Public Health and Social Change

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 2783

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Interests: community-engaged evaluation and research, especially using qualitative and mixed methods, and health equity for populations by income, gender, race ethnicity, sexuality, rurality and disability

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Guest Editor
Faculty in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Interests: the role of geographic mobility in people’s access to care, the environments in which they live and work, and their health care utilization; the impact of other social determinants of health, including gender inequity, on people’s health outcomes; the innovative use of participatory and qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies to improve health research and practice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on improving community health and addressing health inequities through a commitment to social justice. Many factors impact communities’ access to health care, the quality of health care, and health outcomes. Important determinants such as housing or education are themselves impacted by income and historical discrimination. As worse health outcomes for structurally marginalized communities have become increasingly recognized, the importance of addressing disparities has become clearer. We welcome contributions that aim for a deeper understanding of the connections between specific determinants and health outcomes, especially when coupled with intervention approaches and efforts to eliminate differences in health outcomes. Work that engages diverse perspectives and community partners is encouraged. We welcome approaches using qualitative, mixed, and/or community-engaged methods. Special attention will be given to manuscripts that describe how public health researchers and practitioners engage communities to build equitable partnerships, define problems, set priorities, craft solutions, or showcase effective interventions.

Dr. Thistle I. Elias
Dr. Zoé Mistrale Hendrickson
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • health disparities
  • health equity
  • community engaged
  • social justice
  • qualitative
  • mixed methods
  • marginalized communities
  • vulnerable populations
  • social determinants of health
  • evaluation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 638 KB  
Article
“Anything Would Be Easier than What We’re Doing Right Now”: Early Head Start Home Visitors’ Experiences Working Through an Environmental Crisis
by Thistle I. Elias, Ashley E. Shafer, Ashwini Chaudhari and Tammy Thomas
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(9), 543; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14090543 - 9 Sep 2025
Viewed by 267
Abstract
Home Visitors and early childhood educators play a critical role in supporting the development of young children from low-income families in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on service delivery dramatically impacted the professional experience of Home Visitors, presenting significant new [...] Read more.
Home Visitors and early childhood educators play a critical role in supporting the development of young children from low-income families in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on service delivery dramatically impacted the professional experience of Home Visitors, presenting significant new challenges for this dedicated, often under-compensated workforce. An external evaluation team explored the experiences of Early Head Start Home Visitors serving six regions of a county in the mid-Atlantic region. Researchers engaged Early Head Start program partners in identifying issues and methods of investigation to help inform organizational efforts to support their staff and the families they serve. Findings include that Home Visitors experienced significant stress and mental health challenges due to the frequently shifting environment, loss of peer interactions and loss of personal boundaries due primarily to their efforts to sufficiently support families in a time of crisis. These experiences contribute to burnout and increase the chances of early care and education workers leaving the field despite a deep commitment to the work. Considerations for how to retain high-quality early childhood education workers, in particular through potential significant environmental disruptions, include the need for strong peer support networks and transparent, responsive leadership. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Change)
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10 pages, 220 KB  
Perspective
Structural Competency and the Medical Learning Environment—An Overdue Paradigm Shift in Medical Education
by Iman F. Hassan, Rebecca Leeds, Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, Thuy D. Bui, Sharon E. Connor, Sejal Shah and Shwetha Iyer
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(6), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14060356 - 3 Jun 2025
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Abstract
Structural competency (SC) is a framework that assists clinicians in naming and analyzing the structural drivers that fundamentally contribute to morbidity and mortality. Undergraduate and graduate medical education is grounded in the experiential learning model where trainees learn through supervised, hands-on, real-world training [...] Read more.
Structural competency (SC) is a framework that assists clinicians in naming and analyzing the structural drivers that fundamentally contribute to morbidity and mortality. Undergraduate and graduate medical education is grounded in the experiential learning model where trainees learn through supervised, hands-on, real-world training and caring for patients within hospital and clinic settings. However, our present-day clinical settings fail to create a learning environment in which SC skills can be effectively taught and operationalized. The SC framework is designed to engender praxis, but to make this move upstream, healthcare institutions and medical education leaders need to do more to adapt their learning environment. We posit five elements and associated key actions that are essential to an SC learning environment: (1) the structural analysis of institutional policies and practices; (2) academic freedom and interdisciplinary discourse; (3) redefining medical education standards and metrics; (4) collective action to drive effect change; and (5) community integration and accountability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Change)
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