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Dr. Christopher P. Salas-Wright, assistant professor at Boston University\u2019s School of Social Work, received a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (KO1), a five-year project funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. His study, \u201cPreventing Alcohol and Other Drug Use and Violence among Latino Youth,\u201d will focus on adapting the keepin\u2019 it<\/em>\u00a0REAL<\/em> curriculum\u2014a widely-used, school-based substance use prevention program\u2014to include an emphasis on preventing youth violence. In 2017,\u00a0Salas-Wright received a KL2 fellowship for<\/span>\u00a0this project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Salas-Wright states, \u201cGiven that we know substance use and youth violence are often connected, this approach is an efficient and cost-effective way to address problem behaviors affecting young people.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Salas-Wright\u2019s project will include in-depth interviews with youth to explore their experiences of substance use and violence, and the strategies they use when facing risky situations. Building upon these interviews, he will adapt keepin\u2019 it REAL<\/em> and then pilot test the adapted intervention with middle school students.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hope is that this research will build upon what we know keepin\u2019 it REAL<\/em> can do for preventing alcohol and drug use,\u201d said Salas-Wright. \u201cThis is an important next step in the development of a school-based program that targets both substance use and <\/em>violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Salas-Wright notes that his interest in preventing substance use and violence began while living for several years in San Salvador, El Salvador. During that time, he volunteered with Casa Recuperaci\u00f3n, La Esperanza<\/em>, a residential substance use treatment center that provides comprehensive services to young people struggling with substance use problems in the city\u2019s marginalized communities.<\/p>\n \u201cIn El Salvador, I worked closely with many young people who ran into trouble with alcohol and drugs early on in life, and many whose communities were marked by violence,\u201d he notes. \u201cThose experiences inspired me. It is very rewarding now to have the opportunity to conduct research and develop programs to address these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Salas-Wright\u2019s mentors and advisors for the project include leaders in the field of social work and prevention science such as Flavio F. Marsiglia, PhD<\/strong>, Distinguished Foundation Professor of Cultural Diversity and Health and the Director of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC) at Arizona State University\u2019s (ASU) College of Public Programs; and Richard F. Catalano, PhD,<\/strong> Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence and Co-Founder of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Christopher P. Salas-Wright, assistant professor at Boston University\u2019s School of Social Work, received a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (KO1), a five-year project funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. His study, \u201cPreventing Alcohol and Other Drug Use and Violence among Latino Youth,\u201d will focus on adapting the keepin\u2019 it\u00a0REAL curriculum\u2014a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7513,7427,7517,7439,7426,4057],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37852"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37896,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852\/revisions\/37896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}