Research Center for Child Well-Being

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The prevalence rates for children’s mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders, as well as for childhood obesity, are at alarmingly high levels and constitute major public health concerns. To address these critical problems in childhood, the University of South Carolina Research Center for Child Well-Being focuses on prevention and intervention research aimed at reducing risk for MEB and obesogenic problems in children ages 2-10. The two overall goals are: (1) to create and cultivate a high-impact research center composed of adept early-stage investigators supported by accomplished senior scientific adviser-mentors, committed to research on the prevention and reduction of mental, emotional, behavioral, and lifestyle-related risk factors in childhood; and (2) to strengthen the infrastructure that will facilitate greater contributions to scientific progress and innovation aimed at improving child well-being by reducing risk for MEB disorders, childhood obesity, and other adverse conditions. Accomplishment of the Center’s goals are being pursued through three specific aims. Aim 1 is to establish a strong infrastructure to buttress and advance the Center’s research and programmatic goals to develop capacity and to support early-stage investigators who will conduct preventive intervention outcome trials and associated studies. Aim 2 is to nurture and expand a critical mass of early-stage faculty researchers via: (a) thematically linked research projects by the promising scientists; (b) scientific mentoring from dedicated and expert senior advisers; (c) two research core facilities (Clinical Trials Logistics Core; Statistical and Data Management Core) integrally involved in supporting the research projects; (d) a local Community Advisory Board to enhance engagement of communities and schools; and (e) a Pilot Seed Project program. Aim 3 is to expand research capacity through targeted recruitment and cultivation of additional early- stage faculty researchers in multiple disciplines and areas central to the Center’s mission and focus, backed by cogent institutional support for targeted hiring of new faculty. Key cross-cutting themes of the research projects and the Center as a whole emphasize preventive intervention strategies to promote more nurturing environments for healthy child development, to strengthen children’s self-regulation, to ensure that the interventions benefit children from lower SES backgrounds without stigmatizing them, and to study and bolster quality of implementation for the interventions. The Research Center for Child Well-Being is poised to accelerate the trajectories of early-stage investigators to independent researcher status, adding to the nation’s workforce for the next generation of prevention scientists. The Center has considerable potential through innovative research to progress the scientific basis for joint prevention of mental/behavioral and obesogenic problems, leading to greater well-being of children.