Although a significant amount of biomedical research has been conducted to study HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), there has been scant research done to assess the awareness and knowledge of this public health concern among middle-aged and older people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). Our qualitative community-based participatory research study sought to address this research gap by examining the awareness and knowledge of HAND among relevant stakeholders in southern Nevada, USA. We conducted 15 semistructured interviews with middle-aged and older PLWH to examine their awareness and knowledge of HAND and access to pertinent resources. After our thematic analysis of our interviews, we identified two overarching themes: (1) limited awareness and knowledge of HAND among PLWH, and (2) southern Nevada social determinants of health. Our findings underscore the importance of raising awareness and knowledge of HAND among PLWH through community-based education programs, and improving access to resources related to social determinants of health.

Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) engages young people as partners in rigorous research inquiry to guide and inform collective action. Scholars interested in YPAR have notable investment in social justice and activist values, which at times come in direct tensions within their doctoral training and/or professional roles within academia. One monumental hurdle in conducting YPAR is obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The goal of this manuscript, therefore, is to transparently and humbly share some of the heart work we have done in navigating the IRB. In partnership with IRB directors who are co-authors, we discuss several choice points in obtaining IRB approval. Challenges include: (1) advocating for youth to have co-investigator status on the IRB application, (2) training youth in research ethics, (3) strategically crafting a YPAR application that attends to the evolving and emerging nature of the research, (4) obtaining approval to compensate youth for their time as researchers, and (5) planning for diverse youth dissemination strategies that may challenge principles of anonymity. In discussing these choice points, we will share examples from our own work, strategies, and resources to support current and future aspiring YPAR scholars.

Understanding the socioecological contexts of gay men living with HIV is critical to addressing the environmental conditions that influence their lifetime experiences of housing insecurity and homelessness. In line with the strategies of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention to end the HIV epidemic, it is of utmost importance to recognize how the allocation of available resources impacts health inequities affecting gay men living with HIV who experience housing insecurity and homelessness. Drawing from the World Health Organization’s social determinants of health (SDoH) framework, we used an exploratory, community-based research (CBR) approach to examine the lifetime experiences and important sources of support of gay men living with HIV at midlife who have experienced housing insecurity in Southern Nevada. Thematic analysis of our semi-structured interviews with 12 gay men living with HIV at midlife revealed three overarching themes: (1) challenges to obtaining housing and related support, (2) informal support from friends, and (3) formal support from community-based sources employing diverse support strategies. In this article, we discuss the different sub-themes we identified under these overarching themes and the implications of our findings from an SDoH perspective. We conclude with a discussion on the dire need to (1) highlight the considerable value of both informal and formal sources of support for the housing insecure, and (2) generate recommendations for interventions to address housing insecurity and homelessness with greater consideration for the impacts of SDoH in the work dedicated to helping gay men living with HIV at midlife overcome housing insecurity as they age.

Reflecting on pedagogy and curricula that have shaped the field of community psychology, we review the history of training community psychologists since the field’s inception in the United States. We then examine relevant academic literature documenting how digital technologies in the 21st century have been successfully used in community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies conducted by community psychologists to promote engaged scholarship, the field’s core values (e.g. sense of community, social justice, collaboration), and its commitment to social change. While early ideas for improving scholars’ training emphasized adopting practices to meet changing community needs, our review of literature on CBPR and other community-engaged scholarly work by community psychologists in the last two decades has revealed that digital technologies’ ability to promote the field’s values and goals still needs to be fully harnessed. Lastly, we offer practical recommendations for community psychology undergraduate and graduate training programs to consider and implement so they can incorporate digital technologies into their programs and harness their potential to promote engaged scholarship, the field’s core values, and its commitment to social change.

Although abundant research has been carried out to investigate the underlying mechanisms that may cause neurocognitive challenges among middle-aged and older people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH), to monitor the prevalence rates of HIV-related neurocognitive deficits, and to identify factors related to the improvement of diagnostic screening tools, classification and nosology, and clinical and rehabilitative treatment of HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND); to date, there have been only a few studies that have explored and examined the awareness and work experiences HIV sector healthcare and service providers have related to HAND. To address this research gap, we conducted a qualitative, community-based participatory research study and interviewed 12 HIV sector providers in Southern Nevada, USA, from January to April 2022. After performing a thematic analysis of our interviews, we were able to identify two major themes and several sub-themes. Under our first major theme, provider awareness and knowledge, we identified four sub-themes: (1) prior knowledge and current awareness; (2) lived experiences of patients and clients with neurocognitive challenges; (3) lack of knowledge as a barrier to providing needed care; and (4) continuing education and professional development. Under our second major theme, prospective provider roles, we identified three sub-themes: (1) early detection; (2) direct and practical support; and (3) appropriate and timely referrals. In this article, we discuss our findings and lessons learned from our study, as well as their implications for the future work of researchers and providers in the HIV sector related to improving care and support for people aging with HIV/AIDS and experiencing neurocognitive challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and advocate for the consideration of relevant approaches that can be utilized to increase the effectiveness of cognitive dissonance-based interventions (DBIs) designed to promote health equity. Although DBIs informed by different paradigms have been reported to be effective in creating behavior change, particularly among at-risk populations, their long-term impacts on behavior change have apparently been difficult to sustain. We argue that a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach could considerably improve the effectiveness and long-term impacts of DBIs by harnessing community strengths, increasing stakeholder participation, and facilitating collaborations and partnerships in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of such interventions. Then, we argue that the benefits of employing a CBPR approach in DBIs can be further enhanced when combined with an approach that intentionally utilizes Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA applies powerful techniques to recognize the type of connections that hold a specific network together and identify that network’s key and influential stakeholders. We conclude by providing recommendations for the use of CBPR and SNA in DBIs and demonstrating the benefits of our recommendations, especially in the context of promoting health equity.

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, not only did it abruptly impede the progress that was being made toward achieving global targets to end the HIV pandemic, but it also created significant impacts on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and older men who have sex with men living with HIV. Utilizing a qualitative, community-based participatory research approach, we conducted semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with 16 ethnoracially diverse, middle-aged and older men who have sex with men living with HIV residing in Southern Nevada, to examine the different ways the COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted their physical and mental health, and explore how they eventually coped and thrived during the peak of the crisis. Using thematic analysis to analyze our interview data, we identified three prominent themes: (1) challenges to obtaining credible health information, (2) the physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19-pandemic-imposed social isolation, and (3) digital technologies and online connections for medical and social purposes. In this article, we extensively discuss these themes, the current discourse on these themes in academic literature, and how the perspectives, input, and lived experiences of our participants during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic could be critical to addressing issues they had already been experiencing prior to the emergence of the pandemic in 2020, and just as importantly, helping us best prepare in stark anticipation of the next potentially devastating pandemic.

This study provides a novel contribution by connecting two sets of literature, school engagement and multicultural university centers, in relation to late adolescent development. The aims of this mixed-method study were to: (a) quantitatively explore the relationship between student perceived cultural leadership experience and support within a multicultural center in relation to school engagement and (b) qualitatively address additional facilitators and barriers. Participants consisted of 134 college students, predominantly identifying as Latino/Hispanic (35.1%), Black/African American (34.3%), or Asian-Pacific Islander (23.9%), and first-generation (60.4%). Qualitative focus groups and a photovoice project engaged a subset of participants ( n = 57, n = 7, respectively). Regression analysis indicated youth voice, supportive staff relationships, and peer support were significant positive predictors of students’ perceived engagement within the multicultural center, however, some but not all of these predictors transferred toward sentiments of school engagement. Qualitative sources elucidated additional factors bolstering student engagement. Social, cultural, and resistance capitals were identified as key protective factors in relation to student perseverance. Findings also indicated institutional barriers against student engagement including a lack of cultural and ethnic representation throughout multiple levels of the university. Implications for expanding conceptions of social capital within late adolescent identity development theory are discussed.

This study utilized social network analysis to examine the communication strategies of 54 high school students (2, 916 relationships) within a private online group. Communication strategies were identified through interviews with adolescent Facebook users (N = 12), and coding Facebook data (N = 271 comments/posts). Three themes emerged from the data regarding tactics adolescents applied concerning effective online communication strategies: 1) level of relevancy (the extent to which the post related to their personal lives), 2) use of dialogical questions (the extent to which participants utilized engaging questions to solicit a response), and 3) social media savviness (the extent to which participants utilized images to convey information). Random permutation regression analysis indicated that those who demonstrated high performance levels in social media savviness were more central within the online community. Additionally, participants who applied dialogic questions held significantly higher scores in network betweenness. Implications for programing will be discussed.

PurposeIn response to concerns about fake news (Allcott et al., 2019) and polarization (Wollebaek et al., 2019), youth media literacy interventions have emerged to teach strategies for assessing credibility of online news (McGrew et al., 2018) and producing media to mobilize others for civic goals (Kahne et al., 2016). However, in light of evidence that practices learned in classroom contexts do not reliably translate to the context of sharing social media (Middaugh, 2018), this study aims to provide a better understanding of youth social media practices needed to design meaningful and relevant educational experiences.Design/methodology/approachSemistructured interviews with a think-aloud component were conducted with a diverse sample of 18 California youth (15–24) to learn about factors that guide behavior as they access, endorse, share, comment and produce civic media.FindingsFindings suggest a shift toward reliance on incidental exposure and noninstitutional sources when accessing information and a tendency toward endorsement and circulation of posts (vs producing original posts) when engaging with civic issues on social media. As participants engaged in these practices, they not only applied judgments of credibility and civic impact but also concerned for personal relevance, relational considerations and fit with internet culture.Originality/valueThe authors recommend moving beyond models that reflect linear processes of effortful search, credibility analysis and production. Instead, the authors propose a new dynamic model of civic media literacy in which youth apply judgments of credibility, relational considerations, relevance to lived experience, civic impact and fit with internet culture as they receive, endorse, share, comment on and produce media in a nonlinear fashion.

HIV-positive gay, bisexual, two-spirit, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) have exhibited significant resilience to HIV/AIDS in Canada since the start of the epidemic. Since 2012, most of the research that has been conducted on resilience to HIV/AIDS has utilized quantitative methods and deficits-based approaches, with a preferential focus on the plight of young MSM. In order to address apparent gaps in research on HIV/AIDS resilience, we conducted a community-based participatory research qualitative study that utilized a strengths-based approach to examine the perspectives and lived experiences of HIV-positive, middle-aged and older MSM on their individual attributes that helped forge their HIV/AIDS resilience. We conducted 41 semistructured interviews with diverse, HIV-positive, middle-aged and older MSM from Central and Southwestern Ontario, Canada. From our thematic analysis of our interviews, we identified four themes, which represented personal strengths that fostered resilience to HIV/AIDS: (a) proactiveness, (b) perseverance, (c) having the right mindset, and (d) self-awareness with self-control. This article discusses the importance of these personal strengths to fostering HIV/AIDS resilience, and how community-based resources could potentially lessen the need to muster such personal strengths, or alternatively, cultivate them.

Evidence-based research has highlighted the need for exploring factors that support the mental health of men who have sex with men living with HIV/AIDS (MSMLWH), and environmental influences that promote their resilience to HIV/AIDS. This exploratory study utilized a community-based participatory research approach to investigate barriers and facilitators to promoting resilience to HIV/AIDS, specifically among racial and ethnic minority, middle-aged and older MSMLWH, a population that continues to be significantly impacted by HIV/AIDS today. This collaborative, qualitative study recruited participants who identified as racial or ethnic minority MSMLWH, were aged 40 or older, and resided in Ontario, Canada. Participants (n = 24) discussed in their interviews barriers and facilitators to promoting resilience to HIV/AIDS, which they recognized from their lived experiences. Utilizing thematic analysis, themes related to barriers and facilitators to promoting resilience to HIV/AIDS were identified. Themes related to identified barriers included: (1) language proficiency, (2) racism, (3) pernicious norms in North American gay culture, and (4) HIV stigma. Themes related to identified facilitators included: (1) compartmentalization, (2) perseverance, and (3) community-based health and social services. This article discusses the implications of the study’s findings, particularly on how they may influence the development of future services for racial and ethnic minority, middle-aged and older MSMLWH.

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS health disparities. Research showed that resilience to HIV/AIDS is associated with increased use of relevant health services, lower sexual health risks, and improved mental health outcomes among racially and ethnically diverse gbMSM. As the subpopulation that has historically been impacted by HIV/AIDS the longest, older gbMSM living with HIV/AIDS have inarguably exhibited resilience to HIV/AIDS the most. The qualitative study described in this paper sought to identify and examine protective factors that fostered resilience to HIV/AIDS based on the insights and lived experiences of racially and ethnically diverse, older gbMSM. Applying a community-based participatory research approach that included the meaningful involvement of older gbMSM living with HIV/AIDS in different roles (i.e., advisory committee member, collaborator, peer researcher, and participant), the study recruited and included forty-one older gbMSM living with HIV/AIDS from Ontario, Canada, in confidential, semi-structured interviews. Utilizing thematic analysis, we identified three major themes from the participant interviews as factors that fostered the resilience of older gbMSM to HIV/AIDS and helped to address HIV/AIDS health disparities: (1) established protective factors, (2) behavioral protective factors, and (3) controversial protective factors. This paper argues for the importance of valuing and capitalizing on these protective factors in the conceptualization and development of interventions, services, and programs that are dedicated to fostering resilience to HIV/AIDS.

PURPOSE:Rapid advances in technology create opportunities for adolescents to influence practice and policy in health and other domains. Technology can support the scaling of Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR), in which adolescents conduct research to improve issues that affect them. We present the first known published systematic review of the use of technology to scale YPAR. METHODS:A systematic review of the empirical literature was conducted from 2000 to 2018 using databases PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, and PubMed. The review included peer-reviewed articles of YPAR studies involving adolescents (aged 10-19 years) using technology for scaling. Appraisal of papers included the role of technology and consistency with YPAR principles. RESULTS:Nine peer-reviewed YPAR publications focusing on a range of health issues with adolescents aged 11-19 years were identified. Technology included Facebook (most common), Twitter, Instagram, Skype, e-mail, blogs, and personalized mapping applications. Overall, technology was primarily used for adolescent participants to gather data. The appraisal revealed the complexities inherent in conducting YPAR using technology across multiple sites, with different adults in supportive roles and varying levels of opportunities for adolescent engagement. CONCLUSIONS:This review provides insights at the intersection of youth-led research and technology, highlighting opportunities in a changing technological landscape and the challenges of YPAR at scale.

Adolescents’ engagement on social networking sites has been tied to positive social developmental outcomes. However, research has been limited in examining the communication strategies adolescents utilize to form these online relationships. To address this gap, the authors utilized social network analysis to examine the communication strategies of 54 students (2, 916 relationships) on a private Facebook group. Communication strategies were identified through qualitative interviews with adolescent Facebook users (N = 12), as well as coding archival Facebook comments and posts (N = 271). Three themes emerged from the data regarding tactics adolescents applied or noticed in others concerning effective online communication strategies: 1) level of relevancy (the extent to which the post related to their personal lives), 2) use of dialogical questions (the extent to which participants utilized questions, and engaging language to solicit a response from others), and 3) social media savviness (the extent to which participants utilized images to convey information). Random permutation regression analysis indicated that those who demonstrated high performance levels in social media savviness were more central within the online network (i.e. degree centrality). Additionally, users who applied dialogic questions held significantly higher scores in network betweenness. Implications for intervention efforts, and future research will be discussed.

Purpose : Although ample research has been conducted on resilience to HIV/AIDS, most studies have utilized quantitative methods and focused almost exclusively on people living with HIV/AIDS. A relatively untapped source of knowledge is the perspectives of HIV-negative, middle-aged and older men who have sex with men (MSM) who have been navigating risks and building resilience to HIV/AIDS since the 1980s. Our qualitative, community-based participatory research study examined the perspectives of HIV-negative, middle-aged and older MSM on factors that helped mitigate the risks of and build resilience to HIV/AIDS. Methods : In collaboration with community-based organizations, fourteen participants were recruited for in-depth interviews. Participants were aged 40 or older, identified as HIV-negative MSM, and resided in Ontario, Canada. Thematic analysis of interviews revealed salient themes. Results : Three themes were identified: (1) individual attributes (e.g., self-awareness/control), (2) protective relational factors (e.g., meaningful sexual relationships), and (3) community-based resources (e.g., competent healthcare/service providers). Conclusion : HIV-negative, middle-aged and older MSM recognized factors that helped mitigate risks of contracting and build resilience to HIV/AIDS based on their own lived experiences. Some of these factors have not been explicitly identified or extensively discussed in extant academic literature, and are worth considering in the development of community-based HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention programs.