research recognizes that a community's context of reception shapes acculturation, relatively limited research has explored how social and contextual variables shape the divergence of 'real' acculturation from 'ideal' (or individually desired) acculturation across life domains. Building on the Relative Acculturation Extended Model, this study examines how one's local context and interactions within it shape acculturation in peripheral (public), intermediate (social), and central (private) life domains. In this cross-sectional study, 408 first-generation immigrant adults born in Latin America (M = 37.91, SD = 12.93) who had lived in the United States for 1-55 years (M = 16.56; SD = 9.50) completed self-report measures across four communities with distinct contexts of reception. Results revealed that perception of the receiving community's acculturation preferences, prejudice, community contact, and symbolic threat all shaped immigrants' 'real' acculturation beyond 'ideal', both directly and indirectly via their sense of community and intergroup anxiety. These socioecological factors had a stronger impact on peripheral domain acculturation overall, though pathways generally remained consistent across life domains. Results have numerous implications for policy, practice, and the future of acculturation research as they suggest that social context more readily shapes public expressions of acculturation than more private expressions.

Historically, atrocities against Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color's (BIWoC) reproductive rights have been committed and continue to take place in contemporary society. The atrocities against BIWoC have been fueled by White supremacy ideology of the "desirable race" and colonial views toward controlling poverty and population growth, particularly that of "undesirable" races and ethnicities. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, this paper aims to provide a critical analysis of historical and contemporary violations of BIWoC reproductive rights; discuss interventions based on empowerment and advocacy principles designed to promote women's reproductive justice; and discuss implications for future research, action, and policy from the lenses of Critical Race Theory and Community Psychology. This paper contributes to the special issue by critically analyzing historical and contemporary racism and colonialism against BIWoC, discussing implications for future research and practice, and making policy recommendations.

IntroductionSince 2020, a multisector research team has coordinated a youth-driven, community-based participatory research project to adapt a reproductive life plan for application in a statewide initiative called My Best Alaskan Life (MBAL). The RLP is adapted for Alaskan youth and is intended to support teens in decision-making processes reflecting cultural priorities, personal goals, and sexual and reproductive health.BackgroundWith 46% of youth in Alaska reporting not having used a condom during their last sexual intercourse and 15% not having used contraception, unintended pregnancy and transmission of STIs will continue. Furthermore, Alaskan youth also cite high rates of hopelessness and suicidality, and research shows that poor mental health among adolescents is correlated with developing and maintaining high-risk sexual behaviors. An intervention focusing on supporting mental wellness and developing personal goals in the context of sexual health decision-making may encourage adolescents to adopt safer sexual health behaviors.MethodsThe MBAL research team completed a statewide pilot assessing the design and implementation of the tool, gathering feedback from over 700 survey responses (youth, ages 14-20); conducted 10 in-depth interviews (adult partners at community organizations and clinics); and hosted two youth-led design review sessions.FindingsQuestionnaire respondents were overwhelmingly positive about the tool (91% "liked or loved" the tool) and its potential applicability in their community (86% cited "very applicable"). Project next steps include incorporating design recommendations, a statewide randomized control trial and ultimately, open source access for all interested parties.

Photovoice is a popular visual participatory action research method for participants to identify strengths and opportunities for change in their community by taking, discussing, and displaying photographs. Although Photovoice has been used in educational research, the literature of its use in higher education in the U.S. is limited and individual participant experiences with Photovoice projects are seldom scrutinized. Moreover, qualitative methods are broadly under-utilized among universities in the U.S. for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of university accreditation principles and practices. This article explores the usage of a virtual (online) Photovoice project among university faculty, administrators, staff, and students to document the institutional learning core competency of 'personal, professional, and community responsibility' at an open-access comprehensive public university in the American Pacific Northwest. We describe the project's methods and processes, and elucidate participants' motivations for participation and their experiences in the project. We make recommendations for future use of Photovoice in this capacity, particularly via a Zoom virtual videoconferencing platform.

Substance misuse is a pernicious health concern for many unhoused people. A deep understanding of turning points - what propels someone to take concrete action toward addressing substance misuse - is needed to inform recovery policies and practices. This study sought to identify common elements in turning points among unhoused people vis-à-vis a phenomenological qualitative approach. Twenty people (Mage = 47.47, SD = 9.75; 50% female) who self-identified as being in recovery while unhoused participated in semi-structured interviews in Anchorage, Alaska, a community with high rates of both houselessness and substance misuse. Survival (life- and health-sustaining), individual (intrapersonal), and relational (interpersonal) motivations all shaped turning points. Limitations include the possible underrepresentation of individuals using a harm-reduction approach or capturing differences by housing type. Programs to address substance misuse should consider these motivations. Future research should identify and refine turning points and work to understand how they interact with change processes.

This randomized controlled trial tested the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI), a new intervention to enhance family engagement with emotional and behavioral health services. The FAFI is a guided conversation with families about results of their multidimensional assessment that is set in the context of motivational enhancement. It differs from other assessment-with-feedback interventions by extending the focus of assessment beyond the target child to parents and the family environment, addressing parental emotional and behavioral problems and competencies, spanning a broad range of children’s and parents’ strengths and difficulties, and being generalizable to many settings and practitioners. Participants were 81 families in primary care pediatrics. The FAFI was associated with a significant increase in parental mental health literacy and with an increase in parental attitudinal engagement with health supports and services that closely approached statistical significance (p = .052), while controlling for children’s age and gender and family socioeconomic status.

Higher education institutions present unique settings in which identities and life paths are distinctively shaped. While at their best universities should serve as empowering settings that support their members to grow and develop, to raise awareness of injustice, and to catalyze change, too often systems of higher education in the United States serve to marginalize Indigenous cultures and promote assimilation to White, Euro-American cultures. Counterspaces offer an important response, spaces developed by and for people experiencing oppression that allow for solidarity-building, social support, healing, resource attainment, skill-building, resistance, counter-storytelling, and ideally, empowerment. The Alaska Native (AN) Cultural Identity Project (CIP) is based at an urban U.S.-based university and was rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed from the best available scientific and practice literature, local data from AN students, and traditional wisdom from Elders, CIP incorporated storytelling, experiential learning, connection, exploration, and sharing of identity and cultural strengths with the aim of helping AN students understand who they are and who they are becoming. In all, 44 students, 5 Elders, and 3 additional staff participated in the space. In this paper, we sought to understand how CIP was experienced by these unique members who co-created and engaged in this space through 10 focus groups with 36 of the CIP members. We found that the counterspace promoted a sense of community, served as an empowering setting, and set the stage for empowering actions and ripple effects beyond its impact on individuals.

In part due to cultural loss and identity disruption over many generations from colonial and neocolonial forces, significant emotional/behavioral health disparities exist among Alaska Native (AN) people. Such forces are apparent in higher education, where many AN students feel othered and are more likely to withdraw without a degree than their nonnative counterparts. A strong cultural identity has been found to buffer psychosocial difficulties. The AN Cultural Identity Project (CIP) was developed from the best available scientific literature, local data from AN students, and traditional wisdom from Elders to support cultural identity development. This 8-week Elder-led program incorporated storytelling, experiential learning, connection, exploration, and sharing of identity and cultural strengths to help students remain grounded in their cultures across settings in the hopes of improving emotional/behavioral health outcomes. Through a stepped-wedge design randomized controlled trial, we examined the impact of CIP on cultural identity, cultural strengths, sense of community, and emotional/behavioral health across two cohorts of 44 AN students who ranged in age from 18 to 54 years. On average, students attended 75% of the program. The program had positive impacts on students' cultural identity development, endorsement of cultural strengths, sense of community with AN people at the university, and overall emotional/behavioral health. While gains in some outcomes were sustained over time, others were not, suggesting the potential benefits of a lengthened program. As the first program of its kind directed at AN university students of diverse cultural groups in urban settings, CIP shows promise for supporting emotional/behavioral health through cultural identity development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) is the primary professional home for community psychologists in the United States and increasingly around the world. Since the formation of the American Psychological Association Division 27: Community Psychology in 1966, now SCRA, 54 people have served in the Presidential role. Presidential leaders' annual addresses both reflect the current state of the field and have the ability to shape the future of both SCRA as an organization and community psychology as a discipline given their positions as leaders. This commentary explores the trajectory of SCRA as an organization via 33 available presidential addresses, 28 of which were published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP). Using thematic analysis and drawing on both dialectical and life cycle organizational processes, three periods of SCRA and community psychology more broadly were identified: defining community psychology, applying community psychology, and re-imagining community psychology. Themes speak to tensions between the ideals of the society and the work of the society. We conclude by offering a series of questions for consideration as SCRA positions itself for the future. Thematic analysis of Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) presidential addressesDialectical processes within SCRAThree developmental periods of SCRAReflexive questions to guide the future strategic directions of SCRA

Resilience and empowerment are both strengths-based processes, which, while sharing commonalities, describe different goals, actions, and outcomes-one aimed at status quo; the other at status quake. The Transconceptual Model of Empowerment and Resilience (TMER; Brodsky & Cattaneo, 2013) outlines these similarities and differences in order to uncover the circumstances that lead to one or the other process. This study utilized TMER to explore resilience and empowerment in qualitative interviews of 99 first- and second-generation Latinx, Moroccan, and Albanian immigrants in the U.S. and Italy. Setting-based, macrolevel political and social issues, along with generational and locale variations, provided contextual counterpoints in participants' reported risks, resources, goals, actions, and outcomes. Individually held resources were the most common and were found to support resilience and empowerment actions. All participants, regardless of generation, locale, or context, reported more individually focused resilient actions than empowering ones. This study illustrates the difference between goals and actions that are resilient, thus maintaining the status quo, and empowerment goals and actions, which disrupt the status quo and thus are "status quake." It also adds to the evidence of TMER's contribution to understanding the processes by which immigrants' experiences, resources, and goals lead to resilience and empowering actions. Findings suggest how stronger coalitions might be built across community membership, which could use shared resources to address common concerns to benefit all. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

This randomized controlled trial tested the Vermont Family Based Approach (VFBA) in primary care pediatrics. The VFBA is a model of healthcare delivery that shifts the focus from the individual to the family, emphasizes emotional and behavioral health, and uses evidence-based health promotion/prevention along with the treatment of emotional and behavioral problems. Participants were 81 families of 3–15-year-olds. For children, the VFBA was associated with greater reductions than the Control condition on the Child Behavior Checklist Emotionally Reactive, Withdrawn, Sleep Problems, Aggressive Behavior and Total Problems scales. For parents, the VFBA was associated with greater reductions than the Control condition on the Adult Self-Report Anxious/Depressed, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Internalizing Problems and Total Problems scales. The VFBA was also associated with greater improvement than the Control condition in the parents’ health-related quality of life, as indicated by all scales of the Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey.

Cultural identity is associated with positive emotional and behavioral health. However, colonialism and its forces, past and present, have led to cultural loss in many Indigenous communities, contributing to health disparities. And yet, Indigenous peoples actively resist colonialism and work to maintain and revitalize their cultures around the globe. This study sought to understand how Alaska Native university students from diverse cultural backgrounds are presently developing and constructing their cultural identities. Transformational grounded theory methods were used to analyze seven focus groups with 20 Alaska Native university students from diverse cultural regions, now living in an urban center. Results revealed that identity was constructed as a series of nested and intersecting identities that centered on relations, place, and time across cultural groups. Cultural practices and values were often drawn upon to understand identity. Cultural identity was developed through storytelling, experiential learning, connection, personal exploration, and sharing with others. Relatives, particularly grandparents and Elders, and communities played a critical role in shaping cultural identity. The construction of cultural identity and its development diverged by setting of upbringing (rural, urban). Results have implications for the modification of structures and the development of cultural identity promotion programming to support Alaska Native young peoples’ identity development in an effort towards emotional and behavioral health.

AIMS This study sought to understand the impact of public policies on Latinx immigrants' acculturation. METHODS Four hundred thirty-eight first generation Latinx immigrants completed survey measures and a subset (n = 73) participated in 12 focus groups across four US states with distinct immigration-related policies: Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, and Virginia. RESULTS Latinx immigrants living in states with more restrictive immigration-related public policies were less likely to make cultural changes in the ways they desired. Policies impacted acculturation directly by requiring and restricting certain cultural expressions, and indirectly through cultivating the community's climate. Multiple factors appeared to shape policies' influences on acculturation, including confusion from swift policy changes, inconsistent policy implementation, competing policies at divergent ecological levels, and individuals' relative privilege from intersecting personal characteristics. CONCLUSIONS More inclusive and supportive immigration-related policies may improve Latinx immigrants' abilities to acculturate in their preferred ways.

This case study describes an online community-engaged research project with immigrants who speak different languages. The study was conducted in partnership with city government leadership, programs directed at immigrants, and university researchers. Together, the team aimed to learn from immigrants’ experiences to identify opportunities for changes in the community to promote immigrant integration and inclusion. While not originally intended to be conducted online, data collection began concurrent with the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic and was transitioned online to mitigate the spread of the virus. Ten focus groups were conducted through a videoconferencing platform, Zoom, in seven different languages, facilitated through professional interpreters. In this case study, we describe the process of developing and carrying out these multilingual focus groups, including collaborating with stakeholders to organize focus groups and recruit participants, building rapport with participants, working with interpreters in focus group facilitation online, and navigating ethical dilemmas. We describe lessons learned that we recommend others consider when designing and carrying out an online focus group study with immigrants who speak diverse languages.