Social and Family Environments and Child Obesity in Diverse Neighborhoods

描述（由申请人提供）：我的长期职业目标是建立一个中心，进行跨学科的研究，以解决公共卫生问题，折磨文化多样性的移民。我的短期目标是丰富我目前的研究计划与新的理论，方法和社会学，人口学和心理学领域的方法，以解决健康差距，重点是儿童肥胖的移民人口。为了做到这一点，我建议从我的正常教学，咨询和部门职责中抽出时间，专注于学习社会科学，特别是社会学中使用的理论和方法。 在营养学和流行病学方面受过训练，我已经将我的研究从肥胖的个体风险因素的调查转移到环境风险因素的调查。自2002年以来，我一直专注于研究社区环境，特别是如何存在（或不存在）不同类型的食品商店（超市，便利店，小'角落'市场等）。而餐馆可能会影响人们的饮食行为。在这个过程中，我意识到营养流行病学的理论并不能充分解释社区导致肥胖的过程。特别是，我热衷于了解社会和家庭过程如何影响人们的食物和体育活动行为，这是已知的影响肥胖发展的因素。因此，我希望正式与一位知名的社会学家和社会人口学家一起接受培训，以学习新的理论和方法。 对于这个应用程序，我提出了一个培训计划，这将给我保护的时间来学习社会学中使用的那些理论和方法，这些理论和方法与理解社会和家庭如何影响儿童和青少年的肥胖风险有关。我将把加州大学洛杉矶分校的社会学家和社会人口学家安妮·佩布利博士作为我的主要导师。Pebley博士是NIH资助的洛杉矶家庭和邻里研究（L.A.FANS）的共同负责人，该研究一直在研究社区和邻里如何影响健康和福祉以及儿童的发展。我将使用L.A.FANS收集的数据作为“训练场”，以了解如何以与肥胖研究相关的方式测量和解释社会和家庭过程。我希望这将丰富我目前的研究计划与新的理论和方法，以解决肥胖危机和健康的社会差距，从它的结果。 公共卫生相关性：我国目前面临的最严重的公共卫生问题之一是肥胖。肥胖率迅速攀升，在社会弱势群体中更高，社会问题阻碍了传统公共卫生教育计划的有效实施。解决肥胖问题最具成本效益的方法是通过预防，特别是在儿童和青少年时期。本申请旨在培养一名中级营养研究人员，使其掌握应用于社会科学的理论和方法，以丰富她目前的儿童肥胖研究计划，从而为她提供有助于解决肥胖问题社会差距的跨学科知识和技能。

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.