Health Disparities Research at SIRC: Cultural Processes in Risk and Resiliency

描述(申请人提供)：西南跨学科研究中心(SIRC)是NIMHD的一个卓越探索性中心，旨在通过以社区为基础的预防干预研究，解决关于健康的社会决定因素--包括文化进程--作为创造、减少和消除健康差距的因素的作用的知识差距，重点关注西南部和美墨边境地区的少数民族人口，重点是保护性的文化进程。SIRC的一系列活动和研究项目将审查文化过程，包括那些加强健康促进的文化过程，以及那些在美墨边境地区独特的社会和文化背景下产生健康风险导致健康差距的文化过程。通过这些拟议的研究活动产生的科学知识和创新干预措施将促进少数群体的健康，减少健康差距。作为NIMHD探索性卓越中心，SIRC支持将重点从诊断和治疗转向单一地关注发病率和死亡率的近端原因(即基于个人的风险因素，如生活方式行为和应对方式)，转向多层次的、生态发展的社会决定因素方法。从这一角度出发，SIRC旨在推进对健康的社会决定因素的研究，包括但也超越风险和保护性行为的近端原因，考虑家庭、社区和文化等因素如何影响青少年的健康行为。通过我们的密集传播、基于社区的参与性研究、评估和评估工作，SIRC的研究将继续为政策、计划和干预措施提供信息，正如我们在整个应用中所展示的那样。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC), a NIMHD Exploratory Center of Excellence, aims to address knowledge gaps, through community-based prevention intervention studies, on the role of social determinants of health-including cultural processes-as factors in the creation, reduction and elimination of health disparities with a focus on the ethnic minority populations of the Southwest and the U.S.-Mexico border region, concentrating on protective cultural processes. SIRC's array of activities and research projects will examine cultural processes, both those that enhance health promotion and those that generate health risks leading to health disparities in the unique social and cultural context of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The scientific knowledge and the innovative interventions generated through these proposed research activities will promote minority health and reduce health disparities. As an NIMHD Exploratory Center of Excellence, SIRC supports a shift in focus moving beyond diagnosis and treatment and away from singularly focusing on proximal causes of morbidity and mortality (i.e., individually based risk factors such as lifestyle behaviors and coping styles) and toward a multilevel, eco-developmental social determinants approach. Drawing from this perspective, SIRC aims to advance research on social determinants of health by including but also moving beyond the proximal causes of risk and protective behaviors to consider how factors such as the family, community, and culture influence adolescent health behaviors. Through our intensive dissemination, community-based participatory research, assessment, and evaluation efforts, SIRC's research will continue to inform policies, programs, and interventions, as demonstrated throughout our application.