Cross Validation of the Environmental Attitudes Inventory: Plans to Assess Attitudinal Changes in Workers at a Shelter Farm in a Food Desert

Within the context of an ongoing participatory community action research project that implements behavioral activation in homeless shelters, an urban farm was implemented. Behavioral activation provides opportunities to engage in productive activities that yield response-contingent reinforcement, which increases productive behavior and leads to improvements in a sense of mastery, quality of life, mood, and cognition. The project represents a collaboration between Dr. Roger N. Reeb (Professor of Psychology) and St. Vincent de Paul. Among our many community partners, we developed a collaboration with the Ohio State University Agricultural Extension of Montgomery County in 2017 to establish an urban farm on the grounds of the Homeless Shelter for Men in a food desert. We harvested nearly a ton of produce each of the first two seasons to enhance nutrition of shelter residents.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/roesch_symposium_content/1010/thumbnail.jp

Homeless shelter food production: positive implications for clients and volunteers

Within the context of a longstanding project (Behavioral Activation Project in Homeless Shelters), the Shelter Farm was developed on the grounds of a homeless shelter located in a food desert. The Behavioral Activation Project, which represents a decade-long collaboration between a Professor of Psychology at the University of Dayton (Roger N. Reeb, Ph.D.) and St. Vincent de Paul (Dayton, Ohio), fosters self-sufficiency in shelter residents as they strive to overcome personal challenges and obstacles associated with homelessness. Past research shows that the Behavioral Activation Project enhances the psychological (and adaptive) functioning of shelter residents as well as the civic-related development of service-learning students who assist in implementing the Project. In 2017, Dr. Reeb (University of Dayton) established a collaboration with Ms. Mills-Wasniak (Extension Educator, The Ohio State University Extension Montgomery County) to develop the Shelter Farm at the St. Vincent de Paul Gettysburg Gateway Shelter for Men. A Memorandum of Understanding among the three collaborative entities was developed and approved. Shelter residents volunteered to work alongside service-learning students and community partners on the farm. In the first season, we harvested nearly a ton of produce – all of which was delivered to the shelter kitchen to enhance the nutrition of shelter residents. The Shelter Farm also enhanced St. Vincent de Paul’s budget for food, as we estimated wholesale value of the produce at almost $4,000. This same level of success was replicated in Shelter Farm’s second season. As we faced COVID-19 obstacles in the third season, safety protocols were approved by all three aforementioned collaborative entities, and we sustained the Shelter Farm, harvesting approximately 1500 pounds of produce for the shelters. In the first season, a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Dayton completed an M.A. Thesis providing preliminary evidence that, as shelter residents volunteer to work alongside students and community partners on the farm, they show decreases in state anxiety and improvements in wellness over time. This manuscript provides the following: (a) a description of the long-standing Project that provided the infrastructure for developing the Shelter Farm, (b) a description of the collaborative process underlying the initiative, the Shelter Farm itself, and the success in sustaining the Shelter Farm, even in the face of COVID-19; (c) an overview of the benefits (nutritional and psychological) of the Shelter Farm for shelter residents; and (d) plans for sustaining and expanding the Shelter Farm (and associated research)

Parental Supervisory Knowledge and Neighborhood Disadvantage as Moderators of the Link from Childhood Externalizing Problems to Substance Use Initiation

Many studies emphasize that the earlier substances are initiated, the more persistent and problematic substance use will be in the future. Externalizing behaviors, or, problematic behaviors that manifest as outward defiance, impulsivity, disruptiveness, aggression, and antisocial acts on a child\u27s external environment (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981), add increased vulnerability to early substance initiation; on average, children exhibiting externalizing behaviors initiate substances two years earlier than their same-aged peers. Although past research considered the relations between parental knowledge of the child\u27s behavior and neighborhood disadvantage (Lahey et al., 2008), little research has investigated how these variables impact the relationship between externalizing behavior and early substance initiation for alcohol and tobacco. Using multilevel modeling, this study analyzed data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youths (CNLSY) study to provide a clearer understanding of (1) the relationship between externalizing behaviors and early substance initiation and (2) the moderating effects of parental knowledge and neighborhood disadvantage on this relationship. Models employed between-family and within-family analyses to compare variables at the population level and between biological siblings. Results showed that the relationship between heightened externalizing behaviors and early alcohol use initiation was stronger at low levels of neighborhood disadvantage. Furthermore, this two-way interaction was strengthened at low levels of parental knowledge. This effect differed by gender and became insignificant when comparing biological siblings, suggesting that (1) boys and girls exhibiting externalizing behaviors are differentially susceptible to early alcohol initiation and (2) adolescents with externalizing problems who were exposed to low disadvantage neighborhoods and experienced low parental knowledge were no more likely to start drinking at an earlier age compared to their siblings. Externalizing behaviors were found to only predict cigarette initiation. Relevance to current research regarding early substance initiation for children with behavioral problems and limitations are discussed