Adolescent Behavioral Repertoire and Marijuana Use in Early Adulthood
Project Period: October 2003-September 2004
Principal Investigator: Chuan-Yu Chen, PhD
Co-Investigators: Carla L. Storr, ScD
Focus Area: Substance Use, Psychiatric Epidemiology, Maryland Metropolitan areas
General Information: Building upon the nature of prospective study and the multidimensional measures of adolescent behavioral repertoire, the main aims of this research: (1) to assess the association between the adolescent behavioral repertoire and different stages of marijuana involvement in an US urban adolescent population; and (2) to examine the role of the adolescent behavioral repertoire in the transition of marijuana experiences.
A Pilot Project to Inform the Development of a New Type of HIV Prevention Program for High-Risk Adolescents
Project Period: December 2003 – December 2004
Principal Investigator: Jonathan Ellen, MD
Co-Investigators: Dr. Lori Leonard
Project Coordinators: Chavonne Lenoir, Emma Tsui
Focus Area: Sexual Health, HIV, STD, Baltimore
General Information: The purpose of this study was to gather data that will help to develop HIV and STD prevention programs for high-risk adolescents that moves beyond the conventional models as well as the constraints imposed by the conceptualization of interventions in terms of ‘levels’ or of spatial or temporal distance from the point of disease transmission.
Barriers to Cardiac Rehabilitation in Women
Project Period: October 2000–September 2002
Partner: Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Principal Investigator: Jerilyn Allen, RN, ScD
Co-Investigators: Lisa Benz Scott, PhD; Kerry J. Stewart, EdD; Deborah R. Young, PhD
Project Staff: Carol Curtis
Focus Area: Health Care
General Information: This project examined factors of patients (i.e. depression, comorbidities, attitudes and beliefs about rehabilitation), physicians (i.e. knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cardiac rehabilitation and women), and cardiac rehabilitation services (i.e. types of services, patients perceived accessibility and availability) that may contribute to whether women are referred to and whether they enroll and complete outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programs.
Center for Urban Families: The Impact Story Enhanced
Project Period: 2012-2013
Partner: Center for Urban Families
Principal Investigator: Terrinieka Williams Powell, PhD
Contact Information: Terrinieka Williams Powell, PhD
Focus Area: Employment/Income (social determinant of health)
General Information: The goal is to enhance the Center for Urban Families’ capacity to document how the job readiness program, STRIVE Baltimore, impacts clients and their partners and kin. Life history interviews will be conducted with 20 STRIVE graduates (18-25 years old) and persons they nominate as a significant other.
General Information: The goal of our study is to conduct a process evaluation and a longitudinal impact evaluation of two Cookshop projects: Cookshop Classroom and Cookshop Families, which target early elementary school students and their parents in the NYC public schools.
Culturally Integrated Health Promotion in Urban Churches: Project Joy
Project Period: October 1995-September 2001
Partner: Center for Health Promotion, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Principal Investigator: Diane M. Becker, RN, ScD, MPH
Co-Investigators: Jerilyn Allen, ScD; Joel Gittelsohn, PhD; Taryn Moy, RD, MS; Lisa Yanek, MPH
Contact Information: Lisa R. Yanek, MPH
Focus Area: Cardiovascular Health, Health Promotion
General Information: To promote the health of African American women through the reduction of cardiovascular health risks. 16 moderate size (>250 members) churches participated in this study. The churches were randomized into one of three interventions including: (1) a spiritually based behavior modification program with individual recommendations, weekly sessions with a health educator for four months and weekly sessions with lay leaders for eight months, (2) a non spiritually based behavior modification program with individual recommendations, weekly sessions with a health educator for four months and weekly sessions with lay leaders for eight months, or (3) a self-help behavior modification program with individual recommendations and no weekly sessions.
Dating Matters Curriculum Implementation
Project Period: 2012-2015
Partner: Baltimore City Health Department
Principal Investigator: Terrinieka Williams Powell, PhD
Contact Information: Katrina Brooks
Focus Area: Dating Violence
General Information: As part of a three year evaluation study to test the effectiveness of the Dating Matters curriculum in an urban setting, the Center will be implementing the curriculum with students in 12 Baltimore City middle schools.
Healthy Minds at Work (HMAW)
Project Period: October 2008-2013
Partner: Eastside YO Center
Principal Investigators: Darius Tandon
Focus Area: Mental Health, Adolescent Health
General Information: The Center’s previous core research project developed and evaluated a mental health intervention in an urban youth employment and training program setting that serves teenagers and young adults who have left school. HMAW aimed to more fully address the many mental health issues faced by young people at the Baltimore Youth Opportunity (YO) programs through mental health screenings, mental health education/training, psycho-educational activities for YO members and comprehensive mental health services.
HONESTY Project
Project Period: 2010-2015
Partner: Kennedy Krieger Institute; Gaydos; Moore Clinic
Principal Investigators: Jacinda Dariotis & Co-Investigator Kathleen Cardona
Focus Area: Sexual Risk, Substance Use, Violence
General Information: HOrmonal & NEurological Survey of Texting Youth project looks to examine adolescent (ages 18-24) decision-making from both a biological (brain activity, hormones) and social (attitudes, knowledge) perspective and is a 1-year longitudinal study.
Monitoring Adolescents in Risky Situations Project (MARS)
Project Period: January 1997-September 2000
Partner: Maryland AIDS Administration, National Network for Youth, and Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
Principal Investigators: Cheryl Alexander RN, PhD, and Robert W. Strack PhD, MBA
Focus Area: Alcohol Use, Mental Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Substance Use, Maryland, Runaway and homeless experiences, Systems Youth, HIV/AIDS.
General Information: The purpose of this study was to try to understand the behaviors and situations that place young people not currently living at home at risk for health problems. An "Out-of-Home" Youth Survey, designed for youth that receive services through youth group homes and shelters, was developed through the M.A.R.S. project. The goals of the MARS Project are: 1) to evaluate the appropriateness and feasibility of using standard HIV risking behavior items (i.e. Youth Risk Behavior Survey) as a behavioral surveillance instrument for youth that are in "out-of-home" situations; 2) to develop and test items that specifically address the contexts in which high risk sexual and substance use behaviors occur, and the protective behaviors young people use to avoid exposure to HIV infection; 3) to administer the developed instrument to youth (n=328) in group homes and shelters throughout Maryland; and 4) analyze and provide information to project partners and agencies.
NSAM (National Survey of Adolescent Males)
Project Period: 1988-
Principal Investigator: Freya Sonenstein
Co-Investigators: Arik Marcell, Jacinda Dariotis, Nan Astone
Focus Area: Male Sexual Health
General Information: This survey collects and analyzes new data for the National Survey of Adolescent Males to enhance understanding of the changes in young men's romantic relationships and sexual risk behaviors in young adulthood among men who were between the ages of 15 and 19 at the time of the first data collection and are now in their 30's.
Neighborhood and Families: Influences on Adolescent Behaviors
Project Period: October 1998-September 2001
Partner: Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, Health Resources Administration
Principal Investigator: Cheryl S. Alexander, RN, PhD
Co-Investigators: Nan Astone, PhD, Karen Bandeen-Roche, PhD, Margaret Ensminger, PhD, Debra Mekos, PhD, Kathleen Roche, MSW, PhD
Project Coordinator: Shelly Trim, MPH
Focus Area: Neighborhoods, Youth Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Baltimore
General Information: This was a three year study involving secondary data analysis of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and primary collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from three neighborhoods in Baltimore City.
A Methodological Appraisal of Photovoice as a Participatory Community Needs/Assets Assessment Tool
Focus Area: Community Based Participatory Research, Baltimore
General Information: The Photovoice project was designed to give young people a voice by engaging them in the process of defining and discussing the issues that affect the health of youth in their community through photography. It also attempted to assess the degree to which the Photovoice process could be used as a tool for engaging youth as research partners in their own community.
Multistate Lifetable Analysis: Promoting Interdisciplinary Public Health Research Using Demographic Methods with Stata Statistical Software
Project Period: October 2002-September 2003
Principal Investigator: Margaret M. Weden
Focus Area: Methods
General Information: This project was designed to promote the application of demographic methods by making multistate life table analysis readily accessible to Stata Statistical Software users. Multistate life tables allow researchers to capture dynamic histories of individual experience over the life course and translate them into broader statements about population trends. Application of these methods enable a researcher to more fully explore the implications of life history and the transitions between various social, economic and environmental contexts. Target Population: Social science researchers
Overweight Status of Adolescents in the Baltimore City School Based Health Program
Focus Area: School Health, Baltimore, Neighborhoods, Nutrition, Primary Data Analysis
General Information: This project was a collaborative effort with the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) and Johns Hopkins University to estimate the prevalence of adolescent obesity in Baltimore City and to evaluate the need for additional programming related to overweight youth in the school based medical centers. We evaluated the prevalence of at-risk and obese youth in our school based health clinics as compared to national estimates and identify neighborhoods most significantly affected by obesity using census tract identification and geographic information systems technology.
Understanding the Cultural Context of Family Strengths and Adolescent Childbearing
Project Period: October 2003–September 2004
Partner: Center for Applied Research & Technical Assistance, Inc.
Focus Area: Sexual and reproductive health, Baltimore City, Families, Secondary data analysis
General Information: This project address gaps in both existing research and youth development practice. Specifically, it broadens our understanding of family characteristics that may be important for adolescent fertility behavior of youth of color. In addition, it will gather insights directly from families about the factors that promote and hinder their ability to support their adolescent children. The project will translate findings into recommendations for additional research and for program strategies that can be used to guide local prevention efforts in Baltimore City.
Parenting Adolescents Investing in Real Success (PAIRS)
Project Staff: Anna Groskin, MHS candidate, Marilyn Akinfolarin, MHS, Chanza Baytop, DrPH candidate, Hibist Astatke, PhD-Post Doctoral Fellow
Focus Area: second births, repeat births, adolescent pregnancy, Evaluation, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Baltimore
General Information: The Parenting Adolescents Investing in Real Success (PAIRS) project is a Baltimore City Health Department case-management program for addressing the family planning, academic and social needs of parenting female adolescents. PAIRS is founded on the positive preliminary results of the case-management portion of the Teen Incentive Project (TIPs) that was conducted from March 1997 to 2000 at the Healthy Teens and Young Adults clinic in West Baltimore. The case management model is designed to promote healthy adolescent development and behaviors by establishing a personal relationship between the caseworker and adolescent participant. The PAIRS study uses a case-management model with parenting female adolescents receiving services at the same Healthy Teens and Young Adults clinic in West Baltimore.
Focus Area: Transitions to Adulthood, Youth Development, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Secondary Data Analysis
General Information: This project focuses on a new construct in life course development: relationship progression in late adolescence and early adulthood among young men. As young men mature, most move through a series of romantic relationships. This concept is implicit in the ways that many young adults discuss their relationships, but is absent from the current literature on adolescent transition to adulthood. Our project posits 1) that patterns of relationship progression exist in late adolescent and early adult development, 2) that these patterns are influenced by various factors, and 3) that these patterns have consequences in young adult development. How young men progress towards more durable romantic relationships is an important question because there is considerable concern among policy makers and others that young men today are only loosely attached to their romantic partners and their children.
General Information: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, retest reliability, and concurrent validity of two physical activity self-report instruments.
Project Connect
Project Period: 2012-2017
Principal Investigator: Arik Marcell, M.D., Freya L. Sonenstein, PhD
Focus Area: Reproductive health services (HIV & STIs)
General Information: This project focuses on a new construct in life course development: relationship progression in late adolescence and early adulthood among young men. As young men mature, most move through a series of romantic relationships. This concept is implicit in the ways that many young adults discuss their relationships, but is absent from the current literature on adolescent transition to adulthood. Our project posits 1) that patterns of relationship progression exist in late adolescent and early adult development, 2) that these patterns are influenced by various factors, and 3) that these patterns have consequences in young adult development. How young men progress towards more durable romantic relationships is an important question because there is considerable concern among policy makers and others that young men today are only loosely attached to their romantic partners and their children.
Child Maltreatment and Functioning in Adolescence and Early Adulthood
General Information: The project explored the relationship of past maltreatment to functioning among 18 to 25 year old young adults in the U.S. Data from Waves I to III of the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) will be used in the analyses. Both bivariate (i.e., descriptive) and multivariate analyses of the Wave III Add Health data will be conducted. Multivariate analyses will use logistic regression for each of four impairment outcomes, high school graduation, adult criminal conviction, welfare receipt, and alcohol related impairment, and will also include multiple explanatory variables. Target Population: 18 to 25 year old young adults
Parent and Adolescent Perceptions of Adolescent Involvement in Clinical Care and Research
Co-Investigators: Tina L. Cheng, MD, MPH; Gail Geller, ScD; Catherine Parrish, MD
Focus Area: Risk behavior research, Evaluation
General Information: The goals of this study were to:
Assess parental and adolescent perceptions of the need for parental consent, confidentiality, and expectations for disclosure of information regarding risk behavior in clinical care and risk behavior research.
Assess parental and adolescent perceptions of the need for risk behavior research.
Assess parental and adolescent knowledge of local statutes regarding confidentiality and disclosure in adolescent clinical care.
Reaching Adolescents through Food Stores: An Environmental Intervention Program to Improve Diet and Nutrition in East Baltimore
Project Period: January-December 2004
Partners: Center for a Livable Future, Baltimore City Health Department-Child and Adult Care Food Program, Housing Authority of Baltimore City-Division of Family Support Services, The Men’s Center, Middle East Community Development Corporation, Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition, Baltimore’s Safe and Sound Campaign, St. Francis Academy, Super A Farms, Stop, Shop & Save, and Baltimore Public Markets Corporation
Principal Investigator: Joel Gittelsohn, PhD, MSc
Co-Investigators: Benjamin Caballero, Kevin D. Frick, Jean Anliker, and Sangita Sharma
Project Coordinator: Sharla Jennings
Project Team members: Chrisa Arcan, Tae H. Chong, and Justine E. Dang
Focus Area: Nutrition, Neighborhoods, Baltimore
General Information: The program, which was based on the formative research coupled with the recommendations from Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans (USDA, 2002) and the Food Guide Pyramid will function on multiple levels. At the individual and behavioral levels, consumers were provided with the opportunity to acquire specific skills and knowledge that will support healthful changes in food selection, preparation and consumption. At the environmental level, intervention stores were asked to stock and actively promote selected foods and preparation methods. Trainings were held for the owners, managers, and staff of the intervention stores, and will introduce the goals of the project, intervention activities, and the role of the store staff in promoting and maintaining the intervention.
Revisiting Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARC) use in Baltimore
Project Period: 2013-2015
Partners: Baltimore City Health Departement
Principal Investigator: Beth Marshall, DrPH
Focus Area: Sexual and Reproductive Health
General Information: The purpose of this community-based participatory research was to address barriers and facilitators for LARC use among high risk populations. The goal was to ensure that appropriate interventions are developed to improve health education and behavior among this population.
SPARQ (Study of Patient Attitudes Regarding Quality)
Project Period: 2006-2011
Principal Investigator: Freya Sonenstein
Partner: Baltimore City Health Department and Title X Family Planning Agencies in New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, & California
Co-Investigators: Kathleen M. Cardona, Nanlesta Pilgrim
Focus Area: Family Planning
General Information: The purpose of the project is to link together a network of research-oriented family planning agencies around the specific aim of assessing and improving service quality with the expectation of developing a successful precedent for collaboration as a means of strengthening family planning research.
The Southeast Baltimore REACH Partnership - Community Resource Mapping Project
Partners: Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, Julie Community Center, and Southeast Youth Academy
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Alexander, RN, PhD
Co-Investigators: Dominque Charlot-Swilley, Barbara English, Joan Kub, Kara McDonagh, Debra Mekos, Carol Lynn Pucciarrella, Robert Strack
Project staff:Chanza Baytop, Azikiwe DeVeaux, Shelly Trim, Kelly Briscoe, and Mick Young
Focus Area: Community Based Participatory Research, Youth, Adolescents, After-School Programming, Neighborhood, Baltimore
General Information: Sixteen community youth and adults conducted surveys with 17 youth organizations, 3 middle and high schools, and 3 health care providers in Southeast Baltimore. The survey included questions on location and hours of operation, populations served, programs and services offered, staffing and staff training, collaboration with other organizations, organizational needs, and major health concerns of adolescents in Southeast.
The Southeast Baltimore Reaching Every Adolescent by Collaborating for Health (REACH) Partnership PALS After-School Program
Focus Area: Youth Development, Health Risk Behaviors
General Information: The PAL programs overall objectives were to reduce crime and violence through character development, academic enrichment, arts and cultural activities, and sports.
The Southeast Baltimore REACH Partnership (Reach Every Adolescent by Collaborating for Health) AmeriCorps Program
Project Period: November 2000 – November 2002
Partner: Southeast Youth Academy
Principal Investigator: Kara McDonagh, MSW (affiliated with the Southeast Youth Academy)
Focus Area: Youth Development, Transition to Adulthood, Baltimore, Evaluation, School Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health
General Information: The AmeriCorps program is a 2-year intervention, involving two cohorts of AmeriCorps members as mentors for middle and high school youth attending the Southeast Youth Academy (SEYA). The program provides tutoring and homework assistance, recreational activities, creative and dramatic arts, computer classes, HIV education, field trips, and teen support groups. GED classes are also offered for community adults.
Strategies in Secondary Teen Pregnancy Prevention: A Systematic Review of Effectiveness
Focus Area: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Baltimore
Project Goals: To improve our understanding of the relative effectiveness of secondary teen pregnancy prevention programs in this country to date and to improve our understanding of the individual and program contextual factors that may influence teen mothers’ participation in case management interventions.
General Information: This project involves conducting a meta-analysis to summarize the effectiveness of interventions for teen mothers in the prevention of subsequent pregnancies or births during their teen years, as well as in the improvement of contraceptive use, education and employment; as well as conducting in-depth interviews with teen mothers who were participants of a Baltimore city secondary teen pregnancy prevention program. These interviews will help to identify factors that contribute to the high program attrition rates in many intervention programs for teen mothers like this program studied.
Trajectories for Aggressive and Violent Behavior: Predictors and Influences
Project Period: October 2000-September 2005
Partner: Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence
Principal Investigator: Howard Chilcoat, ScD, MHS, MS
Co-Investigators: James Anthony, PhD; Margaret Ensminger, PhD; Anne Duggan, ScD; Nick Ialongo, PhD; Kung-Yee Liang, PhD; Richard Meich, PhD; Kathleen Roche, MSW, PhD; Mei-Cheng Wang, PhD
Focus Area: Youth Violence, Transitions to Adulthood, Baltimore
General Information: Longitudinal data are being used to identify patterns of behavior occurring throughout childhood that signal high risk of violent behavior, to identify risk and protective factors in the child's social environment, including school based interventions, that might alter children's trajectories toward youth violence, and to test the impact of community context on youth violence. The results were used to aid the Baltimore City Safe and Sound Campaigns efforts in developing indicators of risk and protective factors that can be used to monitor citywide violence prevention interventions and to determine when and how to target specific types of interventions.
The Role of Adolescent Depressive Symptomatology in Internet Experiences
Project Period: September 2002 - August 2003
Principal Investigator: Michele Ybarra, MPH PhD
Focus Area: Mental Health, Depression, Internet Use, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Secondary Data Analysis
General Information: This is a secondary data analysis of a nationally representative sample of young regular Internet users.
Trends and Trajectories of Adolescent Depression Symptoms, and the Role of Social Support Systems
Focus Area: Mental health, depression, social support systems
General Information: The first part of this study is designed to address some of the gaps in knowledge in the area of adolescent depression (i.e. trends and trajectories of adolescent depression in both girls and boys from an urban and ethnically diverse population). The second part of the study will investigate the role of various dimensions of social support (parental, peer and school) in reducing depressive symptoms, and depict any differentials by sex and race/ethnicity, with the purpose of providing valuable information for targeting protective interventions that are appropriate developmentally, by gender and race/ethnicity.
Well-being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments
General Information: The WAVE study is funded by AztraZeneca with the goal of examining how disadvantaged adolescents in different urban environments define the meaning of health and ill health, and to describe where adolescents go for health information and services, as well as the barriers they face in seeking or accessing help. Each site (Baltimore, Rio, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Dehli, and Ibadan) collected qualitative data with young people aged 15-19 years and the adults who work with them. In addition each site collected survey data using respondent driven sampling.
YO! Health Screening Tool
Project Period: January 2002 – June 2003
Partners: Baltimore City Health Department and the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development Youth Opportunity Program
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Alexander, RN, PhD
Co-Investigators: Pat Paluzzi, CNM, DrPH
Other project staff: Beth Marshall, MPH, CHES, Juanita Sherman-Byrd
Focus Area: Health Care, Baltimore City
General Information: Investigators designed a remote one on one health education, triage, and referral program that allowed for the identification of uninsured youth, youth without medical homes, and youth with health issues or health risk behaviors. A medical assistant and two health educators circulated among the five YO! Centers interviewing participants with the assistance of a computerized screening tool (designed in Microsoft Access) that covered the domains of overall health status, health care utilization, violence, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, weight and physical activity, mental health and reproductive health. The items on the tool were selected from existing instruments used by the health department and local and national surveys including the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, the Maryland Adolescent Survey, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health.
