African American Mental Health Research Program

Investigators:   James S. Jackson, James M. Lepkowski, David R. Williams, Cleopatra Howard Caldwell, Linda M. Chatters, Harold W. Neighbors, Randolph M. Nesse, Daphna R. Oyserman, Trivellore Raghunathan, Robert J. Taylor, Steven J. Trierweiler

T he program project has stress, coping, and the adaptation of African Americans as its central focus and reflects the strengths of established and new personnel of the Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA). Conceptually and methodologically we emphasize a multiple level approach to the investigation of the racial, ethnic, systemic, and cultural influences on: 1) the distribution, risk, and protective factors related to serious mental disorder and mental health service use; 2) phenomenological experiences of symptoms and disorders; and 3) diagnosis and treatment issues in community, inpatient, and outpatient populations. Administrative and Methodological/Statistical Cores and three interrelated substantive pilot and secondary analysis projects are funded over a five-year period. The Program Project Cores are designed to provide administrative support, a focal set of intellectual and research activities, and expert statistical and methodological support for the proposed empirical projects. Each of the three studies is tied to the central core concern of stress, coping, and adaptation among African Americans, are inter-related, and will provide critical data for the design and implementation of future competitive applications. Clinical Validation of CIDI Diagnoses in African Americans will examine cultural factors impacting not only on the reliability of mental health diagnosis (using the CIDI and the SCID), but also the validity of the assigned diagnosis. SCID interviews of African American patients, some interviewed by same-race and others by different-race clinicians, will be video taped and examined by an expert clinician, who will then review the tape separately with both the respondent and the interviewing clinician. This data will provide a wealth of information on the clinical process and how it may be affected by cultural factors. Antecedents of Racial Identity and Possible Selves focuses on the developmental and social contextual contexts influencing content of racial identity and possible selves among adolescents. The proposed research addresses this gap using a large and diverse sample of African American and other minority eighth grade youth from six states. aternity in Early Childbearing examines the mental health consequences of early paternity among African American adolescent fathers over four time periods. Successful or problematic outcomes among young fathers as they attempt to meet parenting responsibilities and negotiate the developmental tasks of adolescence will be investigated.

Funding Period: 06/01/2001 to 05/31/2008

PSC Research Themes:

Health Conditions, Disability (Health, Disability, and Mortality)
Health Disparities by Race, Gender, Context, SES (Health, Disability, and Mortality)


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