Social and Family Environments and Child Obesity in Diverse Neighborhoods

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My long-term career goal is to establish a center that conducts interdisciplinary research to address public health problems that afflict culturally diverse immigrants. My shorter-term objective is to enrich my current research program with new theories, methods, and approaches from the fields of sociology, demography, and psychology to address health disparities, with a focus on child obesity in immigrant populations. To do this, I propose to take time off from my regular teaching, advising and departmental responsibilities to focus on learning theories and methods used in the social sciences, particularly sociology. Trained in nutrition and epidemiology, I have shifted my research from the investigation of individual risk factors for obesity to the investigation of environmental risk factors. Since 2002, I have focused my research on studying neighborhood environments and in particular, how the presence (or absence) of different types of food stores (supermarkets, convenience stores, small 'corner' markets, etc.) and restaurants may shape people's eating behaviors. In the process, I realized that the theories derived from nutritional epidemiology do not adequately explain the processes whereby neighborhoods contribute to obesity. In particular, I am keen to learn how social and family processes influence people's food and physical activity behaviors, which are the factors known to affect obesity development. Accordingly, I wish to formally train with an established sociologist and social demographer in order to learn new theories and methodologies. For this application, I have proposed a training program that will give me protected time to learn about those theories and methods used in sociology that are relevant to understanding how societies and families influence obesity risk in children and adolescents. I will have Dr. Anne Pebley, a sociologist and social demographer at UCLA, as my primary mentor. Dr. Pebley co-directs the NIH-funded Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study (L.A.FANS), which has been researching how communities and neighborhoods affect health and well-being and also children's development. I will use the data collected by L.A.FANS as a 'training ground' for understanding how social and family processes are measured and interpreted in ways that are relevant to the study of obesity. I hope this will enrich my current research program with new theories and approaches for addressing the obesity crisis and the social disparities in health that result from it. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: One of the most serious public health issues facing our country today is obesity. Obesity rates have been climbing quickly and are higher in socially disadvantaged groups, where social issues present barriers to the effective implementation of traditional public health education programs. The most cost-effective way to address obesity is through prevention especially during childhood and adolescence. This application proposes to train a mid-level nutrition researcher in theories and approaches applied in the social sciences so as to enrich her current child obesity research program, hence providing her with the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills helpful for addressing social disparities in obesity.