Doctoral Dissertation Awards and New Investigator Awards
2004 Doctoral Dissertation Abstracts
Brittany Coats, BSE
University of Pennsylvania
120 Hayden Hall
3320 Smith Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-898-9055
Fax: 214-573-2071
E-mail: bcoats@seas.upenn.edu
Project Title: Mechanics of Head Impact in Infants
Project Period: 8/01/04–7/31/05
Description: Falls are the most common cause of unintentional injury
among infants (<1 year) as well as the most common history provided
by caretakers in cases of suspected child abuse. A recent study
reported that there is a clinician bias to investigate the
possibility of child abuse more thoroughly in ethnic and racial
minority families than in Caucasian families. The long-term
objective of this study is to aid in the development of a more
objective evaluation strategy to distinguish between
violence-related and unintentional injury etiologies by defining
biomechanical tolerances of pediatric tissues and mechanisms of
injury. Skull fracture is a common finding for both violence-related
and unintentional head injuries, and it is not clear what fall
heights cause skull fracture in young children. The goals of the
proposed research plan are to conduct tissue mechanical property
testing of human infant skull and suture, perform detailed
anthropomorphic dummy simulations, and combine them to identify fall
conditions and violence-related impact forces associated with skull
fracture.
The specific aims are as follows:
1. Measure the rate-dependent material properties of cranial suture
and occipital/parietal bone of human infant skull. Identify the
stress/strain thresholds of human infant skull and suture associated
with fracture.
2. Construct a biofidelic 1½-month-old infant dummy and measure the
forces resulting from cranial impact after falls from 1, 3, and 5
feet onto soft and hard household surfaces.
3. Obtain parental accounts, in addition to medical records, of
witnessed accidental falls of infants admitted with and without
skull fracture.
4. Recreate these accidental falls using the biofidelic infant
created in Aim 2 and measure the resulting impact forces.
These key elements will be used in computational models to identify
fall heights that exceed the stress/strain thresholds for the human
infant skull and suture associated with fracture. By determining the
fall heights capable of creating skull fracture, clinicians will be
better equipped to make objective assessments in identifying
violence-related head injuries, unbiased by race or ethnicity.
Robert Winchell Faris, MA
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
319-D Roseanu Hall, CB7440
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440
Phone: 919-843-5424
Fax: 919-966-2921
E-mail: faris@email.unc.edu
Project Title: Race, Social Networks, and Bullying
Project Period: 8/01/04–7/31/05
Description: The long-term goal of this research is to understand the
relationships between race, social networks, and bullying behavior. The
first objective is to understand the relative importance of three broad
sets of variables—family background, social position in a peer network,
and physical development—in predicting bullying and victimization, and
how those relationships vary by race and ethnicity. The second objective
is to better understand how the consequences of bullying and
victimization vary by race. The second analysis will examine a variety
of outcomes, including school attachment, academic performance, mental
health and suicide risk, popularity, delinquency, substance use, and
self-esteem. The third objective is to detect whether, and under what
conditions, bullying is racially motivated. This involves examining
bullying from a dyadic perspective, asking whether mixed-race pairs of
students are more likely to involve victimization (compared with
same-race pairs), and what factors—especially racial diversity and
racial friendship integration—mitigate or exacerbate victimization. The
ultimate end of this research is to inform abuse-prevention efforts that
address these contextual differences.
Data for the research come from a longitudinal social network study of
three North Carolina counties. All 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (more than
6,000 students) in the three counties have been interviewed biannually
for 2 years, and will be followed for 2 additional years. In addition to
questions concerning substance use, mental health, parenting style,
school involvement, academic performance, and other background
questions, students are asked to nominate up to five of their closest
friends, providing invaluable information about peer influences.
Students are also asked to nominate those whom they pick on and those
who pick on them and to describe the form and frequency of abuse.
Matthew Irvin, MA
Center for Developmental Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 E. Franklin Street, Suite 200, CB#8115
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8115
Phone: 919-843-0070
Fax: 919-966-4520
E-mail: mirvin@email.unc.edu
Project Title: Risk for Violence and Injury in Rural African-American
Youth
Project Period: 8/01/04–7/31/05
Description: In the United States, interpersonal violence is a leading
cause of death and injury for African-American adolescents. Although
considerable research has clarified risk and protective factors for
interpersonal conflict and violence in inner-city African-American
youth, relatively little research has focused on rural youth. To promote
the development of effective violence prevention programs for rural
African-American youth, research is needed to identify individual and
social factors that contribute to or protect against youths' involvement
in interpersonal conflict, violence, and associated injury.
To fill this research need, this study has five specific aims:
1. To examine the linkages between interpersonal conflict, fighting, and
subsequent injury;
2. To identify individual and social factors that are linked to
interpersonal conflict, violence, and injury in rural African-American
high school students;
3. To identify individual and social factors that are linked to
non-involvement in interpersonal conflict, violence, and injury in rural
African-American high school students;
4. To identify longitudinal variables (i.e., individual and social
factors across the middle school years) that function as risk and
protective factors for involvement in interpersonal conflict, violence,
and injury for at-risk youth (popular-aggressive, unpopular-aggressive);
5. To identify proximal variables (i.e., at the time of reported
conflict and fighting) that function as risk and protective factors for
violence and injury during episodes of interpersonal conflict.
Kathryn S. Laughon, RN, MSN
The Johns Hopkins University
School of Nursing
525 N. Wolfe Street, Room 306
Baltimore, MD 21205
Phone: 410-382-6165
Fax: 410-614-1446
E-mail: klaughon@son.jhmi.edu
Project Title: Violence, Mental Health, Substance Use: Testing a
Model
Project Period: 09/01/03–08/31/04
Description: The project will employ a mixed-method design to
simultaneously address two main research objectives: (1) 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; (2) 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) data set. 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 and 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 stated specific aims follow:
1. Identify the relationship between experiences with childhood abuse
and adult IPV and HIV/STI risk among poor women of color;
2. Test the hypothesized partial mediating effects of mental health and
substance use on the relationship between violence and HIV/STI
protective behaviors; and
3. Explore abused women's strengths in maintaining their sexual health
and preventing further violence.
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.
Michael R. McCart, MS
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Phone: 414-229-2932
Fax: 414-229-5219
E-mail: mmccart@uwm.edu
Project Title: Reducing Violence/Victimization in Assaulted Urban
Youth
Project Period: 09/01/03–08/31/04
Description: Adolescent assault victims are known to show increased
rates of aggressive behavior, which places them at increased risk for
violent behavior or further victimization. This situation is especially
salient for African-American males, who are more likely than any other
racial, ethnic, or gender group to experience violent crime. 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. There is a critical need for research on effective
violence prevention programs for minority populations.
This study will use a randomized clinical trial to examine the
effectiveness of a culturally sensitive, group-based violence
intervention package for a sample of African American boys (ages 14 to
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 2-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.
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