Explaining Rural Help-Seeking Processes in Community-Based Prevention: A Critical Interactionist Approach

This study examined a community-led effort to develop and strengthen local prevention systems to promote child and family well-being and enhance access to protective supports within a rural community context. We utilized a community-based participatory action and theory-driven research approach with an aim of understanding how community norms explained family help-seeking behavior. Applying a critical interactionist framework, community members in one rural Midwestern area defined the drivers of local norms and explained how those norms shaped access to and use of community-based family supports. Analyses resulted in a constructivist grounded theory articulating access levers for family support in community-based prevention systems. This paper details four emergent concepts supporting the core process of this theory of rural help-seeking. We further articulate how community norms shaped access to community-based systems of family support and discuss considerations for rural maltreatment prevention and theory-informed and community-driven system change.