Human & Animal Health

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: Sociodemographic characteristics predicting psychological and physical IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this research is to identify sociodemographic factors related to psychological and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) across the first year of the pandemic in the United States. Using a novel data set of four waves of data collected over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, a series of generalized linear mixed models were performed to determine sociodemographic explanatory factors of the relationship between psychological and physical IPV over time.

NEW PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE: Examining Intervention Programs for Perpetrators and Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: A Review of Contemporary Approaches

A systematic review of the effectiveness of intervention programs for perpetrators and victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) was conducted. Inclusion criteria for studies included publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a representative, community, or clinical sample, written in English, and conducted in the United States. A total of 40 articles were included. Comparisons to a prior review highlight developments in research in the past 10 years.

NEW PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE: “Assessing primary prevention programs for intimate partner violence: A review of contemporary approaches.”

A systematic review of primary prevention programs for intimate partner violence (IPV) was conducted. Inclusion criteria for studies included publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a representative, community, or clinical sample, written in English, and conducted in the United States. A total of 24 articles were included. All studies included some kind of intervention, such as knowledge and/or behavioral, to change outcomes in IPV perpetration and/or victimization. Of the 24 studies, 16 used experimental designs, with the majority focused on adolescent samples (n = 14).

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Critical Environmental Injustice and the Distribution of Toxics

Environmental justice research has focused on the distribution of environmental inequalities, such as proximity to landfills, across the U.S. and globally. Background: Public health research and environmental health research, specifically, have focused on toxic exposure—encompassing individuals or communities that are disproportionately exposed to contaminants that are harmful or potentially harmful to them.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Examining stress and multiple disaster exposure

Examining stress and multiple disaster exposure: An exploratory analysis of the role of sociodemographic characteristics and disaster preparedness

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and disaster preparedness on both multiple disaster exposure and perceived stress, for residents of the Gulf Coast (United States) at risk of experiencing multiple disasters. Binary logistic regression was conducted using primary survey data collected from 2020 to 2022, which captured two hurricane seasons (n = 807).

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Intimate Partner Violence and Disasters: A Review

The objective of this study was to review systematically research into intimate partner violence and disasters. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread public health problem that affects an estimated one in three women globally. The increase in frequency and severity of disasters due to climate change is likely to worsen IPV globally due to disruptions to normal life and the stressors they create. To better understand the relationship between IPV and disasters and to support future research, we conducted a literature review to identify and synthesize research on IPV and disaster.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Improving Policy and Treatment Interventions for Sexual and Gender Minority Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence to Reduce Adverse Health Outcomes

Intimate partner violence (IPV), understood as physical, sexual, and psychological aggression, is a pernicious health problem that is as or more prevalent in sexual and gender minority (SGM) relationships as in heterosexual and cisgender ones. IPV has many impacts, including physical and psychological health consequences. Effective treatment of abusers is needed to reduce IPV in SGM communities.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: EXPLAINING DISASTER AND PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS

“Explaining disaster and pandemic preparedness at the nexus of personal resilience and social vulnerability: An exploratory study" published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 

The purpose of this research was a pilot examination to identify and assess relationships among social vulnerability, personal resilience, and preparedness for a sample of US residents living in the Gulf South, who had experienced climate-related disaster (e.g., hurricanes) and the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

This study investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence among a sample of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors (n  =  77) who filed for restraining orders in rural Louisiana during the COVID-19 pandemic. IPV survivors were individually interviewed to assess their self-reported levels of perceived stress, resilience, potential PTSD, COVID-19-related experiences, and sociodemographic characteristics. Data were analyzed to differentiate group membership between two groups; non-PTSD and probable PTSD.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Wild Urban Injustice: A Critical POET Model to Advance Environmental Justice

Background: People and wildlife can both be the subjects of environmental injustice. Although their experiences are clearly not the same, shared logics of oppression often impose harms through the environment on vulnerable and marginalized people and free-living nonhuman animals. Critical environmental justice provides a matrix for analyzing and addressing arrangements of power across categories of difference, whereas human ecology approaches offer frameworks for analyzing interactions across human and environmental systems in urban contexts.

NEW ARTICLE ALERT: Assessing Resident Perceptions of Physical Disorder on Perceptions of Crime

This paper investigates whether perceptions of neighborhood physical disorder—measured by vacant lots, vacant buildings, and overgrown vegetation—influence perceptions of crime and perceptions of the frequency or magnitude of crime events. We use ordinal logistic regression to analyze individual-level and contextual-level variables derived from a survey of 401 randomly selected residents in seven New Orleans neighborhoods.