Gay men often face struggles in the conservative world of rural life, due to the pervasive social stigmas associated with homosexuality and the lack of anonymity in a small-town setting. In this book, Preston and D Augelli present the results of in-depth interviews and surveys with rural gay men, providing unique and hitherto unknown perspectives on their experiences coping with intolerance. With sensitivity and humor, the authors narrate their attempts at accessing this hidden population in bars, campgrounds, social clubs, and political groups. This volume is a must-read for researchers, academics, and graduate and post-graduate students in health care, nursing, health policy, and social and psychological science.

During the past quarter century, community psychologists have worked to make relevant contributions to human welfare in community settings and to effect social change. Working with and in schools, neighborhood organizations, religious institutions, social programs, and government agencies, the community psychologist has come to understand how social settings and social policy influence behavior and foster change that promotes individual health and well-being. Using a social ecological paradigm as their guiding framework, they focus on the interactions between persons and their environments, cultural diversity, and local empowerment for understanding organizational, community, and social change.

Community psychologists have relied on multiple methods of obtaining data but more often, they have had to develop new methodologies or adapt existing ones. These innovative methods have been recorded in the American Journal of Community Psychology throughout the years of its history and have changed the way that researchers in the field have gathered data.

During the past quarter century, community psychologists have worked to make relevant contributions to human welfare in community settings and to effect social change. Working with and in schools, neighborhood organizations, religious institutions, social programs, and government agencies, the community psychologist has come to understand how social settings and social policy influence behavior and foster change that promotes individual health and well-being. Using a social ecological paradigm as their guiding framework, they focus on the interactions between persons and their environments, cultural diversity, and local empowerment for understanding organizational, community, and social change.

Community psychologists have relied on multiple methods of obtaining data but more often, they have had to develop new methodologies or adapt existing ones. These innovative methods have been recorded in the American Journal of Community Psychology throughout the years of its history and have changed the way that researchers in the field have gathered data. Some of the areas covered in this volume include:

- intervention;
- prevention research;
- ecological assessment; and
- culturally anchored research. This volume will be of interest to community, developmental, social and clinical psychologists, public health and behavioral medicine researchers, cultural intervention researchers, and community mental health and health workers.

Within the field of psychology, community psychology specifically challenges traditional ways of thinking by considering people as embedded in ecological systems. It also recognizes that the links between persons and settings may be as important as either factor alone. Many of the important writings in this field have been presented in the American Journal of Community Psychology, as such, theintellectual history of community psychology has been presented in this journal.

Gay men often face struggles in the conservative world of rural life, due to the pervasive social stigmas associated with homosexuality and the lack of anonymity in a small-town setting. In this book, Preston and D'Augelli present the results of in-depth interviews and surveys with rural gay men, providing unique and hitherto unknown perspectives on their experiences coping with intolerance. With sensitivity and humor, the authors narrate their attempts at accessing this hidden population in bars, campgrounds, social clubs, and political groups. This volume is a must-read for researchers, academics, and graduate and post-graduate students in health care, nursing, health policy, and social and psychological science.

This work contains original research from the first 25 years of the American Journal of Community Psychology, selected to reflect community psychology's rich tradition of theory, empirical research, action, and innovative methods. This volume will be of interest to community mental health workers, social science and social work researchers, health care professionals, policymakers, and educators in the fields of community and preventative psychology.

Over the last fifteen years, psychological research regarding sexual orientation has seen explosive growth. In this book, Anthony R. D'Augelli and Charlotte J. Patterson bring together top experts to offer a comprehensive overview of what we have discovered - and what we still need to learn - about lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities. Writing in clear, nontechnical language, the contributors cover a range of topics, including conceptions of sexual identity, development over the lifespan, family and other personal relationships, parenting, and bigotry and discrimination. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities Over the Lifespan is essential reading for researchers, students, social scientists, mental health practitioners, and general readers who seek the most up-to-date and authoritative treatment of the subject available.

A tremendous outpouring of psychological research on sexual orientation has occurred in recent years, and interested readers have been hard-pressed to keep up with the pace of scholarship in this field. In particular, the last decade has seen a great increase in research on psychology and sexual orientation.
The first authoritative summary of its kind in this area, Handbook of Psychology and Sexual Orientation is the primary resource for the many researchers, including a new generation of investigators, who are continuing to advance understanding in this field. Volume editors Charlotte J. Patterson and Anthony R. D'Augelli, along with other leading experts, contribute an extraordinary review of contemporary psychological research and theory on sexual orientation in their specific fields of work. The book is divided in four parts: Concepts, Theories, and Perspectives; Development over the Life Course; Domains of Experience; and Communities and Contextual Issues. Individual chapters focus on topics such as bisexual and transgender identities, biological foundations of sexual orientation, emergent adulthood in lesbian and gay lives, same-sex romantic relationships, sexual orientation and mental health, family formation and parenthood, sexual orientation and hate crimes, and race and ethnicity among lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities, along with many more relevant areas. This comprehensive volume will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and scholars, and professionals who work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, and in the fields of developmental, social, clinical, community, and counseling psychology.

What is the current state of psychological knowledge about lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals? This book presents definitive treatments of both current and classical psychological research and theory on lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities across the lifespan. Not only is the current status of the topic surveyed, and important research summarised from the last two decades, but promising directions for future research are also identified. This book is the most comprehensive review of psychological research on sexual orientation available and unique in focusing on lesbian, gay and bisexual people in relationships, families, and in communities.