Explore the compelling research projects led by BUSSW faculty and funded by major grants
About M-C&Me: A Digital Tool to Support School Transitions for Military-Connected Students
Project Investigators:
- Co-PI: Renée Spencer, Boston University School of Social Work
- PI: Timothy Cavell, University of Arkansas
- Amy Slep, New York University
- Carla Herrera, Herrera Consulting, LLC
Sponsor:
U.S. Department of Defense
Description:
There are over 4 million military-connected students in the U.S. and the vast majority (> 90%) attend civilian schools. Military-connected students experience 6 to 9 moves during their K-12 grades, a mobility rate 3 times that of non-military children. We plan to develop and conduct an initial evaluation of a digital tool that can be used to support the school transitions of military-connected students in the elementary and middle school grades. This tool will capture information specific to the transitioning military-connected student that is conveyed to staff in the receiving school district along with key information about military family culture more generally. We will conduct a beta trial of About M-C & Me to gather feedback on whether this new digital tool is viewed by stakeholders as acceptable, non-harmful, appropriate, usable, important, and distinct from existing resources. Participants will be M-C students/parents and teachers from North Thurston Public Schools, located near Joint Base Lewis McChord.
Funding Period:
September 1, 2022 – February 28, 2025
Addressing Alcohol Health Disparities: A Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study of CHW delivered CAMI to Latino/a/e Alcohol and Drug users
Project Investigators:
- PI: Christina Lee, Boston University School of Social Work
- Co-I: Jorge Delva, Boston University School of Social Work
- Mari-Lynn Drainoni
- Kim Mueser
- Jake Mueser
Sponsor:
NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Description:
Using a Type 1 Hybrid randomized Effectiveness–Implementation design, Latino primary care patients will receive either a culturally adapted motivational interview (CAMI) from community health workers or standard care. The study’s public health impact is to minimize HD related to alcohol use among Latino/a/e primary care patients by: 1) providing a culturally tailored preventative SUD intervention with promising preliminary data in a primary care setting, thus minimizing stigma related to seeking care; 2) by examining how such interventions can be delivered in a real lift setting with high quality, and 3) understanding and disrupting the association between structural and individual stigma and substance use.
Funding Period:
September 10, 2020 – June 30, 2025
Building a Knowledge Base for the Prevention of Violence Against Young Children in South Africa
Project Investigators:
- Co-PI: Margaret Lombe, PhD, Boston University School of Social Work
- Co-PI: Lenette Azzi-Lessing, PhD, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
BU Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being
Description:
Objective is to build a knowledge base that will:
1. Provide the foundation for the development of an innovative, evidence-based, and community-informed pilot project to prevent violence against young children in a marginalized community in South Africa.
2. Further inform the violence-prevention efforts of policy makers, practitioners, and other researchers in South Africa and other Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
Funding Period:
July 2022 – Present
Character First: Harnessing the Power of Love in Promoting Character Development in YouthBuild Programs
Project Investigators:
- PI: Antoinette Basualdo-Delmonico (PhD’13), YouthBuild USA
- Co-PI: Renée Spencer, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
The Templeton Foundation
Description:
This project will identify the tactics effective leaders use to promote the program culture in the YouthBuild USA “Mental Toughness” orientation (MTO). YouthBuild (YB) programs annually partner with over 13,000 opportunity youth (those between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither in school nor employed) worldwide to build character strengths (e.g., responsibility, persistence) that lead to lifelong learning, livelihood, and leadership. A “Mental Toughness” orientation (MTO) serves as the entrée into YB and young people are introduced to the YB program culture with its emphasis on love, respect, belonging, and high expectations. This project will explore two main questions: (1) What specific attitudes, behaviors, and practices of adult leaders contribute to an environment that promotes love, respect, belonging and high expectations?; and (2) How can a community of practice (CoP) composed of program leaders of youth-serving programs from diverse contexts build a shared understanding of culturally- and contextually-appropriate ways to create a culture of love, respect, belonging, and high expectations that promotes the character development of opportunity youth? The findings will inform the development of a training curriculum designed to promote these competencies, which will be trialed through an implementation and evaluation process
Funding Period:
September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2025
Discrimination and racial socialization on Asian American parent and youth mental Health
Project Investigators:
- Co-I: Hyeouk Chris Hahm, Boston University School of Social Work
- PI: Cindy Liu, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- PI: Tiffany Yip, Fordham University
Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health (NIH), R01
Description:
This project capitalizes on a longitudinal and mixed-methods design to examine how exposure to racial discrimination predicts Chinese American adolescents’ mental health symptoms and biological measures of chronic stress. The project seeks to determine how parent and adolescent characteristics such as internalization of the model minority myth, ethnic identity, and racial socialization processes moderate the said association in Chinese American adolescents. The researchers also propose to explore the racial socialization processes within peer contexts and in social media.
Early Connections/Conexiones Tempranas II
Project Investigator:
- PI: Ruth Paris, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
SAMHSA National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative
Description:
The research team at BUSSW, led by Ruth Paris, PhD, will evaluate all aspects of Early Connections/Conexiones Tempranas II (EC/CT II). One of the sites of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, EC/CT II plans to foster resilience and ameliorate the symptoms and consequences of trauma among marginalized children aged 0–5 in Waltham, Mass., and surrounding communities. While serving a diverse population, EC/CT II will specialize in reducing disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes affecting Latino immigrant families, addressing child, family, and community needs. Building on the collaboration in EC/CT I where improvements were found in parental mental health, trauma symptoms, stress, protective factors, and child social-emotional development, the research aims for EC/CT II to include a better understanding of the mechanisms of change associated with the unique interventions which include clinical work with bilingual/bicultural infant and early childhood mental health clinicians and family support partners using individual, dyadic and group modalities.
Engage, Educate, & Empower for Equity: E4, The Rush Center of Excellence in Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging
Project Investigators:
- BU PI: Bronwyn Keefe, Boston University School of Social Work
- PI: Erin Emery-Tiburcio, Rush University Medical Center
- PI: Robyn Golden, Rush University Medical Center
Sponsor:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description:
Focal areas:
- Provide expertise in training around older adult mental health
- Program implementation and building partnerships across state and local agencies
- Provide technical assistance to community-based organizations
- Measurement of practice change based on training.
Funding Period:
2020–2025
Enhancing workforce capacity to deliver impactful behavioral health supports and services for older adults with hoarding and clutter
Project Investigators:
- BU PI: Jordana Muroff, Boston University School of Social Work
- BU Co-PI: Bronwyn Keefe, Boston University School of Social Work
- Co-Investigators: Alicia Gomez and Susan Tena (Boston Senior Home Care, BSHC)
Sponsor:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description:
Boston University School of Social Work’s (BUSSW) Hoarding Research Team and Center for Aging & Disability Education & Research (CADER) are collaborating with Boston Senior Home Care (BSHC) to develop and implement capacity-wide training and programming focused on hoarding and clutter among culturally and linguistically diverse older
adults to build behavioral health supports and services to address this the urgent priority area.
The project team is delivering and evaluating a blended hoarding training to a broad group of BSHC providers working with individuals with hoarding. The blended training includes CADER’s online interactive self-paced course “Hoarding Disorder in Older Adults” and “live” practice-based training sessions delivered by Hoarding Research Team’s Dr. Muroff.
The Hoarding Research Team and BSHC are also collaborating to provide training on, and provision of, in-home coaching support.
Funding Period:
June 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025
Evaluation of Family Support and Leadership Programs: Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office Of Family Initiatives
Project Investigator:
- PI: Astraea Augsberger, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Description:
Augsberger will collaborate with the Mass. Department of Public Health, Bureau of Family Health & Nutrition (BFHN), to examine family engagement in their Office of Family Support Initiatives. The BFHN provides statewide programs and services to MA residents to ensure the health of all children and families in the Commonwealth, including children and youth with special needs. Filling a current gap, Augsberger will develop outcome measures to identify multi-level impacts of family engagement in the BFHN programs. The evaluation will then implement the measures, analyze program effectiveness, and disseminate the measures to other states.
Evaluation of the Relationship between Massachusetts’ Child Care Subsidy Payment Rate Policies and Access to Care
Project Investigators:
- PI: Yoonsook Ha, Boston University School of Social Work
- Co-PI: Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
- Co-PI: Kate Giapponi Schneider, Brandeis University
Sponsor:
Institute for Educational Sciences
Description:
This study uses a mixed methods approach to evaluate the impact of the state payment rate increases for early care and education (ECE) providers in the supply of ECE programs that offer subsidized care for children from low-income and other disadvantaged backgrounds and their equitable access and utilization of the care. Given that it is a pressing issue to increase and sustain ECE programs and to provide affordable, equitable access to families in need, this study aims to provide much need evidence on how the state efforts to support ECE could expand families’ equitable access to and utilization of subsidized care.
This 4-year study is a collaborative project based on the strong partnership with BU Wheelock College of Education, Brandeis University, and MA Department of Early Education and Care. It has a total budget of $1.6 million.
Funding Period:
September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2027
General Preventative Medicine Maternal Health Program
Project Investigators:
- Contract PI: Linda Sprague Martinez, Boston University School of Social Work
- PI: Pablo Buitron de la Vega, Boston Medical Center (BMC)
- Dawn Belkin Martinez, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration via BMC
Description:
The aim of this training grant is to prepare highly motivated, diverse and well-qualified primary care physicians in public health and general preventive medicine with a focus on maternal health. Buitron de la Vega is principal investigator of the parent grant ($2,957,632) and Sprague Martinez leads the development of curriculum related to social determinants of health and community engagement. Belkin Martinez leads the integration of the liberation health model in residency training and medical education.
HRI Social Determinants of Health Evaluation
Project Investigator:
- Contract PI: Jordana Muroff, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
Cambridge Neighborhood Apartment and Housing Services (CNAHS)
Description:
Muroff will collaborate with Jesse Edsell-Vetter and team at Cambridge Neighborhood Apartment and Housing Services (CNAHS) to develop survey and interview tools to evaluate the impact of building construction/renovation and programming on the health of residents. Muroff and CNAHS seek to understand the intersection of innovative building approaches, robust resident services programming, and social determinants of health outcomes for CNAHS residents.
Improving Care and Treatment Coordination: Focusing on Black Women with HIV – Evaluation and Technical Assistance Provider
Project Investigators:
- Contract PI: Linda Sprague Martinez, Boston University School of Social Work
- PI: Serena Rajabuin, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Judith C. Scott, Boston University School of Social Work
- Howard Cabral, Boston University School of Pubic Health (BUSPH)
- Clara Chen, BUSPH Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Analytics Center (BEDAC)
Sponsor:
U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration via University of Massachusetts Lowell
Description:
The aim of this project – the Black Women First ETAP – is to support and guide 12 demonstration sites across the country that are implementing bundled interventions to improve the engagement and retention of diverse Black women in care. More specifically, the Black Women First ETAP is developing, evaluating, and disseminating interventions that engage and retain diverse Black women with HIV in care and treatment.
Mental Health Training Prevention Program for Councils on Aging
Project Investigator:
- PI: Bronwyn Keefe, Boston University School of Social Work
Sponsor:
Commonwealth of Massachusetts/Department of Public Health
Transdisciplinary Study for Resilience of Abused Children: Brain, Data Science, Technology & Social Work
Project Investigators:
- Hyeouk Chris Hahm, Boston University School of Social Work
- Kiyun Kim
- Jie ha Lee
Sponsor:
National Research Foundation of Korea
Description:
This study aims to establish a transdisciplinary integrative theory in order to understand the recovery of abused children and the parenting of the perpetrators in South Korea. Based on the theory, online and offline parenting programs for the perpetrators to recover from abused children will be developed. Below are detailed research goals and methods.
- Construction of the prospective and longitudinal brain imaging data of abused children and their parents (perpetrators)
- Examining the relationship between abused children’s brain structural/functional modification and mental health problems
- Examining the relation of perpetrators’ brain neurobiological characteristics to their mental health and parenting
- Qualitative research on the interview of the perpetrators’ parenting and identify specific parenting characteristics
- Exploring the determinants of the perpetrators’ parenting
- Data science analysis of total national data of child protection systems (n=141,764 cases) for developing a prediction model of recurrence of abuse and testing the effectiveness of intervention services of CPS
- Exploring dynamics of the brain neurobiological system, the parenting and family system, and the child protection service system to promote recovery after damage to children affected by abuse
- Developing integrative theory and online/offline parenting programs for perpetrators and evaluating the effectiveness of the program
Funding Period:
July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025
To view grant-funded projects at BUSSW’s Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, visit the Projects page at ciswh.org.
Students and others interested in assisting with research projects may reach out to the BUSSW project investigator at the email found on their faculty profile page. Please direct all media or web inquiries and updates to BUSSW Marketing & Communications at ssw-marcom@bu.edu.