Community Connections and African American Adolescents

简介（由申请人提供）：Jeanne M. McIntosh博士，德保罗大学心理学助理教授，正在青少年风险和恢复力领域进行应用研究。McIntosh博士将在低收入城市非裔美国青少年及其家庭样本中，改进和检查社区联系的结构，或青少年主要发展环境之间的联系程度。这条研究路线预计最终将导致文化特定干预部分的发展，通过帮助低收入城市非洲裔美国青少年及其家庭促进和参与土著和组织的中间系统支持网络，提高协调服务干预的有效性。科学发展奖将资助与这一目标有关的四项研究。研究1对青少年社区联系的内容、结构和过程进行了定性研究。研究2涉及社区关系量表的构建。研究3检验了测量的信度、效度和因素结构。研究4检验了社区联系调节邻里风险与心理问题关系的模型。申请人的研究职业发展计划通过关注科学写作和出版、定量和定性研究方法以及资助等领域的技能发展来支持这些目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dr. Jeanne M. McIntosh, Assistant Professor of Psychology at DePaul University, is pursuing applied research in the area of adolescent risk and resilience. Dr, McIntosh will refine and examine the construct of Community Connections, or degree of connectedness between adolescents' primary developmental settings, among samples of low-income urban African American adolescents and their families. This line of research is expected to eventually result in the development of a culture-specific intervention component that will enhance the effectiveness of coordinated service interventions by assisting low-income urban African American adolescents and their families to promote and engage indigenous and organizational mesosystem support networks. The Scientific Development Award will fund four studies related to this goal. Study 1 involves a qualitative examination of the content, structure, and process of adolescents' Community Connections. Study 2 involves construction of the Community Connections Inventory. Study 3 examines the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the measure. Study 4 tests a model predicting that Community Connections moderates the relationship between Neighborhood Risk and Psychological Problems. The applicant's research career development plan supports these goals by focusing on skill development in the areas of scientific writing and publication, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and grantsmanship.