Community Connections and African American Adolescents

描述(由申请人提供)：珍妮·M·麦金托什博士，德保罗大学心理学助理教授，正在进行青少年风险和韧性领域的应用研究。麦金托什博士将在低收入城市非裔美国青少年及其家庭的样本中，提炼和检查社区联系的结构，即青少年主要发展环境之间的联系程度。这一系列研究预计最终将形成针对文化的干预内容，通过协助低收入城市非裔美国青少年及其家庭促进和参与土著和组织间系统支助网络，提高协调服务干预措施的效力。科学发展奖将资助与这一目标有关的四项研究。研究一对青少年社区联系的内容、结构和过程进行了定性考察。研究2涉及社区联系清单的编制。研究3检验了该量表的信度、效度和因素结构。研究4测试了一个模型，该模型预测社区关系会调节社区风险和心理问题之间的关系。申请者的研究生涯发展计划通过侧重于科学写作和发表、定量和定性研究方法以及专家精神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.