Volume 16, No. 1

Savannah Simpson, Mariah Kornbluh, Samuel McQuillin, Jyoti Mishra

Exploring the roles of childhood trauma, psychological distress, and resource use in the context of a climate change-induced disaster

• Simpson et al. (2025)_PDF

Aims: This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between childhood trauma and psychological distress (i.e., depression and anxiety symptoms) and the moderating role of resource use during and after the deadliest wildfire in California among a sample of college students.

Methods: Participants (N = 473) completed well-validated measures six months after the 2018 Camp Fire exploring retrospective childhood trauma, current psychological distress, and resource use during and after the fire.

Results: Multiple regression and moderation analyses revealed that greater exposure to childhood trauma predicted increased depression and anxiety symptoms following the fire. However, using community-based (off-campus) mental health services during and after the fire buffered the effects of childhood trauma on depression and anxiety symptoms.

Conclusion: Youth exposed to childhood trauma are more susceptible to depression and anxiety symptoms post-disaster, yet using community-based mental health services may protect against the development of aggravated symptoms with greater childhood trauma.

Jordan Snyder, Elizabeth Mangini, Samantha Uchlin, Summer Hunt, Sara Buckingham

“There was a need in the community”: Practitioners’ Motivations to Providing Mental Health Services to Forced Migrants

• Snyder et al. (2025)_PDF

Millions of individuals around the globe have been displaced from their countries due to disasters, including persecution, war, disease, famine, and weather events. Many forced migrants (FMs) experience mental health concerns that warrant treatment but often face significant barriers to care, including a limited pool of mental health practitioners (MHPs) who are competent, willing, and able to serve them. In Alaska, the Working Alongside Refugees in Mental Health (WARM) program was developed to address this need. After conducting the first WARM workshop, our team sought to understand how MHPs in Alaska are recruited and retained in working with forced migrants to further develop and maintain our program. We examined MHPs’ motivations to work with FMs through 13 qualitative semi-structured interviews with MHPs who engage in such work. Experiences with FMs and awareness of FMs in their communities, competence, and connections with other practitioners increased MHPs’ motivation and led to service delivery. Community psychology is well positioned to enhance services for FMs through both practitioner-level interventions and systemic interventions. Strategies for increasing and sustaining MHPs’ motivations to work with FMs include: forming connections with other MHPs and trusted individuals and organizations, increasing competence to work with FMs via specialized training networks, integrating experiences working with FMs into training programs, and engaging in advocacy to address systems-level barriers to care.

Tatiana Bustos, Sana Simkani, Calandra Reichel

“We just want to tell the story”: A mixed methods exploration of partners’ motivations to join and stay engaged in community- research partnerships

• Bustos et al. (2025)_PDF

Community engagement and partnerships are at the core of public health. To address long-standing disparities, there is an urgent need to partner with community members and community-based organizations to co-create health interventions and programs. Community-academic partnerships (CAPs)—one model for community partnerships—can increase the capacity and implementation of evidence-based and culturally responsive public health practices. While effective, there is a need to address gaps in understanding perceived motivations and gains among and between partners, particularly in the context of engaging marginalized communities. This mixed methods project explored motivations to join and continue to engage in a CAP designed to advance health equity in Flint, Michigan. Using a survey and qualitative interview, twenty-five community and academic partner representatives were invited to participate.

Motivating factors were categorized as individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community level contexts. Overall, findings demonstrate how motivational factors are interactive and multi-dimensional with varied contexts, emphasizing intrinsic drives in individual contexts, social support and external organizational resources through interpersonal and organizational contexts, and demonstration of concrete outcomes in community contexts. Findings from the study can be used to improve design of community partnerships that seek to advance health equity by attending to key factors that drive motivations to engage with marginalized communities.

Precious Skinner-Osei, Peter Claudius Osei

The C.A.R.E. Model: Dynamical Systems Theory Principles for Reintegrating Individuals Impacted by Incarceration

• Skinner-Osei & Osei (2025)_PDF

The process of reintegration into society for individuals impacted by incarceration is intricate and multifaceted. While rehabilitative programs strive to mitigate recidivism through financial and psychological support, many encounter challenges in readjusting to their communities. Acknowledging that these individuals are not isolated but embedded within the broader social frameworks of their families, communities, and the workforce is imperative. Therefore, understanding the psychological determinants influencing justice-involved individuals is pivotal for aligning their conduct with societal norms, as solely attributing their actions to internal factors neglects the array of external environmental influences beyond their control. Given these challenges, we introduce the evidence-based C.A.R.E. model (Collaborate, Amend, Reintegrate, Empower) as a strategic approach. This model, extrapolated from a comprehensive re-evaluation of qualitative research, offers a holistic comprehension of the post-release milieu and advocates for reallocating resources to enhance the interactions between justice-involved individuals and their communities. This manuscript delineates the C.A.R.E. model as a blueprint for reentry programs, underpinned by the tenets of dynamical systems theory, to enrich these interactions.

Émilie Pigeon-Gagné, Thomas Delaware-Saias, Maurice Yaogo, Ghayda Hassan, Djeneba Ouedraoogo

A qualitative insight on stereotypes and prejudices toward mental disorders in Burkina Faso: the interaction of shame and fear as underlying influences of stigma

• Pigeon-Gagne et al. (2025)_PDF

Background: Worldwide, stigma is recognized as a barrier limiting access to psychiatric care. The scope of the stigma varies across cultural contexts and contributes to the social inequalities in health observed in many low- and middle-income countries.

Aim and methods: In this paper, we explore the way mental disorders are stigmatized in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso). We conducted 7 focus groups and 25 individual interviews with patients, family members, caregivers, and key informants. Interviews focused on stereotypes and attitudes toward individuals identified with mental disorders.

Results: A set of stereotypes is socially conveyed about people with mental disorders. The perceptions that these individuals are fragile, useless, dangerous, marginal, and adopt strange behaviors are common. These stereotypes could be related to emotional reactions, such as sadness, compassion, indifference, fear, disgust, and shame that justify, in some cases, discrimination and unequal treatments.

Discussion: This study suggests that affective reactions are crucial to understand stigma in Burkina Faso. The notion of shame seems to be rooted in a set of cultural norms and values, and fear seems to be related to structural stigma. Our results offer some insights for future anti-stigma programs in a context where resources are limited and where cultural characteristics must be considered.