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BACKGROUND: The aim of this research was to examine the psychometrics of a short form version of the multidimensional Involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous scale (IAA-SF) by assessing the factor structure, internal consistency, and predictive validity. While there are several existing measures of involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous, many are either unidimensional or are limited in their ability to gather variation in the level of involvement in the different dimensions of 12-step programs. OBJECTIVE: To achieve our aim, we used exploratory and principal axis factor analysis, correlation, and logistic regression with two unique and diverse samples. Longitudinal data were collected from a northern Illinois sample of 110 post-treatment adults, and cross-sectional data were from a random sample of 296 recovery home residents in the United States. RESULTS: Results from the first sample suggested three exploratory factors (Principles Involvement, Social Involvement, and Spiritual Involvement) that were concordant with the proposed conceptualization and were then confirmed in the second sample. A 2nd order factor of global involvement was also found. All subscales demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency and were moderately associated with AA affiliation. Global and social involvement predicted greater odds of abstinence 2 years later, but principles and spiritual involvement did not. CONCLUSION: Overall results suggest the IAA- SF is a valid and reliable 12-item instrument for assessing involvement in the AA program, and the differential prediction suggests potential utility for a multidimensional approach to 12-step involvement.

E-waste, the overabundance of unused technology products, is a growing issue as new technology is rapidly innovated and our society promotes the need to always have the "latest and greatest" products. Community psychology, as a field, is concerned with the global climate crisis, and subsequently must be concerned with e-waste. This study tested predictors of individual's likelihood to recycle e-waste with 883 US adults (459 males, 420 females, 3 other/nonbinary; 62.7% 54-year-old or younger) through a crowdsourcing procedure. Similar to previous recycling literature, the present study found that personal norms, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively predicted the likelihood for an individual to recycle; however, the present study provides further empirical evidence for these relationships and expands recycling literature by focusing on e-waste recycling. Implications for the field of community psychology with preventive and interventive actions are detailed.

Unaccompanied migrant minors are youth under the age of 18 who migrate alone, traveling separately from both parents. These youth may be asylum seekers, recognized refugees, or other externally displaced persons. Unaccompanied migrant minors have become an increasingly prevalent global issue. However, this phenomenon might be better understood considering the peculiarities of their contexts, since there are differences related to specific conditions and reception systems. The present study reviewed and compared visually previously reported psychological perspective of unaccompanied migrant minor receiving services from select European countries and the U.S. Unaccompanied migrant minors create a challenge on a nation's care system because these minors are the most vulnerable group in the context of migration. Our explorative assessment suggested underlining similarities and differences between contexts, reflecting the unique needs of the unaccompanied migrants and proposed services and intervention models.

Religion is a salient part of cultural competence for mental health clinicians. This paper describes rationales for clinicians to work with a less well-known Catholic clergy: permanent deacons. Dem...

The country where persons migrate may involve essential aspects for successful settlement and integration. Perceptions of home encompass more than spatial location and may include a sense of belonging, intimacy, and security, which contribute to one’s well-being. Psychological home refers to a feeling of belonging to others, with or without maintaining a specific environmental context; it is a dynamic process, reflective of self-identity. The present scoping review used the PRISMA methodology to evaluate the literature concerning migrants’ psychological perception of their home environment in their country of arrival. Data were drawn from 28 studies and identified characteristics (design, purpose, and main findings) derived from migrants’ psychological perception of home. Results highlighted elements referring to cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, according to a psychological home model. Moving forward, main themes identified that should be explored further and might include migration and acculturation processes; family and community relationships; the material characteristics and symbolic meanings of spaces and objects; and the psychological characteristics of migrants.

BackgroundProcrastination affects over 20% of adult men and women, with current international data indicating a global preference to sys-tematically delay the start or completion of intended tasks. Procrastination is a common, sub-optimal decision-making strategy that emphasises short-term benefits at the expense of later performance. Some individuals develop a pattern of procrastination which proves difficult to break; worse, they may begin to identify as a procrastinator, setting themselves up for failure.Participants and procedureThe current investigation examined what develops a procrastinator identity. Previous research indicated that chronic procrastina-tion is a learned tendency beginning in one’s early development from parental control approaches. We extended that line of research using a cross-cultural sample (n = 2124), self-reported procrastination (behavioural or deci-sional), and retrospective regret scores in 12 domains. We used logistic regression to predict the likelihood of explicitly identify-ing as a procrastinator.ResultsAcross three randomised partitions, results indicated that indecision and regrets about education, career, and finances most in-creased the likelihood of identifying as a procrastinator.ConclusionsThese findings support that regrets largely influenced by earning-potential best predict procrastination identity. The current re-sults are consistent with other studies assessing the causes and consequences of chronic procrastination regardless of country or ethnic background. Future research is needed.

Despite popular articles and books, researchers have failed to examine how office clutter emerges and potential mediators underlying clutter in personal workspaces. We hypothesized that workers whose jobs require them to deal with a heavy volume of work at a rapid pace would be more likely to experience job strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion), which, in turn, depletes their energy and makes workers more likely to delay decisions. Decisional procrastination (indecision) was expected to increase office clutter, which itself is a physical stressor. Data from an Internet survey with 290 U.S. office workers recruited through Prolific Academic supported the hypotheses. This study is the first to examine clutter as a physical stressor in the workplace. A greater understanding of the factors that promote office clutter might help organizations and workers address sources of workspace conditions and personal habits that impede productivity and well-being.

We examined psychological home, place attachment, clutter, and life satisfaction with adult women of color (n = 99; M age = 50.33 years old) drawn from a larger national sample of women who self-identified with clutter tendencies. We assessed resource (i.e., annual household income, homeownership status, and relationship status) and contextual (i.e., type of dwelling, number of people in household, and years in residence) variables, plus measures of psychological home, place attachment, and clutter, as predictors of life satisfaction among women of color. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that psychological home was a significant predictor of life satisfaction over and above resource and contextual variables. Place attachment and clutter did not moderate the relationship between home and life satisfaction. However, clutter mediated the relationship between home and life satisfaction. Implications for women of color, study limitations, and future directions are discussed.

BackgroundDecisional procrastination, or indecision, is the maladaptive postponing of decision-making when faced with conflicts or choic-es. In the present exploratory study, we examined two factors of a psychological model toward understanding the underpinnings of indecision, namely: self-critical cognition as a predisposition to indecision and decreased hope as a post-decision behavior of indecision. Self-critical cognition is the tendency for self-related thoughts to be critical and defeating. It is hypothesized to pre-dict indecision as self-critical individuals are likely to also doubt their competence at tasks such as decision-making and may, in turn, delay. Decreased hope is hypothesized to be an outcome of indecision as the latter is related to anxiety, worry, and life regret.Participants and procedureParticipants were 327 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university (242 women, 82 men; Mage = 20.31 years old). They completed the self-report measures in an online survey and received class credit for participation.ResultsUsing a bootstrap analysis of the indirect effect, the results showed that indecision mediates the relationship between self-critical cognition and decreased hope among emerging adults.ConclusionsImplications for future research and potential interventions to alter the pattern of indecision and to increase hope are discussed. This study moves forward the literature of indecision by examining a new predictor and outcome of indecision.

The steady growth in the number of college students with learning disabilities (LD) increases the need to investigate their unique characteristics and behaviors in academia. The present study examined the differences in academic and online procrastination, academic stress, and academic self-efficacy between college students with and without LD. In addition, the relationship between these variables was examined. It was assumed that the difficulties experienced by college students with LD would lead them to increased levels of academic stress, and academic and online procrastination. The results showed significant differences in the levels of all variables except online procrastination between students with (n = 77) and without (n = 98) LD. Further analysis indicated that academic stress and academic self-efficacy mediated the link between LD and academic and online procrastination. These findings support the notion that during higher education, students with LD experience more difficulties than students without LD, which at times will lead them to increased levels of procrastination. However, further studies are needed to understand the nature of online procrastination in students with LD in higher education.

The job demands&ndash, control model (JDC) postulates that an increased control over work resources mitigates or &ldquo, buffers&rdquo, the positive association between job stressors and strainers. However, the inconclusive validation of the buffering hypothesis across multiple studies suggests the need for fresh approaches, both conceptual and methodological. We integrated aspects of the JDC framework and time management process models to construct a model that tested both the direct and indirect effects of the perceived control of time (PCT) on emotional exhaustion arising from workload demands. Furthermore, we tested whether procrastination tendencies moderated the benefits of PCT on work stressors and strains. Data were collected in an Internet survey with 356 US adult office workers obtained from Prolific. The results supported the buffering effect of PCT on emotional exhaustion. PCT both mediated and exerted direct effects on the relationship between workload and emotional exhaustion. Procrastination tendencies moderated PCT and, in turn, undermined high PCT ability to reduce emotional exhaustion. Overall, the findings suggested that giving workers more control over their time may reduce stress associated with demanding workloads. However, chronic procrastinators may benefit less from having more control over time resources if they are not provided with tools to help them self-regulate more effectively.

In the present study, Roman Catholic deacons at one of the 216 Hispanic parishes across the U.S. reported on their parish sense of community (P-SOC), using the SCI-2, within the congregation. P-SOC was assessed among socioeconomic status of lower/working class (n = 109) or middle class (n = 107) Latino parishes, located in either an urban (n = 152) or urban cluster (n = 64) site, with the number of families within the parish to reflect a tiny (n = 76), small (n = 46), moderate (n = 38), or large (n = 54) size. A 2 × 2 × 4 MANOVA on four P-SOC sub-scale scores found no significant main or interaction effect for status, site, or size. It appears per public perception that a sense of connectedness and closeness exists in the Hispanic parishes that are poor, urban, and large congregations is a myth at best.

University students (n = 75; M age = 21.4 years old) and community adults (n = 55: M age = 36.6 years old) completed self-reported measures of decisional procrastination (indecision), character (life satisfaction, meaningful life, and need for cognition), context (place attachment, sense of community, and psychological home) and “cross-over” factors relating character and context (self-identity with possessions, people/thing orientation, and clutter), to provide an ecological understanding of persons who claim indecision. Controlling for social desirability tendencies, indecision was negatively related to all character but none of the context variables. Indecision also was related to both person and thing orientation and clutter. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only need for cognition significantly predicted (negatively) indecision among character, context, and cross-over variable sets. Subjective well-being also predicted indecision with low need for cognition among cross-over variables. Taken together, decisional procrastinators reported too much clutter (stuff), interfering with a positive quality of life and related to character over context and cross-over, ecological variables.

Catholic deacons with children (N = 1,776: M number of children = 3.3), termed here “clergy dads,” completed the HEXACO-60, social desirability, and demographic variables. Personality dimensions pr...

We explored how two types of procrastination (indecision and behavioral), contribute to problems with clutter across three adult U.S. samples differing as generational cohorts. An online survey was administered to college students (mean age = 21) and younger adults recruited using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk; mean age = 31), plus older adults recruited with help from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (mean age = 54) ( http://challengingdisorganization.org ). Hierarchical linear regression revealed that behavioral procrastination contributed significantly to an increasingly larger percentage of explained variance in clutter problems across the generational cohorts in a series of separate analyses. The addition of indecision as a variable led to a significant incremental increase in explained variance for the younger and older adult samples, but not for the student sample. Clutter problems led to a significant decrease in satisfaction with life among older adults. Findings suggest that general procrastination tendencies may enable a lifelong pattern of responses to one’s environment that become increasingly maladaptive throughout the life cycle - simultaneously delaying disposal decisions.

In the present study, young adults (n = 346; M age = 21.5 years old) completed self-reported measures of procrastination, self-identity with possessions, clutter, place attachment, and psychological home to provide an ecological understanding of the context in which chronic procrastinators live. Results found behavioral procrastination tendencies related only to clutter (a belief that living spaces have too much “stuff,” feeling overwhelmed with excessive possessions, and that one’s personal life is negatively impacted by many possessions). Clutter in one’s living space, negative emotions, and impaired social ability all predicted high procrastination scores. Clutter was the best predictor of procrastination as determined by multiple regression. Taken together, chronic procrastinators reported too much clutter (possessions, or stuff), and that clutter interferes with a strong quality of their lives.

Christian deacons (50 Roman Catholic; 50 Methodist) self-reported their personality, religiosity, and leadership attributes, plus social desirability tendencies. There were no significant correlates between social desirability and any of these self-reported variables. Results also found no significant differences across Christian denominations on personality dimensions, religious and spirituality beliefs, or leadership styles. Also, there were no significant differences in self-reported personality, religiosity, or leadership among Catholic male deacons with Methodist female deacons only ( n = 43). Taken together, in the present exploratory study across denomination and gender, Christian deacons view themselves similarly in personality, religiosity, and overall leadership characteristics.

We assessed the impact of clerical and life stressors on the religious commitments of employed, married with children Catholic deacons (n = 317 men: M age = 43.87 years old). Independent of social desirability, stressors during the last 6 months predicted separately intracommitment and intercommitment variables. Enthusiasm for church work and time spent on spiritual reflection predicted religious intracommitment (one’s relationship with a higher power, God); study of Scripture predicted religious intercommitment (one’s relationship in community reflecting God’s presence). Results suggest that despite current stressful life demands of marriage and family plus outside employment, Catholic deacons (“clergy dads”) maintained religious beliefs.

Through a national survey, Roman Catholic deacons (n = 1349) and men in spiritual formation for the diaconate, called candidates (n = 205), completed on-line measures of personality dimensions (i.e., HEXACO-60) and transformational leadership, as well as demographic variables. Results indicated that for both candidates and deacons, personality dimensions of agreeableness and conscientiousness were the most important variables for predicting transformational leadership styles. For deacons only, higher levels of honesty/humility, extraversion, and openness to experience also led to higher transformational leadership styles. Adding demographic variables as co-variates (age, years in a parish, number of children, and number of families in a parish) in the models did not seem to affect the predictive models; however, years in formation (for candidates) and years as a deacon did affect servant leadership style. Implications for the personality and leadership attributes of Catholic “married clergy” are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to assess the Japanese version of General Procrastination Scale (J-GPS) previously created by Hayashi (2007), with a large, varied sample of Japanese adults. The paper-and-pencil surveys were distributed to Japanese people who lived in the large-, medium-, and small-sized cities who lived in Japan. Participants were recruited by the first author during a two-month period. The final sample was 2,564 Japanese citizens: 1,048 (40.9%) men and 1,516 (59.1%) women with a mean age of 44.3 years old (SD = 1.91). Participants reported demographic information including age, gender, marital status, married years, number of children, educational status, occupational types, worked years, living areas, whether considering themselves as procrastinator, and whether others considering them as procrastinator. Results showed that a two-factor solution was the best fit, duplicating studies with Turkish, Italian, and Greek populations, but in contrast to a uni-dimensional structure suggested originally by Lay (1986) or adapted in Spanish sample. Moreover, we investigated rates of self-reported procrastination in relation to a collective culture, which has mixed individualistic tendencies. Participants with strong individualistic tendencies were not significantly different on J-GPS scores, compared to those with little tendencies on individualistic characteristics. Our results added significant evidence to previous studies of General Procrastination. Future research in non-English speaking countries, especially in Asian countries, using a general procrastination measure might be helpful for further comparison to ascertain cultural differences in task delay perception.

Office clutter might significantly impact productivity, yet no study examined workers differences across upper and lower employee status. The present study surveyed 202 U.S. on-site workers on work-related variables, including office clutter. Job classifications were aggregated, creating two groups: upper- and lower-level employees. A significant difference in office clutter impacted worker-levels: upper-level workers compared to lower-level workers had higher office clutter scores. Exploratory factor analysis created a two-factor solution (explaining 62.6% of the common variance): satisfaction/pleasure from one’s work and risk for work-related burnout/tension. There was a significant difference in office clutter perception: upper-level workers were significantly more likely to report clutter and being at risk for burnout/tension than lower-level workers. Office clutter significantly negatively predicted satisfaction with one’s job and positively related with risk for work-related burnout. Frequently reported office clutter items (in order of frequency) were paper, trash (e.g., used coffee cups), and office supplies.

Permanent deacons in the Roman Catholic Church (all male) are active in their local community and congregation mobilizing faith formation events, liturgical services, and community social action programs, yet not much is known about their leadership style. The present study compared U.S. 203 permanent deacons with 202 male community-based directors of non-profit agencies on their self-reported transformational leadership style, assessed by five subscales of competencies. Deacons and directors differed significantly on three subscales; deacons scored higher on the promoting positive values and leadership as service subscales, while directors scored higher on the building a sustainable organization subscale. Results suggested that the transformational leadership styles of U.S. permanent deacons is more value and service-centered, and, in comparison, community-based non-profit leaders seem to focus more on the group’s structure and health of their organization.

Roman Catholic deacons (n = 1,349) and deacon candidates (n = 202), completed online measures of personality dimensions (i.e., HEXACO-60), religious commitment, spiritual transcendence beliefs, social desirability, and demographic variables. Social desirability tendencies did not impact responding for deacons or candidates. For candidates and deacons, honesty–humility and extraversion personality dimensions were significant predictors of religious commitment, and extraversion and openness to experience were significant predictors of spiritual beliefs of connectedness to others. Moreover, for deacons but not candidates, all personality dimensions significantly predicted at least one religiosity or spiritual belief. Implications for Catholic deacons and candidates for ordination are discussed.

This research investigates a “dark side of home,” created when the experiential quality of home is compromised by ‘clutter,’ defined as an overabundance of possessions that collectively create chaotic and disorderly living spaces. Based on relationships among constructs largely developed by phenomenologists, we conceptualize psychological home as a reflection of one's need to identify self with a physical environment. Clutter was proposed as an antagonist to the normally positive benefits and consequences of home for subjective well-being. An online survey was conducted with a population of U.S. and Canadian adults. A structural equation model was used to test hypotheses. Findings reveal that place attachment and self-extension tendencies toward possessions positively contribute to psychological home. Clutter had a negative impact on psychological home and subjective well-being. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how meanings of home are both cultivated and undermined by individuals' place-making efforts.

In the present study, 424 men in formation (“candidates”) and a random sample of 424 ordained deacons reported their religious and spiritual attitudes, leadership styles, personality dimensions, and worship- and work-related behaviors. There were no significant differences between candidates and deacons on religiosity, personality, and most leadership styles. Candidates reported significantly higher worship-related behaviors than deacons, who expressed significantly higher personal-life desires. Candidates over time did not report significantly greater religiosity, personality, or leadership skills during their formation years. Results suggest that Catholic deacons and men in diaconate formation are similar as they start and continue their life as permanent ministers.

H αναβλητικότητα σπουδών, η οποία χαρακτηρίζeται από δυσκολίeς στον τομέα της αυτορρύθμισης, μe της μορφή της καθυστέρησης στην έναρξη ή στην ολοκλήρωση ακαδημαϊκών έργων (Ferrari, 2010) eίναι πολύ συχνή στους φοιτητές.Mια από τις πιο διαδeδομένeς κλίμακeς μέτρησης της αναβλητικότητας eίναι η Κλίμακα Αξιολόγησης της Αναβλητικότητας σe Φοιτητές (Procrastination Assessment Scale Students, Solomon& Rotblum, 1984). Παρόλα αυτά υπάρχουν λίγeς έρeυνeς οι οποίeς μeλeτούν την παραγοντική της δομή χρησιμοποιώντας eπιβeβαιωτική ανάλυση παραγόντων. Eπιπλέον, οι eλληνικές έρeυνeς σχeτικές μe την αναβλητικότητα σπουδών eίναι eπίσης πολύ λίγeς. Η παρούσα έρeυνα μeλέτησe την αναβλητικότητα σπουδών καθώς και την παραγοντική δομή της κλίμακας PASS σe 865 Έλληνeς φοιτητές. Τα αποτeλέσματα της eπιβeβαιωτικής ανάλυσης παραγόντων eπιβeβαίωσαν το μονοπαραγοντικό μοντέλο. Βρέθηκe eπίσης ότι το 40.5% των φοιτητών ήταν πολύ αναβλητικοί, κυρίως ως προς την μeλέτη των eξeτάσeων, την συγγραφή eργασιών και την παρακολούθηση μαθημάτων. Οι λόγοι για τους οποίους οι φοιτητές ανέβαλλαν ήταν «ο φόβος της αποτυχίας», «η απέχθeια καθήκοντος», «ο φόβος της eπιτυχίας/ eπιρροή συνομιλήκων» και «η δυσκολία διeκδίκησης/διαχeίρισης του χρόνου». Δeν βρέθηκαν μeγάλeς ηλικιακές ή διαφυλικές διαφορές ως προς την αναβλητικότητα σπουδών. Τέλος, οι πeρισσότeροι φοιτητές eπιθυμούσαν να συμμeτάσχουν σe ένα μeλλοντικό πρόγραμμα για την αντιμeτώπιση της αναβλητικότητας. Τα eυρήματα αυξάνουν την οικολογική eγκυρότητα της τρέχουσας βιβλιογραφίας και θα μπορούσαν να eίναι δυνητικώς χρήσιμα για τους συμβούλους και τους eρeυνητές.

The present study assessed self-reported religiosity, spirituality, faith-related behaviors, leadership styles, and personality dimensions of 156 Hispanic Catholic deacons, based on varied educational degrees assisting in Hispanic ( n = 91) or non-Hispanic ( n = 65) parishes. Results found no significant differences on any self-reported variables for congregation ethnic status and similar reported rates for religious commitment, spiritual transcendence beliefs, leadership styles, and most faith-related practices. Highly educated deacons (i.e., those with graduate degrees; n = 49) reported lower rates of enthusiasm for worship but higher rates of conscientiousness and openness to experience than bachelor ( n = 38) or less educated ( n = 67) Hispanic deacons. It appears that clergy of color across educational levels (but regardless of their congregation’s ethnic identity), practice and hold varied faith-based beliefs and personality styles.

Procrastinators purposefully delay the start or completion of tasks for their own irrational reasons and experience anxiety over the delay. However, imagining a typical ‘procrastinator’ evokes several conflicting images with differing experiences and personality correlates. One reason for this muddled picture may be conflated constructs. We posit that decisional procrastination (indecision) may be a related but distinct construct to more generalized procrastination, being highly correlated but with divergent predictors. In two studies, we examine competing hypotheses regarding the affective experiences (happiest moments; Study 1) and risk factors (personality correlates; Study 2) for both indecision and general procrastination using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results found indecision uniquely predicted fewer happy memories across a lifetime and less detail of those memories, controlling for initial affect. Furthermore, different magnitudes of predictive patterns emerged for indecision (strong neuroticism, moderate introversion) and generalized procrastination (strong unconscientiousness and weakly associated with neuroticism). In both studies, general procrastination led to indecision but models with the opposite effect were much weaker, suggesting procrastinating behavior predicts being indecisive but not vice versa. Results suggest differential experiences of indecisive individuals and more generalized procrastinators. Both procrastination traits appear related but distinct, explaining why ‘typical’ procrastinators can look so different psychologically.

Ordained, permanent deacons in the Catholic Church (N = 1,717; M age = 45.9 years old, SD = 6.9) participated in a self-report study of personality traits by completing the HEXACO-60. There were no significant differences (by generational cohort or geographic region) on reported personality traits. No significant partial correlates (controlling for social desirability) by chronological age, years since ordination, or years residing in the current parish emerged on HEXACO variables. Deacons, however, reported mean honesty–humility dimension scores much higher than men from a previously reported community sample. Results suggest that for nearly 50 years, U.S. Catholic deacons have similar personality traits regardless of their generation or geography.

Goal-oriented thinking, including hope and self-efficacy, might play a constructive and integral role in the substance abuse recovery process, although such an effect may differ by race. The current study investigated hope and self-efficacy, specifically abstinence self-efficacy, as predictors of negative affect (i.e. depression and anxiety) in a longitudinal sample of men and women in substance abuse recovery who lived in sober living homes. We found hope agency and self-efficacy were related but not identical constructs; hope agency and self-efficacy predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms for individuals in recovery, yet these relationships were moderated by race. Theoretical and clinical implications for promoting positive affect among individuals in substance abuse recovery are discussed.

The current study explored the relationships within a higher education institution between school sense of community among first-generation U.S. citizen students and first-generation college students compared to students of non-first generation studentship and citizenship (N = 3,025; M age = 27.21), and of varied racial backgrounds. Students at a large, urban, and faith-based university completed a measure of belongingness on campus. In terms of generational status, results found a significant interaction such that students who were both first-generation U.S. citizen students and first-generation college students reported the highest school sense of community. However, the combined first-generation U.S. citizen students and non-first-generation college student group reported the lowest scores. Despite these significant findings, sense of community scores were very similar with few differences between groups, which is further discussed in the discussion and limitation sections. Significant racial differences were not found. Implications for community psychology and higher education policy are discussed.

The Hispanic masculinity style may be “machismo” (dominant, distant, and unemotional) or “caballeros” (engaged, affectionate, compassionate), but is unknown among Hispanic clergy. Using a U.S. on-line survey database, Hispanic ( n = 127) and non-Hispanic ( n = 1708) Catholic deacons self-reported religiosity and personality traits. Hispanic and non-Hispanic deacons reported similar depth on religious beliefs, but non-Hispanic, compared to Hispanic, deacons claimed higher interpersonal religious commitment and a spiritual transcendence of connectedness to others. On the HEXACO-60, Hispanic, compared to non-Hispanic, deacons reported significantly higher emotional traits and lower extraversion traits. Furthermore, Hispanic deacons reported higher fearfulness and sociability and lower boldness facets, compared to non-Hispanic deacons. These results were independent of the ethnic composition of the parish community. Results suggest that Hispanic deacons may reflect “caballeros” masculinity-caring for others and sensitive to their emotional needs while socially outgoing.

Using a social psychological framework, this study examined the relationship between undergraduates’ sense of school belonging and endorsement of their universities’ mission identity at two US universities of different size, geographic location, and Catholic traditions. Undergraduates at both universities completed online surveys that included: demographic information, the DePaul Mission and Values Inventory, and the School Sense of Community Scale. Findings revealed significant correlations between students’ sense of school belonging and their endorsement of the religious pluralism and innovation aspects of the mission identities at both institutions. The connection between students’ psychological need to belong and their endorsement of their campuses’ religious identity was discussed in terms of higher education planning and assessment.

Social agencies and services exist in urban settings for the physical needs of homeless citizens. However, there exist few if any programs that feed the spiritual needs of the homeless. In the present study, 35 women and 23 men (55.9% African-American) competed short, reliable and valid self-report measures on their levels of loneliness and addiction before and then again 6-month post a weekend religious retreat. Results indicate that over time, participants on the retreat reported significant decreases in loneliness. Women reported significantly higher rates of loneliness at baseline and again at 6-month follow-up, compared to men. It seems offering a group-based spiritual retreat may impact the lives of homeless.

Hispanic deacons ( n = 156) from across the United States completed measures on personal leadership style and their perceived sense of parish community along with demographic items. Most deacons ( n = 91) were assisting at Hispanic parishes, while many assisted at predominately non-Hispanic parishes ( n = 65). Results found no significant difference between Hispanic deacons at Hispanic or non-Hispanic parishes on their leadership style or parish sense of community (controlling for the total number of families in a parish). However, at Hispanic parishes only, Hispanic deacons perceived that the more fellow deacons, the significantly less sense of community was experienced in the parish. There was no significant relationship between the number of priests and perceived sense of parish community. Implications for staffing and the nature of Hispanic parishes are presented.