The Representation and Research Ethics (RARE) project is a community-based study focused on increasing the representation of individuals from diverse backgrounds in biosocial research, and including communities of color in the decision-making process. This project will conduct focus groups and qualitative interviews with community leaders and members to help us understand how to mitigate barriers to research participation, learn community concerns and interests, and develop stronger university-community partnerships. This study will lay the foundation for a sustaining research registry for children and families from diverse and historically marginalized communities.
The Stress and Health Study is a cross-sectional investigation that examines how different sociocultural processes are related to Black College students’ mental and physiological health outcomes. We plan to recruit 230 Black college students from various universities in the DMV area in Spring 2022!
This five-year investigation explored the experiences of 172 youth (ages 17-21) as they transitioned out of the foster care system and into adulthood, a process commonly referred to as “aging out”. This mixed methods longitudinal study affords a unique lens on foster youths’ pathways through education, employment, health, and relationships across their first 5 years following system emancipation. Data were collected at four interview waves 1, 2, 3.5, and 5 years post-emancipation. This study sheds light on how early relational experiences, and the expectations they engender, shape development and adaptation for transition-aged foster youths.
Informed by the Adapting to Aging Out Study, a second investigation was launched with a new sample of youth who came of age after 2012 to understand how the nature of foster youths’ relationships with their social workers might influence youths’ engagement with extended foster care resources. This study, Settings for Success: Foster youths and social workers in communication and collaboration, drew on audio recorded conversations between transition-aged foster youths and their social workers about the transition to adulthood and the opportunities in extended care. Data from these studies are abundant and available for analysis and interpretation.
School Success in Motion research includes a series of studies conducted in collaboration with emergency shelters and schools in Minnesota. These studies aim to understand and address risk and resilience among children experiencing homelessness and poverty. This research focuses on variables such as academic achievement, school readiness, adjustment, parenting, emotion, and stress among mobile, disadvantaged children and their families. This series of studies began in 2006 and its most recent iteration was in summer of 2019.
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