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This study explores the association between youth antisocial behavior outcomes and predictors including individual factors (youth attitudes) and interpersonal factors (friends and parents) in a low income, immigrant, and ethnic community in Pomona, California USA. Social cognitive theory is used in a cross sectional design to perform correlation and multiple regression analysis on survey data from 2,693 high school students. While factors related to youths and their best friends were associated with youth antisocial behavior outcomes, parental factors did not show any association with youth antisocial behavior outcomes in both correlation and regression analysis. These results conflict with dominant trends in the literature and underscore the need for at risk communities such as Pomona to develop their own community data so that intervention programs can respond to their unique circumstances. The following intervention strategies are recommended for youth program designers in Pomona: prioritize individual youth and friends in intervention activities; develop intervention strategies to grow parental influence on youth antisocial behavior such as integrating engagement tools which immigrant, minority, and low income parents could use to counter antisocial risk factors and enhance protective factors. Future research should investigate the factors that drive the influence of best friends on youth antisocial behavior particularly how these trump parental influence in Pomona and other disadvantaged environments. The research findings should shape the intervention strategies recommended above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses youth community risk and protective factors, five years after a Youth and Family Master Plan, using an integrated conceptual framework which combines community organizing theory and the risk and protective factors (RPF) approach. Results show overall improvements in RPF. Findings reveal positive trends in prosocial involvement through participation in clubs, organizations, activities, community service, and attendance at church or synagogues; reduced community disorganization, such as decreased unsafe feelings in the neighborhood and social disorganization; and lower community transitions and mobility through changes in homes and schools. There were negative trends in the physical environment such as disrepair, permissive substance use, and lower neighborhood attachment, which is the desire to leave the neighborhood. The findings show a convergence of patterns across all methods of analysis for each measure of community youth risk and protective factors, suggesting reliability and a likelihood that the interventions contributed to observed variations between baseline and follow-up. The data patterns in this study align with the assumptions and explanations offered in the two models that make up the integrated conceptual framework. The persistence of some risk factors after five years calls for transformative and sustained social and economic investments in the Pomona community. The patterns also suggest the need to reconsider community organizing models – specifically, the need to go beyond locality development and social planning models and toward social action approaches. This will address complex causes of risk factors, consistent with transformative collective impact initiatives and democracy-driven governance, which grows from the bottom up. A beginning point would be to build on the increased prosocial involvement among youths in Pomona by reconfiguring the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan (PYFMP) with greater youth and ordinary community members involvement and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific aim of this study is to identify factors related to parental satisfaction with a child health provider's services among a sample of Head Start parents. This is a retrospective study with a sample of 250 consented parents/guardians of registered Head Start children (3-5 years old), in South Los Angeles, California, USA. The study results showed that parents who were empowered or having a voice to demonstrate concerns about their child's health to the provider, negotiate a health care management plan , and ask questions, were nearly six times more likely to have reported receiving caring services from their child's providers (OR =5.78; CI= 2.882-11.8, P ≤ .05). Also, parents who reported trusting their child's provider were eight times more likely to report receiving caring services from their child's providers (OR = 8.63; CI=9.30-18.1, P ≤ .05). These results have implications for health provider training in patient-centered care and for patient empowerment during a medical encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]