Over one-third of the U.S. prison population has been diagnosed with a mental illness, and the literature shows that incarcerated individuals experience many different mental healthcare disparities (Community Policing Dispatch, 2022). Our project prioritizes community engagement while investigating mental healthcare in prison settings. We aim to identify what mental healthcare promoters and barriers are present in prisons and what resources can be implemented to foster better care. In order to capture the perspective of formerly incarcerated individuals regarding mental healthcare, we held six meetings with a stakeholder advisory group and the research team. Each meeting included three facilitators, two of which were formerly incarcerated, three members of the research team, and five other formerly incarcerated individuals. The advisory group feedback suggests that currently incarcerated individuals want additional psychotherapy resources with less reliance on pharmacological treatments, improved intake assessments, and further mental health education. Some factors that would decrease barriers to accessing care are strengthening the relationships between prison staff and incarcerated individuals and reducing burnout experienced by qualified mental healthcare providers. Considering this is one of the first studies to prioritize the perspectives of formerly incarcerated individuals, merging what is known from previous literature with our findings to create a holistic understanding of the current state of mental healthcare in prisons may be challenging. Further research will allow us to understand why practices often used in prison settings contribute to inadequate care, how the lack of support produces additional negative consequences, and how treatments and programs can be improved.

This study focuses on the experiences Black mothers have with healthcare providers. This study aims to determine how possible negative experiences can negatively affect Black women's well-being. The study utilizes secondary data, which is pulled from the California Healthcare Foundation “Listening to Mothers of California” data set, only utilizing Black mothers’ data set. Using quantitative methods, the researcher looked at correlations such as (1) negative prenatal experiences with well-being postnatal, (2) positive prenatal experiences with well-being postnatal (3) Labor experiences with well-being postnatal. Findings show that Black women were likely to experience unfair treatment and discrimination, increasing their anxiety and depression.

Being aware of Afrocentric values is an effective way for African American adolescents to gain confidence and knowledge of their cultural backgrounds. However, American society creates a inequalities shown through forms of racism. The methods of oppression that are displayed in America include systematic racism, stereotypes, and police brutality. To find outcomes, I am determined to answer the research question of how Afrocentric values can be used to increase positive youth development in African American adolescents. Preliminary findings state that Afrocentric values were noted to be “cultural values” which are “communalism, spirituality, collectivism, fairness, and social justice”. I have identified these Afrocentric values from Dr. Cheryl Grills et al.’s study and will now see how these values will be shown through activities. After matching the activities to the terms, I will choose participants through sending forms of interest and flyers to one Afrocentric curriculum based middle school and high school in Los Angeles. Then, interviews and surveys will be conducted to draw from the students’ feedback on the project. As a result of this project, we plan to see if in fact the chosen Afrocentric values do have positive effects on African American youth development. This project’s implications are to discover Afrocentric values based on these topics to decipher which themes will help benefit African American adolescents in the journey of their overall growth. The development will hypothetically help Black youth to incorporate cultural values in order to flourish while encountering positive and negative aspects of an American society.

The period of adolescence is a sensitive period of development that can include major changes in body image and self-esteem. It is crucial to investigate how poor body image during adolescence predicts self-worth and psychological well-being. The aim of my research study was to investigate body image during early adolescence and how it relates to self-worth in middle adolescence and flourishing in the transition to early adulthood. Specifically, we hypothesized that greater body dissatisfaction in early adolescence would predict lower social self-worth in middle adolescence and lower flourishing in early adulthood. Data were drawn from the longitudinal Pittsburgh Girls Study, a population-based study that included annual interviews of N= 2,450 girls across 20 years, including self-reported measures in body image satisfaction (difference between the participant’s report of their body size and their ‘ideal’ body size) in early adolescence (age 10-13), perceived social self-worth in middle adolescence (age 14-16), and psychological flourishing early adulthood (age 18- 21). Preliminary bivariate correlations showed that self-reported body size was significantly positively correlated with body dissatisfaction in early adolescence (r= .79, p< .001). Consistent with hypotheses, body dissatisfaction was significantly correlated with social self-worth in middle adolescence (r= -.07, p= .001), and social self-worth was significantly correlated with flourishing, in early adulthood (r= .38, p< .001). For the final poster presentation, we will test these pathways in a mediation model to investigate whether the association between body dissatisfaction in early adolescence and flourishing in early adulthood is mediated by social self-worth in middle adolescence.