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Doctoral Dissertation Awards and New Investigator Awards  

2003 Doctoral Dissertation Abstracts

Violence, Mental Health, Substance Use: Testing a Model
Principal Investigator: Kathryn S. Laughon, Johns Hopkins-School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
The project will employ a mixed method design to simultaneously address two main research objectives: understanding the relationships among experiences of IPV and childhood abuse and a number of health outcomes, including mental distress, substance use, and risk for STIs; and identifying abused women’s areas of strength in maintaining their sexual health and preventing further violence. 

To address the first and primary research aim, secondary data will be used with 445 women (434 of which are African American, primarily poor) to test an adaptation of Wingood’s and DiClemente’s model of gender and power in public health. The data were part of the Women, AIDS, and the Violence Epidemic (WAVE) dataset. Using structural equation modeling, the study will examine the direct and indirect influences of lifetime trauma, current IPV, economic resources, mental health status, and substance use on HIV/STI risk. 

To address the qualitative question, structured follow-up interviews will be conducted with approximately 20 women in the first study to examine sexual health practices. With the aid of NVivo, dimensional analysis will be employed to analyze the data.

The project has three aims: 

It is hoped the results of this dissertation research will serve as the basis for developing a future, empirically sound nursing intervention to reduce further violence and HIV/STI risk among abused women. 

Reducing Violence/Victimization in Assaulted Urban Youth
Principal Investigator: Michael R. McCart, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
Adolescent assault victims are known to show increased rates of aggressive behavior, which places them at increased risk for violent behavior and/or further victimization. This situation is especially salient for African-American males who are more likely than any other ethnic and gender group to experience violent crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000). A number of interventions are available to reduce violence by treating youths' aggressive behavior, but most have been developed for and evaluated with Caucasian youth. This points to the critical need for research on effective violence prevention programs with minority populations. The aim of this study is to use a randomized clinical trial to examine the effectiveness of a culturally-sensitive, group-based violence intervention package for a sample of “African American” males (ages 14-17) assaulted by violence. This package combines the best elements of existing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and behavioral parent training (BPT) programs for reducing youth violence and victimization. Youth and their parents will be randomly assigned to either the combined intervention or a BPT intervention only. Baseline, post-intervention, and two-month follow-up assessments will be used to examine the effects of the interventions on youths' aggressive behavior and prosocial competence. The study also aims to explore whether the effectiveness of this intervention package is moderated by comorbid post-traumatic stress symptoms. Research has identified a relationship between aggressive behavior and post-traumatic stress symptoms among youth living in violent urban communities. The study will examine whether these comorbid psychiatric symptoms affect treatment outcome. The study supports Healthy People 2010 and the CDC Injury Research Agenda objectives on reducing violence by developing, implementing, and evaluating an intervention to decrease aggressive behavior among at-risk minority male youth.


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