Project Categories

Mood and Behavior Disorders in Children and Adolescents - Past, Present, and Future

Award Year: 2013 Investigator: Laura Hirshbein
Over the last decade, researchers and epidemiologists have reported extraordinarily high rates of mental illness among American children and adolescents. Though it would seem logical to focus policy interventions on access to care and dissemination of evidence-based practices, what if the prevalence data is based on problematic methods to diagnose mental illness?

Healthy Adolescent Relationships: Temporal Dynamics, Normative Scripts and the Transition to Sex

Award Year: 2005 Investigator: Hannah Bruckner, Peter Bearman
The complicated world of adolescent relationships is such a volatile topic that subjecting it to scientific scrutiny is often an invitation to controversy. But understanding and addressing some of today's most pressing public health and societal concerns, including sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, demands an unflinching look at relationships and sexuality in the often turbulent transition from child to adult. Co-investigators Peter S. Bearman, Ph.D.
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Race, Politics and Adolescent Health: Understanding the Health Attitudes and Behaviors of African American Youth

Award Year: 2004 Investigator: Cathy Cohen
Young African Americans face serious health risks and other vulnerabilities resulting from social disadvantage. The higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS, obesity, type 2 diabetes, homicide, and teen pregnancy in this population is well documented. Yet little is known about the attitudes of African American youth toward health, healthy living, and the health care system. Cathy J. Cohen, Ph.D.

Social Contagion of Adolescent Violence

Award Year: 2001 Investigator: Jeffrey Fagan
While the 1985-1998 epidemic of adolescent violence in U.S. cities has generated intense scholarly and policy interest, spatial and temporal diffusion of the epidemic have been largely overlooked. This project will explore whether current models of infectious disease epidemics can be adapted to explain the spread of youthful violence - particularly its onset, spread, peak, recession and cessation.