Health in Social Context
The establishment on campus of a school of public health emphasizing the social and behavioral sciences provides the opportunity to integrate innovative basic social science approaches pioneered by MPRC scholars with outstanding research on improving health and reducing health disparities situated in a social and environmental context. Examples to date include the application of time use methods to obesity, the application of models of gender and parenthood to health, and the environmental context of physical activity.
Research in this area includes:
- determinants of infant, child, and youth health;
- health and aging; and
- impact of health care systems and social programs.
Some examples of current research in this area can be seen below.
IPUMS - Time Use website launched
Hofferth and colleagues help make time use data readily accessible
U.S. Women Veteran's Experiences of War
Jones awarded NEH grant to document 100 years of women veteran's war experiences
Laurie DeRose: The World Family Map Project
The World Family Map Project investigates what makes families strong
The Healthy Generations Program: Improving Access to Mental Health Care
New model of integrated service delivery makes mental health services more accessible to teenaged parents
Gneisha Dinwiddie Investigates Links Between Race, Lifelong Stress, and Cardiovascular Disease
Ongoing social and economic stress leads to racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes
Affordable Care for All?
Faculty associate Jerome Dugan investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status, health insurance coverage, and affordable quality care
Race, Gender, and Obesity: How the Social Environment Constrains or Enables Physical Activity
Faculty associate Rashawn Ray investigates the social and environmental changes needed in order to remove neighborhood barriers to regular physical exercise
Using propensity scores for causal inference with covariate measurement error
Faculty Associate Frauke Kreuter's project, an R01 funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, seeks to develop and assess new statistical methods
Multidimensional Pathways to Healthy Aging among Filipino Women
Feinian Chen is working with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on an interdisciplinary study for the National Institute on Aging on health and functional outcomes in women's "transitional years" of middle and later adulthood
Change in Elderly Living Arrangements in Rural South Africa, 2000-2010
Sangeetha Madhavan project, an R03 funded by NICHD, examines the impact of HIV on the probability that an elderly person will face a transition in living arrangements
How Does the Amount of Time Mothers Spend with Children Matter?
Dr. Milkie's research helps to reshape cultural frames regarding maternal time and children's well being
Dagher: Prevention of postpartum depression could yield health care cost savings
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health R18 study is first to examine the relation between postpartum depression and health services expenditures
Teens, Technology, and Dating Violence
Donna Howard and colleagues are studying the impact of electronic communication technologies on dating violence
Air Pollution, Subclinical CVD and Inflammatory Markers in the Search Cohort
Faculty Associate Robin Puett undertakes R01 study of air pollution effects for diabetes and cardiovascular disease
Race / Ethnic Differentials in the Health Implications of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren,
Faculty Associate Feinian Chen studies health implications for grandparents caring for grandchildren
The Effects of Changes in Medicaid Physician Fees on the Use of Preventative Care
Faculty Associate Karoline Mortensen to model effects of Affordable Care Act on Medicaid enrollees
Asian American Liver Cancer Education Program in Maryland
Faculty Associate Sunmin Lee is wrapping up a four-year grant evaluating the effectiveness of educational intervention on disease awareness
Chen studying women's transition to later adulthood
Interdisciplinary project working with scholars from the University of North Carolina
Vivian Hoffman studies women's sanitation impact in developing countries
Environmental and social impacts for women deriving from menstrual sanitation practices
How Does Parental Stress Affect Child Outcomes?
Natasha Cabrera has completed a paper on “Parenting and early predictors of Latino children’s cognitive and social development: Direct and Indirect Effects”