Active Grants
Faculty in the school of social and family dynamics are increasingly
active in seeking and obtaining external funding. On this page,
you will
find a list
of the active
grant projects that faculty in the school are involved in. The
topics reflect the wide variety of research expertise and interests
of
our faculty, as well as reflecting the cutting-edge nature of the
science that is conducted within the school. Feel free to browse
and contact the investigators for more information.
Religious Organization and HIV/AIDS
Prevention and Care ( 4 years, $1,000,000 in total costs)
Victor Agadjanian, Scott Yabiku, and Cecilia Menjivar
ABSTRACT: Building upon an earlier NIH-funded pilot study on organized
religion and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, the project will examine
how doctrinal, structural, and social aspects of religious organizations
and the community religious milieu influence individuals’
involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The potential of religious
organizations for HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy is often
mentioned in the literature. Yet seldom is this potential subjected
to thorough examination. This potential seems particularly promising
in sub-Saharan Africa, where religious organizations representing
various creeds and denominations enjoy an already considerable and
constantly growing membership and where secular institutions designed
to deal with public health and other social policy issues are often
inefficient and distrusted. This potential is also critical in reaching
out to and empowering one of the most vulnerable segments of the
population—rural and small-town married women, who constitute
the overwhelming majority of religious organizations’ active
members. Recognizing the importance of religious organizations in
HIV/AIDS impact mitigation and the paucity of research on the subject
this project will analyze the existing forms and extent of different
religious organizations’ involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention
activities and in the provision of care and support to AIDS patients
and their families. The results of these investigations will then
be used to help religious organizations to design more inclusive,
effective, and sustainable forms of their involvement in HIV/AIDS
prevention and care. The project will be carried out in a rural
district of southern Mozambique and will include a representative
household-based survey of women aged 18-50 and a parallel institutional
survey of religious organizations to which these women belong. The
results of the survey data analyses will be shared with the leaders
and ordinary members of the religious organizations involved in
the study to solicit their assessment and feedback. Based on the
results of the analysis and the feedback received from the religious
organizations, a district-wide inter-faith workshop will be conducted
with the purpose of enhancing and expanding the involvement of religious
organizations in HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities and their
collaboration with one another and with relevant secular agencies.
The recommendations resulting from the project will be disseminated
for possible applications in other parts of Mozambique.
Men's Migration and Women's HIV/AIDS Risks
(2 years, $300,000 total costs)
Victor Agadjanian (PI), Cecilia Menjivar (CO-PI), and Scott Yabiku
(CO-PI)
This project will help to better understand the connections between
married men’s migration from rural areas and the exposure
of their wives to HIV/AIDS risks in sub-Saharan Africa. Although
migration is often said to be a key factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS,
evidence to support the claims that migration increases exposure
to HIV risks remains inconclusive. Moreover, most attention has
been focused on HIV/AIDS risks of migrants, primarily men, in cities
and other destination areas. Relatively little systematic information
exists about migrants’ wives remaining in rural areas and
their exposure to infection risks and access to prevention. In addition
to possible direct effects of migration, i.e., the effects that
stem from women’s sexual relationships with their migrant
husbands, husbands’ migration may affect women’s HIV/AIDS
knowledge and risk exposure indirectly. Men’s migration transforms
women’s marital unions, alters their social and economic constraints
and opportunities, and reconfigures their social and sexual networks.
These changes may encourage and/or facilitate women’s extramarital
partnerships, but at the same time, may give them greater ability
to avoid risky sex with both their marital and extramarital partners.
To examine this complex combination of direct and indirect effects
the project will employ a complementary mix of quantitative and
qualitative methods: a representative survey of about 1700 married
women in four rural districts of southern Mozambique and a series
of in-depth interviews with a subsample of survey respondents. The
survey sample will include women married to migrants and those married
to non-migrants thus allowing for a comparison of the two groups
of women with respect to HIV/AIDS awareness and risk perceptions
and exposure to HIV infection risks and practice of prevention.
In-depth interviews, to be conducted with women married to migrants,
will corroborate and complement the survey data, especially in such
sensitive areas as sexual networking and practice of prevention.
The results of this research will advance our knowledge of the social
factors shaping the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. They
will also provide invaluable information for interventions aimed
at reducing HIV/AIDS risks among rural African women.
Emotion, Regulatory processes and social functioning,
2 RO1 MH 6083
Nancy Eisenberg, Tracy Spinrad, Mark Reiser, Kathryn Lemery, Kimberly
Updegraff
2004-2008
Direct costs: $1,076,401
Source: NIMH
The major purpose of this grant is to to examine the contributions
of individual differences in various types of effortful control
(EC: efficiency of executive attention, including the ability to
inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response,
to plan, and to detect errors) and reactive (less voluntary) control
to children's socioemotional functioning, including their social
competence, empathy, personality resiliency; and adjustment and
its possible precursors. Other goals include examining normative
development and relating aspects of parenting (e.g., expression
of emotion, control tactics, warmth, reactions to children's negative
emotions) to children's emotionality, regulation, and social functioning.
A multi-method (behavioral, facial, and physiological measures,
questionnaires) and multi-reporter approach are being used in three
longitudinal studies, two ongoing studies of adolescents, and one
new study of toddlers (with multiple assessments).
Decision Center for a Desert City: Science and Policy
of Climate Uncertainty
Pat Gober, Charles Redman PIs; William A. Griffin, Investigator
10/1/2004 - 9/30/2009
Direct costs: 6.9 million
Source: NSF
The Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) is one of three new
National Science Foundation-funded centers that will investigate
human decision-making under climatic uncertainty. It will investigate
the decision processes used to plan and manage water resources and
desert city growth. Its charge is to provide a sound scientific
basis to the decisions that balance growth with finite water resources.
A Preventive Intervention for Mexican American Adolescents,
5 R01 MH064707
Nancy Gonzales, Larry Dumka, Roger Milsap
9/21/01 to 8/31/06
Direct costs: $2,331,520
Source: NIMH
The PUENTES/BRIDGES to high school project is an experimental field
trial of a culturally competent, family-based intervention to prevent
mental health disorders and school disengagement for low-income
Mexican American adolescents in middle school. The program will
be evaluated with a sample of 480 adolescents recruited over the
course of 3 years from 4 inner-city schools. Adolescents will participate
with their parents in the intervention or a low-dose workshop condition
in either Spanish-dominant and English-dominant groups.
Ontology and evolution of children's playgroup formation
William A. Griffin, PI; Co-PIs: Laura Hanish, Carol Martin, Richard
Fabes, Helene Barcelo
9/1/2004 - 8/30/2007
Direct costs: 190,000.00
Source: NSF
This study examines the ontology and evolution of playgroups using
an agent-based model (PlayMate) to simulate young children forming
play partner preferences. In conjunction with the development of
the agent based model, we will collect daily observations of 60
young children (ages 3-6) from three separate preschool classrooms
over an academic year. Each child will be observed 75-125 times
per month, allowing us to generate about 1500 - 3000 observations
per month per classroom. These data will allow us to investigate
the dynamic formation and evolution of playgroups, a micro-social
phenomenon well suited for agent based modeling.
Risk and Protective Factors in School Maladjustment,
RO1HD-045906
Gary Ladd, Karen Rudolph, Becky Ladd, Richard Fabes, Carol Martin
5/1/03 to 4/30/08
Direct costs: $2,077,584
Source: Co-Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health
This grant is the third continuation of a longitudinal project in
which investigators examine the short- and long-term associations
among a range of bio/psycho-social precursors, including risky behavioral
dispositions and relational adversity, as precursors of children’s
psychological and school maladjustment trajectories from early childhood
through adulthood.
Two-Faceted Post-Doctoral Training Plan for School-Based
Education Research
Gary Ladd, Lisa Dinella
9/1/04 to 8/30/06
Direct costs: $110,000
Source: American Psychological Association and Institute of Educational
Sciences
The purpose of this project is to: (1) prepare post-doctoral researchers
to conduct high quality research within elementary, middle, and
high schools, (2) establish a new generation of researchers that
will advance education and educational practice, and (3) train scholars
who are able to translate research findings into evidence-based
practice.
Parenting among Mexican-origin Adolescent Mothers
Debbie Madden-Derdich (PI), Adriana Umana-Taylor (CO-PI), and Kim
Updegraff (CO-PI)
Source: Department of Health and Human Services
3 years, Total costs: $700,000
The birthrate of adolescent females of Mexican origin is the highest
in the nation at over twice the overall national rate. This project
is a 3 year longitudinal study that examines the linkages between
familial and cultural processes and adolescent mothers’ perceptions
of their psychosocial and parental functioning in a sample of Mexican
origin adolescent mothers. We will identify adolescent mothers in
their last trimester of pregnancy for the initial wave of data collection
and conduct a follow-up when the target children are 9 months of
age. We are collecting data from both the adolescent mother and
her own mother allowing us to explore the degree of acculturative
and enculturative congruence across generations and, in turn, the
connections between levels of congruence and the psychosocial and
parental functioning of the teen mothers.
Drug Resistance Strategies-DRS4
Investigators: Flavio Marsiglia (Social Work) and Michael Hecht
(Pennsylvania State University), Principal Investigators; Stephen
Kulis, Co-Principal Investigator (Sociology).
Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH grant R01 DA05629-09A2),
$4,063,286; ASU subcontract of $1,451,215.
Dates: 2003-2008
Purpose: The project adapts and extends the Drug Resistance Strategies
keepin’it REAL prevention program (now designated a SAMSHA
“model” program) from middle school to 5th grade, with
an intensive examination of the role of immigration and acculturation
in drug use and drug use prevention among the southwest youth population.
The study involves over 60 local elementary schools whose students
will participate in a randomized trial of the prevention program,
and then followed to 7 and to 9th grade.
Notes: DRS-4 supports one doctoral level ASU Sociology research
assistant. The project employs mixed methods, including school ethnography,
survey research and participatory action research.
Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium (SIRC)
Investigators: Flavio Marsiglia, Principal Investigator (Social
Work);
Stephen Kulis, Co-Principal Investigator (Sociology)
Sociology Faculty Team Members: Verna Keith. Jennie Kronenfeld,
Karen Miller-Loessi, Scott Yabiku
Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH grant R24 DA13937-01),
$1,815,000
Dates: 2002-2007
Purpose: SIRC conducts multi-disciplinary community-based research
on culturally-grounded drug use prevention, and culturally responsive,
resiliency-focused drug abuse services. SIRC facilitates research
collaborations among fourteen faculty from Social Work and five
faculty from Sociology, along with faculty from Psychology, Justice
Studies, and Education.
Notes: SIRC supports two doctoral level ASU Sociology graduate
students, pilot research, work groups preparing grant proposals,
and a mentorship program that pairs junior faculty members with
more senior researchers to develop externally funded proposals for
research on drug use. See the SIRC webpage for information on pilot
projects.
Influence of Peers on School Readiness and Adjustment
(1 R01 HD45816-01A1)
Carol Martin, Richard Fabes, Laura Hanish
09/01/04 to 08/31/09
Direct costs: $1,518,000
Source: NICHD
The major purpose of the Understanding School Success (USS) Project
is to examine the role that peers and peer interactions play in
affecting children's readiness for, transition to, and adjustment
in school. Children's preschool social relationships are intensively
examined and used as predictors of how they adapt to kindergarten
and first-grade. In this work, we rely on two different observational
protocols and newly developed dynamic methods for assessing time-dependent
variations in peer relationship processes over the preschool year
as well as more traditional methodologies for studying peer relationships.
One significant contribution of this research will be to provide
a detailed assessment of how young children’s relationships
with same- and opposite-sex peers contributes to school-related
success for boys and girls. Additionally, this work is conducted
in collaboration with local Head Start Programs, and economic and
cultural (the sample is predominantly Mexican American and Anglo
American) underpinnings of the relations between early peer relationships
and school-success will be evaluated.
Culture, Context, and Mexican American Mental Health
Mark W. Roosa, PI; Nancy Gonzales, George knight, and Delia Saenz,
Co-PIs.
7/01/03 to 4/30/08
Direct costs: $2, 420, 689
Source: NIMH
This study, known locally as La Familia, is designed to examine
how culture (individual cultural orientation) and the contexts of
families, schools, and communities interact to influence development
particularly mental health and school success. This is a longitudinal
study of 700 Mexican American families recruited from 32 randomly
selected schools from across the Phoenix metropolitan area with
data being collected from parents, children, teachers, schools,
and archival sources (i.e., census). Guided by a strong Community
Advisory Board, this study will attempt to study a diverse group
of Mexican American families in terms of social class, time spent
in the U.S., and immigration status to avoid the biases of previous
studies that usually have focused on low-income, inner-city, and
recent immigrant families.
Inclusive Physical Activity Intervention: Curricula
and Assessment
Mike Tufte (PI, Arizona Easter Seals), Richard Fabes, and Laura
Hanish (Co-PIs)
1/1/2005 – 12/31/2007
Direct Costs: $600,000
Source: Department of Education
Together with the Easter Seals Arizona’s Adaptive Respite
and Recreation Program, Richard Fabes and Laura Hanish were recently
awarded a grant from the Department of Education. The award falls
under the grant program of the Carol M. White Physical Education
Program and the goal of this 3-year grant is to provide teacher
training in developing activities that can used in the classroom
to improve the physical development and health of typically-developing
children and those with disabilities. ASU researchers will be involved
in designing and conducting the assessment and evaluation of the
impact of the program.
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