This issue presents a diverse mixture of articles addressing the manifestations and effects of violence and social and economic disadvantage. The first collection of articles presents new research in the areas of family and intimate partner violence (IPV) and community violence. Exposure to each of these violence types shapes health trajectories over the course of life, by increasing adverse health experiences and the likelihood of involvement in risk behaviors that may lead to social problems, disability, or premature death.
The issue's first article provides a narrative review of research on a relatively new form of community violence: cyberbullying. Kiriakidis and Kavoura present cyberbullying as an emergent health threat whose effects extend beyond school contexts into family and community life. This new problem necessitates the evolution and extension of bullying prevention measures and requires broader family and community involvement in prevention.
The second article focuses on IPV, describing the role of healthcare providers (HCPs) in facilitating access to resources to address the special needs and circumstances of IPV survivors. Kulkarni et al creatively integrate the perspectives of IPV survivors and IPV advocates and subsequently recommend that HCPs should become more informed about how IPV survivors prioritize their needs and the factors influencing their choices, about the challenges faced in accessing services, and about strategies for educating and assisting survivors in engaging service providers. Doing so may enable HCPs to more effectively match IPV survivors with required resources and may also improve the likelihood that resources will be successfully accessed and utilized.
One controversial practice often considered a form of family violence and a risk factor for numerous antisocial behaviors (eg, aggressive behavior, delinquency, and violence perpetration or victimization during adolescence and adulthood) is addressed in the final article in the first collection: parental physical punishment. Research by Scholer et al demonstrates that parental attitudes toward physical punishment may be altered by providing carefully crafted exposures to appropriate and effective options for nonviolent discipline, and implies that efforts to strengthen parent-child bonds during early childhood may benefit from the inclusion of components that provide such exposures. By providing parents with these types of experiences, family care and health promotion experts may reduce the use of physical punishment and aid parents in creating safe, stable, and nurturing family relationships that encourage prosocial behavior.
The second article collection in this issue continues the theme examined in the previous issue of Family & Community Health: faith-based strategies for addressing the health needs and problems of disadvantaged communities. Although the featured articles focus on different populations, address different health conditions, and utilize different intervention models, they collectively demonstrate the benefits of interweaving faith, spirituality, and healthcare/education. Connor and Donohue's work with the Parish Nurse Family Practice Model shows how faith-based healthcare can be successfully delivered outside of a church-based setting, alongside other services provided to empower underserved populations. Edwards' adaptation of the INSPIRE asthma management curriculum to facilitate peer delivery within African American churches and Reifsnider et al's development of a child obesity prevention program in conjunction with the Galveston Island Community Research Advisory Committee's Shakers and Rattlers illustrate how churches and faith-based organizations can be embraced as active partners in health education rather than simply used as passive settings for information provision. Lastly, the use of experimental design by Parker et al within the LIFE project demonstrates that spiritually based interventions have the potential to achieve gains beyond those afforded by interventions that are nonspiritually based.
The final article in the issue clarifies relationships between social disadvantage, information disadvantage, and health disadvantage by synthesizing 3 strands of fragmented research on the communication of health information to disadvantaged populations. Beacom and Newman's thematic review of health communication literature from the fields of medicine and public health, information science, and communication bridges these related areas of work. The result is a holistic description of how differences in the health outcomes of advantaged and disadvantaged groups may arise from differences in information behaviors and information access levels. Integrated strategies for addressing these key areas of difference are also suggested. The article's content should be kept in mind when designing health information initiatives for universal, selected, and targeted applications.
The 3 classes of articles in this issue offer collaborative strategies for assisting different target populations in identifying, understanding, and addressing important problems and health influences. The authors thank each contributor for sharing his or her insight with others who are interested in promoting and preserving family and community health. The authors also extend their thanks to the various reviewers whose critiques and suggestions helped shape and refine the content of this issue.
-Jeffrey E. Hall, PhD, MSPH
Issue Editor Behavioral Scientist, Etiology and Surveillance Branch Division of Violence Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia