Volume 9, No. 1

Michele M. Schlehofer, Diana Parnell, Ardealia Ross

The Stand Up to Bullying (SU2B) Project: Participatory Action Research with Middle School Youth

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The Stand Up to Bullying (SU2B) participatory action research project is presented as an approach to collaborative community action. The SU2B project, conducted in the United States, represents an interdisciplinary collaboration with two county agencies in the state of Maryland: the Local Management Board and the Board of Education.  Over the course of six weeks, 78 middle school students participating in the SU2B project were trained to serve as anti-bullying ambassadors for their schools. Middle school students collaborated with undergraduate students enrolled in a community and applied social psychology course to conduct a photovoice component. Photovoice is a community empowerment and advocacy tool and qualitative research methodology in which people express their experiences with a social or community problem through photography. The middle school students took digital photographs in and around their school that they felt exemplified bullying. From the resultant photos, they selected two and wrote accompanying titles and descriptions, for display in a public art exhibit. Select photographs were subsequently converted into anti-bullying educational posters for display in county public schools. Additionally, photographs were augmented with interviewers with participants and project staff to create anti-bullying educational training videos for use in county public schools. Findings of bullying experiences with middle school students are discussed.

Mazna Patka, Jen Wallin-Ruschman, Adam Murry, Natalya Minich

Exploring Sense of Community as a Predictor of Critical Consciousness Among Youth in Ukraine

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This article furthers our knowledge of critical consciousness (i.e., perceived inequality, egalitarianism, sociopolitical action) by testing an expanded model of critical consciousness development that hypothesized relationality (i.e., sense of community) as a predictor of critical consciousness and exploring it in an understudied region (i.e., Ukraine). While our United States -based measures yielded factor structures that are not comparable to the United States, we found that sense of community is marginally significantly related to egalitarianism and perceived inequality, but not significantly related to sociopolitical action. We also found that women and Ukrainian speakers were more likely to experience sense of community and Ukrainian speakers were more likely to be involved in sociopolitical action. We discuss implications for research and theory.

Crystal N. Steltenpohl, Jordan Reed, Christopher B. Keys

Do Others Understand Us? Fighting Game Community member perceptions of others’ views of the FGC

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Our perceptions of how well others understand us and our communities can affect how we see ourselves, as well as how we perceive and interact with others. Community psychologists may be interested in examining community meta-stereotypes, or how community members believe outsiders see them. The current mixed-methods study asked fighting game community (FGC) members about their perceptions of outsiders’ understanding of the FGC. We collected data from 496 FGC members, who provided descriptions of others’ perceptions of the FGC, reasons these perceptions exist, and their reactions to these perceptions. The data supported our hypotheses that FGC members feel misunderstood by non-members; gaming affiliation and media affiliation each had significant effects on FGC members’ ratings of others’ understanding. Non-gaming media were perceived as exhibiting especially high levels of misunderstanding. Respondents’ negative comments focused on non-gaming media’s overreliance on outdated stereotypes and lack of research into the community. Recommendations for community psychologists, researchers, FGC members, and media outlets are included, which may allow various stakeholders to explore key issues and sources of friction. Finally, future research directions are discussed.