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Scholarly Works (5 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2014)

Latino youth represent a growing population in urban centers across the United States, yet face substantial socioeconomic barriers to future opportunity tied to poverty, immigrant status, and social exclusion. These negative aspects of the social environment contribute to a disproportionate distribution of adolescent childbearing, substance use, and gang involvement among Latino youth. To reverse these trends of health and socioeconomic inequity, public health practitioners must consider innovative research approaches and intervention designs that address upstream and contextual exposures. Such approaches carry the potential to impact a range of individual and community health outcomes. This dissertation will explore avenues to promote Latino adolescent health and a shift from a conventional public health focus on an individual-level and risk-reduction approach to a focus on a contextual-level and asset-promoting approach.

This dissertation is composed of three papers that explore protective social ties, neighborhood norms and structural barriers associated with Latino adolescent health. The data for each paper come from two studies conducted as part of a community-based research program in the Mission District in San Francisco. The first paper is a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews and explores how youth articulate ideal childbearing expectations and the alignment of individual expectations with those that dominate their social environment. Findings from this analysis suggest that while youth aspire to fulfill post-secondary goals prior to starting a family and that these goals are aligned with family and partner childbearing expectations, they face barriers tied to poverty, immigration status, and community violence. Implications for strengths-based sexual health and adolescent pregnancy prevention are discussed. The second paper is a quantitative assessment of baseline data from a feasibility study of a sexual health intervention and examines the presence of positive peer network ties among gang-affiliated youth and how such ties are associated with frequent alcohol and marijuana use. Findings from this analysis suggest that having close friends with college plans has a protective association against frequent substance use. Intervention implications are discussed, including opportunities for leveraging positive peer ties among gang-affiliated youth. The third paper is a community report and is a translational research effort to provide community partners with key findings from the first two papers and an analysis of the intervention outcomes. This paper details next steps to inform programming and local policy that promotes adolescent health. In combination, these three papers underscore that protective factors in the social environment can inform strengths- and community-based interventions to support and enable adolescents to proactively engage in healthy behaviors, pursue future opportunities, and contribute to community well-being.

    Cover page: Place and Social Networks: Informing Strengths-based Intervention to Promote Latino Adolescent Health
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2016)
    In the United States, adolescent childbearing is disproportionately higher among Latino youth, a growing population facing substantial social exclusion. Exploring the relationship between the social environment and sexual health outcomes among Latino youth may offer insights into the development of novel interventions. In this study, Latino youth in partnerships were recruited from neighborhood venues in San Francisco and completed in-depth interviews. Youth reported a desire to complete higher education goals prior to starting a family to improve future opportunities and further personal development. Youth stated that social network members, family and partners, were supportive of their individual childbearing expectations. Social environment barriers tied to poverty, immigration status, and gang violence hindered educational attainment. Some differences were noted by gender and immigrant generation. Building on protective social ties and creating avenues in poor, urban neighborhoods for Latino youth to fully access educational opportunities may counter early childbearing and improve sexual health.
      Cover page: The Social Environment and Childbearing Expectations: Implications for Strength-Based Sexual Health Interventions for Latino Youth
      • Thesis
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2023)

      “Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. - Martin Luther King, 1967

      Abstract: This dissertation presents an in-depth study centered in Memphis, Tennessee, employing a Black geography perspective to explore the intricate ways in which cultural, social, and political spaces are shaped and reclaimed, specifically focusing on health-related contexts. Drawing upon foundational works by scholars such as Akom (2011), Finney (2014), and Purifroy and Seamster (2019), this research underscores the importance of perspectives rooted in the experiences of marginalized groups. Such perspectives provide relevant and valuable data and bolster community efforts toward self-determination, as advocated by Ford & Airhihenbuwa (2010) and Griffith & Semlow (2020). A notable gap in community-centered practices, highlighted in this dissertation, is the lack of exploration into aspects such as spatial aesthetics, the embodiment of Blackness, and the overall quality of life indicators within Memphis. Addressing this gap, the paper investigates the role of creative mediums in transforming spatial narratives and dynamics at both organizational and community levels. It emphasizes the significance of community-led experiences in redefining social, political, and structural spaces. The first paper introduces and outlines the C.A.R.E. (Community Healing, Arts, Racial Health Equity, and Environmental Justice) curriculum. It covers the curriculum’s literature foundation, theoretical and conceptual frameworks based on Black Emancipatory Action Research, implementation guidelines, and design principles. This curriculum aims to build individual and community capacity across four areas: healing, hope, health and wealth, and the built environment, as conceptualized by Akom (2011). The second paper focuses on how integrating healing-centered and wellness practices into policy design can contextualize social capital and community power for racial health equity. It employs the Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR) framework to analyze various vignettes, offering an intersectional perspective on community health and empowerment. The paper illustrates how the Community Health Equity, Wellbeing, and Healing Justice Symposium’s design and implementation serve as a practical example of emancipatory action research. It emphasizes storytelling, gratitude practices, and acknowledging collective and individual talents, highlighting the interplay between community health, environmental factors, and historical power structures in addressing institutional and structural racism in Memphis. The third paper emphasizes the importance of a Black geography perspective in Memphis, Tennessee, especially for examining the formation and reclamation of cultural, social, and political spaces, particularly in health contexts. It specifically looks at aspects like spatial aesthetics, the embodiment of Blackness, and overall quality of life indicators in Memphis. The focus is on how creative mediums can alter spatial narratives and dynamics at organizational and community levels. By centering on these community-led initiatives, the dissertation offers a novel perspective on the intersection of Black geography, community engagement, and creative expression, contributing significantly to the discourse on spatial dynamics and community empowerment. This dissertation is grounded in nine years of community-engaged research and organizing work in Memphis (2014-Present). This research was approved by the Institutional Review Board, Committee for Protection of Human Subjects at the University of California, Berkeley.

        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2014)

        Purpose

        We designed and evaluated for feasibility an intervention-Yo Puedo-that addresses social network influences and socioeconomic opportunities in a neighborhood with substantial gang exposure and early childbearing.

        Methods

        Yo Puedo combined conditional cash transfers for completion of educational and reproductive health wellness goals with life skills sessions, and targeted youth 16-21 years of age and same-aged members of their social network. We conducted a two-arm study with social networks randomized to the intervention or a standard services control arm. We evaluated intervention uptake, adherence, and safety; and assessed evidence of effects on behavioral outcomes associated with unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection risk.

        Results

        A total of 72 social networks composed of 162 youth enrolled, with 92% retention over 6 months. Seventy-two percent of youth randomized to the intervention participated in intervention activities: 53% received at least one conditional cash transfer payment and 66% came to at least one life skills session. We found no evidence that cash payments financed illicit or high-risk behavior. At 6 months, compared with controls, intervention participants had a lower odds of hanging out on the street frequently (odds ratio [OR], .54; p = .10) and a lower odds of reporting that their close friends had been incarcerated (OR, .6; p = .12). They reported less regular alcohol use (OR, .54; p = .04) and a lower odds of having sex (OR, .50; p = .04).

        Conclusions

        The feasibility evaluation of Yo Puedo demonstrated its promise; a larger evaluation of effects on pregnancy and sustained behavioral changes is warranted.
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2015)
          Most existing evidence-based sexual health interventions focus on individual-level behavior, even though there is substantial evidence that highlights the influential role of social environments in shaping adolescents' behaviors and reproductive health outcomes. We developed Yo Puedo, a combined conditional cash transfer and life skills intervention for youth to promote educational attainment, job training, and reproductive health wellness that we then evaluated for feasibility among 162 youth aged 16-21 years in a predominantly Latino community in San Francisco, CA. The intervention targeted youth's social networks and involved recruitment and randomization of small social network clusters. In this paper we describe the design of the feasibility study and report participants' baseline characteristics. Furthermore, we examined the sample and design implications of recruiting social network clusters as the unit of randomization. Baseline data provide evidence that we successfully enrolled high risk youth using a social network recruitment approach in community and school-based settings. Nearly all participants (95%) were high risk for adverse educational and reproductive health outcomes based on multiple measures of low socioeconomic status (81%) and/or reported high risk behaviors (e.g., gang affiliation, past pregnancy, recent unprotected sex, frequent substance use; 62%). We achieved variability in the study sample through heterogeneity in recruitment of the index participants, whereas the individuals within the small social networks of close friends demonstrated substantial homogeneity across sociodemographic and risk profile characteristics. Social networks recruitment was feasible and yielded a sample of high risk youth willing to enroll in a randomized study to evaluate a novel sexual health intervention.
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