CSULB Minority Research Infrastructure Support Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This resubmission of a M-RISP grant application aims to develop the mental health disparities research capability of faculty in the Departments of Psychology and Human Development at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Situated in a highly diverse ethnic metropolitan region, CSULB has abundant opportunities and needs for research relevant to understanding and reducing health disparities in populations with different cultural backgrounds. An M-RISP award would provide opportunities for faculty development in research that would complement the existing strengths and reinforce the momentum of research productivity by faculty. Our M-RISP fosters individualized plans for training participants with the long range objective of producing competitive research applications for extramural funding. It would (1) involve faculty members in conducting pilot work that would lead to a competitive research grant on mental health disparities; (2) increase graduate and undergraduate student research participation, (3) provide research development activities for faculty; and (4) strengthen the institutional infrastructure for mental health research. Our M-RISP would provide reassigned time for participants that would be matched by the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Psychology, payment for participants, clerical services, travel funds, equipment funds, and state of the art research skill training for faculty development that will enable them to conduct high quality research. Participants would receive seminars and workshops in quantitative research methods and analysis (e.g., web-based survey, daily diary method, structural equation modeling), as well as qualitative research methods and analysis (e.g., interviewing, qualitative interpretation), accompanied by bi-weekly colloquia including faculty and student presentations of their own research and guest speakers and a variety of other enrichment activities. Our M-RISP activities will be closely coordinated with an existing Career Opportunities in Research (COR) program funded by NIMH at CSULB since 1981 to mentor minority undergraduates toward doctoral studies. The three projects proposed here represent crucial areas of mental health research - 1) acculturation, stress and coping among Korean immigrants; 2) sibling influences on coping in families with a child with Type 2 diabetes; 3) cultural factors related to disclosure by rape victims, and its effect on mental health. The award would be timely because recent fiscal cutbacks by the State of California have reduced University resources for research even though the University has shown that it values and rewards research productivity.