An analytic review of research in community psychology

A content analysis was conducted on all 478 empirical articles published from 1973 through 1978 in the American Journal of Community Psychology and the Journal of Community Psychology. Results indicate a substantial emphasis on policy analysis/research and program evaluation. The delivery of mental health services was extensively researched; however, a wide diversity of other topics such as work, substance abuse, and attitudes toward mental illness were also represented. There was a relatively high degree of participation by authors with nonuniversity affiliations. Also, in 65% of the studies subjects were not identified as having a psychological problem; in one-third of the studies children served as subjects; and in 71% of the studies both males and females served as subjects. A number of problems with the typical research design are noted, including: unrepresentative sampling of subjects, nonequivalent comparison groups, and small sample and cell sizes.