Racism has multi-systemic impacts on African Americans resulting in longstanding racial health disparities. Increasingly, researchers use participatory research in their health equity efforts. Participatory research is rooted in the principle of empowerment and centers community lived experience to generate meaningful solutions while shifting conventionally held positions of power within research engagement and within systems more broadly. Yet the research literature on empowerment lacks consensus of its operationalization and measurement. What’s more, it is unclear to what degree existing frameworks of empowerment are derived from the communities they seek to engage and empower. Thus existing frameworks of empowerment could be strengthened by work that amplifies the experiential reflectiveness of African American communities. Given the deficiency in prior research to center African American participant voice and perspective, the current study used a Critical Race Theoretical approach to explore the empowerment experiences of African American participants in Community Cafès used to collaborate with their communities toward addressing risks associated with child abuse and neglect. The Community Café model is a civic engagement strategy that has been adapted to a participatory research method. The Community Café model is based on design principles to create an inviting, café-style setting that fosters constructive dialogue, collective intelligence, and culturally responsive possibilities for action. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen Café participants which yield five primary themes and five subthemes. These themes were then used to generate a set of six participatory research empowerment guideposts -PREGs for African American communities. PREGs signal a shift away from documenting deficits and risks and calls for researchers to center the African American experience with nuanced empowerment processes such as integrating discussions about racism and culturally reflective healing activities.
","abstract_html":"<p>Racism has multi-systemic impacts on African Americans resulting in longstanding racial health disparities. Increasingly, researchers use participatory research in their health equity efforts. Participatory research is rooted in the principle of empowerment and centers community lived experience to generate meaningful solutions while shifting conventionally held positions of power within research engagement and within systems more broadly. Yet the research literature on empowerment lacks consensus of its operationalization and measurement. What’s more, it is unclear to what degree existing frameworks of empowerment are derived from the communities they seek to engage and empower. Thus existing frameworks of empowerment could be strengthened by work that amplifies the experiential reflectiveness of African American communities. Given the deficiency in prior research to center African American participant voice and perspective, the current study used a Critical Race Theoretical approach to explore the empowerment experiences of African American participants in Community Cafès used to collaborate with their communities toward addressing risks associated with child abuse and neglect. The Community Café model is a civic engagement strategy that has been adapted to a participatory research method. The Community Café model is based on design principles to create an inviting, café-style setting that fosters constructive dialogue, collective intelligence, and culturally responsive possibilities for action. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen Café participants which yield five primary themes and five subthemes. These themes were then used to generate a set of six participatory research empowerment guideposts -PREGs for African American communities. PREGs signal a shift away from documenting deficits and risks and calls for researchers to center the African American experience with nuanced empowerment processes such as integrating discussions about racism and culturally reflective healing activities.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Thurman, Helen Irene"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Social Work","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Darrell Hudson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05-22T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-05-22T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:12:17Z","subjects":["African Americans;community based participatory research;empowerment;participatory research","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Social Work"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/34"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/34","href":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/34","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.7936/JVZX-1C56","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Darrell Hudson"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Thurman, Helen Irene"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-07-25T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Social Work","Brown School"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["African Americans;community based participatory research;empowerment;participatory research","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Social Work"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/JVZX-1C56","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/34"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Racism has multi-systemic impacts on African Americans resulting in longstanding racial health disparities. Increasingly, researchers use participatory research in their health equity efforts. Participatory research is rooted in the principle of empowerment and centers community lived experience to generate meaningful solutions while shifting conventionally held positions of power within research engagement and within systems more broadly. Yet the research literature on empowerment lacks consensus of its operationalization and measurement. What’s more, it is unclear to what degree existing frameworks of empowerment are derived from the communities they seek to engage and empower. Thus existing frameworks of empowerment could be strengthened by work that amplifies the experiential reflectiveness of African American communities. Given the deficiency in prior research to center African American participant voice and perspective, the current study used a Critical Race Theoretical approach to explore the empowerment experiences of African American participants in Community Cafès used to collaborate with their communities toward addressing risks associated with child abuse and neglect. The Community Café model is a civic engagement strategy that has been adapted to a participatory research method. The Community Café model is based on design principles to create an inviting, café-style setting that fosters constructive dialogue, collective intelligence, and culturally responsive possibilities for action. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen Café participants which yield five primary themes and five subthemes. These themes were then used to generate a set of six participatory research empowerment guideposts -PREGs for African American communities. PREGs signal a shift away from documenting deficits and risks and calls for researchers to center the African American experience with nuanced empowerment processes such as integrating discussions about racism and culturally reflective healing activities.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Using Constructivist Grounded Theory to Generate Participatory Research Empowerment Guideposts (PREGs) for African American Communities to Address Racial Health Disparities"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Darrell Hudson"],"dc:creator":["Thurman, Helen Irene"],"dc:date.available":["2024-07-25T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Racism has multi-systemic impacts on African Americans resulting in longstanding racial health disparities. Increasingly, researchers use participatory research in their health equity efforts. Participatory research is rooted in the principle of empowerment and centers community lived experience to generate meaningful solutions while shifting conventionally held positions of power within research engagement and within systems more broadly. Yet the research literature on empowerment lacks consensus of its operationalization and measurement. What’s more, it is unclear to what degree existing frameworks of empowerment are derived from the communities they seek to engage and empower. Thus existing frameworks of empowerment could be strengthened by work that amplifies the experiential reflectiveness of African American communities. Given the deficiency in prior research to center African American participant voice and perspective, the current study used a Critical Race Theoretical approach to explore the empowerment experiences of African American participants in Community Cafès used to collaborate with their communities toward addressing risks associated with child abuse and neglect. The Community Café model is a civic engagement strategy that has been adapted to a participatory research method. The Community Café model is based on design principles to create an inviting, café-style setting that fosters constructive dialogue, collective intelligence, and culturally responsive possibilities for action. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen Café participants which yield five primary themes and five subthemes. These themes were then used to generate a set of six participatory research empowerment guideposts -PREGs for African American communities. PREGs signal a shift away from documenting deficits and risks and calls for researchers to center the African American experience with nuanced empowerment processes such as integrating discussions about racism and culturally reflective healing activities.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.7936/JVZX-1C56","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/34"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"dc:subject":["African Americans;community based participatory research;empowerment;participatory research","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Social Work"],"dc:title":["Using Constructivist Grounded Theory to Generate Participatory Research Empowerment Guideposts (PREGs) for African American Communities to Address Racial Health Disparities"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Social Work","Brown School"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:12:17Z"}