Michelle Abraczinskas
Biographic Data
| ID | 6087465 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Abraczinskas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Abraczinskas |
| SIGNATURE | ABRACZINSKAS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1069-9575 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Learning From Lived Experience
There is growing recognition across disciplines that partnering with people with lived experience (PWLE) in research about conditions that affect their lives can strengthen research quality and impact. Participatory approaches (community-based participatory research, participatory action research) emphasize partnering with PWLE of inequities across all research stages with the aim of producing actionable recommendations towards social transformat…
Maternal Healthcare Provider Perspectives on Spiritual Care and the Challenges and Opportunities for Provider Spiritual Well-Being in the United States
Spiritual well-being is essential to overall well-being for healthcare providers. Furthermore, providing spiritual care depends on providers' spiritual well-being and competence in assessing patients' spiritual care needs. Including spiritual care in maternal healthcare represents an opportunity to improve the quality of patient care. We conducted interviews with 20 maternal healthcare providers to understand how to address spiritual care impleme…
Navigating the Institutional Review Board and other institutional entities
Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) engages young people as partners in rigorous research inquiry to guide and inform collective action. Scholars interested in YPAR have notable investment in social justice and activist values, which at times come in direct tensions within their doctoral training and/or professional roles within academia. One monumental hurdle in conducting YPAR is obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board…
Adapting Ypar practices to address community changes and challenges
Feasibility of a Pilot Virtual National Young Adult Wellbeing Network
The current study piloted a virtual 8-week National Young Adult Well-being Network (The Network) to inform funding and policy decisions around post-COVID-19 pandemic healing. Arts-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) was utilized. Essential elements were creation of art as data, group processing, and action planning. Fifteen 18 to 23-year-old young people (4 male, 11 female) living in three states participated in The Network. The youn…
Engaging Women with Lived Experience of Homelessness
The interaction between homelessness and domestic violence exacerbates health inequities. To combat this problem, people with lived experience must be involved in community health improvement initiatives to improve ecological validity and sustainability. The authors understand homelessness through lived experience of homelessness or working with populations impacted by homelessness. A guiding framework (e.g., Community of Solutions) is useful whe…
Youth Participatory Approaches and Health Equity
There is an array of youth participatory approaches relevant to health equity efforts in community psychology, adolescent health, youth development, and education. While they share some commonalities, they also reflect important distinctions regarding key processes and intended level of impact. Here, we consider the following: (a) youth-led participatory action research (YPAR), (b) youth organizing (YO), (c) youth-led planning, (d) human-centered…
Predictors of behavioral health service utilization in a medicaid enrolled sample of emerging adults
Youth Participatory Action Research for Health Equity
To address gaps in the youth participation and adolescent physical activity (PA) promotion literature, we examined the feasibility of youth participatory action research (YPAR) in (a) general aftercare (YPAR only) and (b) with a physical activity intervention, (YPAR + PA) to reach marginalized youth and impact individual empowerment and second-order change for equitable PA access. We intervened during middle school, a developmental stage conduciv…
Tell it to Me Straight
Community‐based Participatory Research ( CBPR ), where consumers participate in the design and execution of an evaluation, holds promise for increasing the validity and usefulness of evaluations of services. However, there is no literature comparing methods and outcomes of studies conducted by professional evaluators with those conducted through a consumer‐driven evaluation process. We attempt to fill this gap by presenting the methods and result…
Use of Research Evidence Generated by Youth
Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a social justice-focused approach for promoting social change and positive youth development in which youth conduct systematic research and actions to improve their schools and communities. Although YPAR is oriented to generating research for action, with evidence-based recommendations often aimed at influencing adults with power over settings and systems that shape youths' lives, we have little u…
Translating evidence‐based parenting programs for primary care
AIMS: To translate evidence-based programs (EBP) for a new setting, attention must be given to the characteristics of the intervention and the local setting, as well as evidence that is compelling to decision-makers. This paper describes the history of a partnership and stakeholder recommendations to inform the adaptation of an EBP for primary care. METHODS: We established a community advisory board (CAB) consisting of stakeholders with expertize…
Opportunities for youth participatory action research to inform school district decisions
Background Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is an equity-focused approach intended to generate local knowledge and democratise the production of research evidence. Aims/objectives We explore the promise and challenges of YPAR to inform education policy decision making. We focus on California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) initiative, which requires districts to engage with diverse s…
Promoting physical activity within under-resourced afterschool programs
Afterschool programs (ASPs) have become increasingly recognized as a key context to support youth daily physical activity (PA) accrual. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this study examined staff perspectives on the strengths and barriers within under-resourced ASPs for establishing a social-motivational climate for encouraging and supporting youth PA. Analysis of semi-structured staff interviews (28 staff; 7 ASPs) indicated t…
Innovative Methods in Evaluation
Traditional methods of evaluation are limited in their ability to answer key questions often of interest to process evaluators, such as heterogeneity in the ways individuals adopt new programs. In this article, we demonstrate how a statistical approach, Latent Class Analysis, can help improve the quality of process evaluations and illustrate its use in an evaluation of an educational technology integration program in a large school district. In t…
Effects of Extracurricular Participation on the Internalizing Problems and Intrapersonal Strengths of Youth in a System of Care
Although extracurricular participation has been linked to positive youth outcomes in the general population, no research to date has examined benefits for youth diagnosed with mental health challenges. Youth in systems of care (SOCs) receive a variety of services and supports that could help them capitalize on this potential for positive development, such as access to flexible funding to support recreational interests. However, research has not e…
Building Capacity in Child Welfare to Screen for Mental Health Challenges
Community-university partners across all levels of a hierarchically structured agency must work together to align implementation of partner activities with system-level goals. Recommendations for collaboration, from a stakeholder perspective, are also described
Youth Participatory Action Research for Health Equity
To address gaps in the youth participation and adolescent physical activity (PA) promotion literature, we examined the feasibility of youth participatory action research (YPAR) in (a) general aftercare (YPAR only) and (b) with a physical activity intervention, (YPAR + PA) to reach marginalized youth and impact individual empowerment and second-order change for equitable PA access. We intervened during middle school, a developmental stage conduciv…
Tell it to Me Straight
Community‐based Participatory Research ( CBPR ), where consumers participate in the design and execution of an evaluation, holds promise for increasing the validity and usefulness of evaluations of services. However, there is no literature comparing methods and outcomes of studies conducted by professional evaluators with those conducted through a consumer‐driven evaluation process. We attempt to fill this gap by presenting the methods and result…
Use of Research Evidence Generated by Youth
Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a social justice-focused approach for promoting social change and positive youth development in which youth conduct systematic research and actions to improve their schools and communities. Although YPAR is oriented to generating research for action, with evidence-based recommendations often aimed at influencing adults with power over settings and systems that shape youths' lives, we have little u…
Translating evidence‐based parenting programs for primary care
AIMS: To translate evidence-based programs (EBP) for a new setting, attention must be given to the characteristics of the intervention and the local setting, as well as evidence that is compelling to decision-makers. This paper describes the history of a partnership and stakeholder recommendations to inform the adaptation of an EBP for primary care. METHODS: We established a community advisory board (CAB) consisting of stakeholders with expertize…
Building Capacity in Child Welfare to Screen for Mental Health Challenges
Community-university partners across all levels of a hierarchically structured agency must work together to align implementation of partner activities with system-level goals. Recommendations for collaboration, from a stakeholder perspective, are also described
Effects of Extracurricular Participation on the Internalizing Problems and Intrapersonal Strengths of Youth in a System of Care
Although extracurricular participation has been linked to positive youth outcomes in the general population, no research to date has examined benefits for youth diagnosed with mental health challenges. Youth in systems of care (SOCs) receive a variety of services and supports that could help them capitalize on this potential for positive development, such as access to flexible funding to support recreational interests. However, research has not e…
Innovative Methods in Evaluation
Traditional methods of evaluation are limited in their ability to answer key questions often of interest to process evaluators, such as heterogeneity in the ways individuals adopt new programs. In this article, we demonstrate how a statistical approach, Latent Class Analysis, can help improve the quality of process evaluations and illustrate its use in an evaluation of an educational technology integration program in a large school district. In t…
Promoting physical activity within under-resourced afterschool programs
Afterschool programs (ASPs) have become increasingly recognized as a key context to support youth daily physical activity (PA) accrual. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this study examined staff perspectives on the strengths and barriers within under-resourced ASPs for establishing a social-motivational climate for encouraging and supporting youth PA. Analysis of semi-structured staff interviews (28 staff; 7 ASPs) indicated t…
Opportunities for youth participatory action research to inform school district decisions
Background Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is an equity-focused approach intended to generate local knowledge and democratise the production of research evidence. Aims/objectives We explore the promise and challenges of YPAR to inform education policy decision making. We focus on California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) initiative, which requires districts to engage with diverse s…
Youth Participatory Approaches and Health Equity
There is an array of youth participatory approaches relevant to health equity efforts in community psychology, adolescent health, youth development, and education. While they share some commonalities, they also reflect important distinctions regarding key processes and intended level of impact. Here, we consider the following: (a) youth-led participatory action research (YPAR), (b) youth organizing (YO), (c) youth-led planning, (d) human-centered…
Predictors of behavioral health service utilization in a medicaid enrolled sample of emerging adults
Youth Participatory Action Research for Health Equity
To address gaps in the youth participation and adolescent physical activity (PA) promotion literature, we examined the feasibility of youth participatory action research (YPAR) in (a) general aftercare (YPAR only) and (b) with a physical activity intervention, (YPAR + PA) to reach marginalized youth and impact individual empowerment and second-order change for equitable PA access. We intervened during middle school, a developmental stage conduciv…
Tell it to Me Straight
Community‐based Participatory Research ( CBPR ), where consumers participate in the design and execution of an evaluation, holds promise for increasing the validity and usefulness of evaluations of services. However, there is no literature comparing methods and outcomes of studies conducted by professional evaluators with those conducted through a consumer‐driven evaluation process. We attempt to fill this gap by presenting the methods and result…
Use of Research Evidence Generated by Youth
Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a social justice-focused approach for promoting social change and positive youth development in which youth conduct systematic research and actions to improve their schools and communities. Although YPAR is oriented to generating research for action, with evidence-based recommendations often aimed at influencing adults with power over settings and systems that shape youths' lives, we have little u…
Translating evidence‐based parenting programs for primary care
AIMS: To translate evidence-based programs (EBP) for a new setting, attention must be given to the characteristics of the intervention and the local setting, as well as evidence that is compelling to decision-makers. This paper describes the history of a partnership and stakeholder recommendations to inform the adaptation of an EBP for primary care. METHODS: We established a community advisory board (CAB) consisting of stakeholders with expertize…
Engaging Women with Lived Experience of Homelessness
The interaction between homelessness and domestic violence exacerbates health inequities. To combat this problem, people with lived experience must be involved in community health improvement initiatives to improve ecological validity and sustainability. The authors understand homelessness through lived experience of homelessness or working with populations impacted by homelessness. A guiding framework (e.g., Community of Solutions) is useful whe…
Feasibility of a Pilot Virtual National Young Adult Wellbeing Network
The current study piloted a virtual 8-week National Young Adult Well-being Network (The Network) to inform funding and policy decisions around post-COVID-19 pandemic healing. Arts-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) was utilized. Essential elements were creation of art as data, group processing, and action planning. Fifteen 18 to 23-year-old young people (4 male, 11 female) living in three states participated in The Network. The youn…
Navigating the Institutional Review Board and other institutional entities
Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) engages young people as partners in rigorous research inquiry to guide and inform collective action. Scholars interested in YPAR have notable investment in social justice and activist values, which at times come in direct tensions within their doctoral training and/or professional roles within academia. One monumental hurdle in conducting YPAR is obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board…
Adapting Ypar practices to address community changes and challenges
Learning From Lived Experience
There is growing recognition across disciplines that partnering with people with lived experience (PWLE) in research about conditions that affect their lives can strengthen research quality and impact. Participatory approaches (community-based participatory research, participatory action research) emphasize partnering with PWLE of inequities across all research stages with the aim of producing actionable recommendations towards social transformat…
Maternal Healthcare Provider Perspectives on Spiritual Care and the Challenges and Opportunities for Provider Spiritual Well-Being in the United States
Spiritual well-being is essential to overall well-being for healthcare providers. Furthermore, providing spiritual care depends on providers' spiritual well-being and competence in assessing patients' spiritual care needs. Including spiritual care in maternal healthcare represents an opportunity to improve the quality of patient care. We conducted interviews with 20 maternal healthcare providers to understand how to address spiritual care impleme…
Political science (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Participatory action research (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Youth Development and Social Support (7 works) · Community Health and Development (6 works) · Community-based participatory research (6 works) · Health Policy Implementation Science (6 works)