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Classical action research within single organizations has become a well established and differentiated approach since its inception more than six decades ago. More recently, many have built on the foundational principles of action research to develop and implement larger-scale, multi-organization, action research approaches. Multi-organization action research has largely taken the form of coalition-based processes, where diverse stake-holders have come together to explore issues of mutual concern through a centralized action research process. Less frequently, multi-organization initiatives have implemented distinct action research processes, in a coordinated manner, within each of several involved organizations. This article refers to the later variety as multi-site action research (MSAR). Building on previous work, a conceptual framework for MSAR is developed.

AbstractPrior research shows that childhood poverty as well as chronic stress can damage children's executive functioning (EF) capacities, including working memory. However, it is also clear that not all children suffer the same degree of adverse consequences from risk exposure. We show that chronic stress early in life (ages 9–13) links childhood poverty from birth to age 13 to young adult working memory. However, 9‐year‐olds high in self‐regulatory capacity, assessed by a standard delay of gratification protocol, are protected from such insults. Self‐regulatory skills may afford the developing prefrontal cortex some protection from childhood poverty.

Late adolescents (N = 256;Mage = 17.5) who spent a larger proportion of their early life in poverty exhibited less persistence when confronted by a challenging task. Greater chaos during early adolescence also predicted less task persistence at age 17. However, the effects of poverty were moderated by chaos such that if chaos levels were high during early adolescence, task persistence was uniformly lower among late adolescents, irrespective of childhood poverty. Only when chaos levels were relatively low did poverty matter for future task persistence. Furthermore, the interactive effects of chaos and early childhood poverty were independent of child ability, and of concurrent chaos and poverty.

Local governments play an integral role in providing public services to their residents, yet the population health benefits are frequently overlooked, especially when services are outside the traditional health domain. With data from the U.S. Census of Governments and national birth records (spanning from 1992 to 2014), we examined whether local government expenditures on parks and recreation services (PRS) and housing and community development (HCD) predicted county low birth weight outcomes (population incidence and black-white disparities). Hypotheses were tested using bias-corrected county-by-period fixed effects models in a sample of 956 U.S. counties with a total of 3619 observations (observations were defined as three-year pooled estimates), representing 24 million births. Adjusting for prior county low birth weight incidence, levels of total operational, health, and hospital expenditures, and time-varying county sociodemographics, an increase in per capita county PRS expenditures of $50 was associated with 1.25 fewer low birth weight cases per 1000. Change in county HCD expenditures was not associated with low birth weight incidence, and, contrary to hypotheses, neither expenditure type was linked to county black-white disparities. Further examination of the benefits to birth outcomes from increasing parks and recreation services is warranted.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emerging adults is of global concern. We examine changes in depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and sleep-wake problems from before to during the pandemic among college students and examine inequalities by gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and race ( N = 263, 52% Black, 48% White, and 53% female). As compared to pre-pandemic levels, increases were evident in depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and sleep problems. Females had greater increases than males in depressive symptoms, sleep problems, and physical symptoms. Students from disadvantaged SES backgrounds had greater increases in physical symptoms. Among White students, those from disadvantaged backgrounds also had greater increases in sleep problems. Last, daytime sleepiness increased more among Black male than White male students. Overall, findings suggest notable shifts in sleep and health during the early phase of the pandemic among emerging adults, and that attention to inequality by gender, SES, and race is warranted.

Large differences in cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevalence exist between African American and European American adults. The US federal government has committed to reducing racial disparities in health; however, the precise mechanisms are not well understood. Sleep is one potential behavioral explanation for current racial differences in cardiometabolic conditions. We show that more than one-half of racial differences in cardiometabolic risk can be explained by sleep patterns—namely, less total sleep and lower sleep efficiency among African American than European American adults. Sleep is a malleable health behavior that is linked with characteristics of the social and physical environment and could be an effective target in national efforts to reduce racial health disparities.

Abstract
Objective
Belonging is often considered a buffer against the physical and emotional consequences of discrimination and racial climate stress Youth Soc. 48(5):649–72, 2016. However, recent research suggests that feelings of belonging toward an institution can be detrimental when an individual feels discriminated against by the same institution to which one feels a sense of connection J Behav Med. 44(4):571–8, 2021. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the moderating role of institutional belonging in the relationship between racial climate stress and health, as indexed by allostatic load (AL), a multi-system indicator of physiological dysregulation.

Methods
In a sample of Black and White college students (N = 150; White = 82; Black = 68), self-reported racial climate stress, institutional belonging, and various demographic variables were collected. An AL composite was also collected, comprised of six biological measures of the SAM system, HPA axis, cardiovascular system, and metabolic system. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationships between these variables.

Results
Results demonstrated no main effect of racial climate stress on AL but did show a significant interaction between racial climate stress and belonging, such that the positive relationship between racial climate stress and AL was significant only for those who also felt high levels of institutional belonging (βint = .05, p = .006, 95% CI = 0.01 – 0.08).

Conclusions
Feeling a sense of belonging may have negative physiological consequences for those who experience racial climate stress in a college setting.