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 The Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) has recognized the importance of addressing the psychological and social aspects of human health by creating a graduate-level concentration in Health & Well-being in Social Context. This current new innovative initiative builds upon ongoing scholarly activities in this area to provide an innovative educational program in which undergraduate students develop their critical thinking abilities by participating on research teams with faculty and graduate students working on psychosocial health-related projects. This team approach to promote synergy between teaching and psychosocial health-related research complements current HDFS approaches that involve undergraduate students in the research process, such as research practica with individual faculty and individual Honors Scholars’ thesis projects. In this unique program, undergraduate students will be involved directly in the research process and in translating what they’ve learned by disseminating research results to students in lower division courses, university level forums, and national and local conferences. Thus, this initiative will create a broad teaching-research chain that will impact faculty, graduate students, upper level undergraduate and lower level undergraduates, and which, for undergraduate and graduate students, includes both mentoring and being mentored.
APPROACHThe initiative involves a core team of faculty with backgrounds in public health, epidemiology, developmental psychology, social work, social psychology, sociology, and human development and family studies. This includes: Kari Adamsons, Marysol Asencio, Keith Bellizzi, Thomas Blank, and Edna Brown. They will mentor graduate students and upper level undergraduate students in developing and carrying out various components of ongoing research projects that focus on health and well-being of underserved populations across different phases of the lifespan. Each research project will serve as both a research and a teaching platform. The cluster of research includes projects such as: Coping with Prostate Cancer and Comorbidities; Marriage, Divorce, and Health; Latinos Cancer and Health Disparities; Parenting, Romantic Relationships, and Physical/Mental Health.
An integral component of the proposed initiative will be a team-taught bi-weekly seminar AND independent study or research practicum section to provide all the participating upper level undergraduate students with a comprehensive practical learning experience that focuses on the theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues in conducting health-related research from the beginning of the research endeavor to the dissemination stage. Students will also have the opportunity to discuss and develop solutions for issues that come to the fore in the various research projects.These health-related research projects address the critical contextual/societal nature of health and do not simply focus on individual level factors. As a group, they include multi-method approaches to the research process with different age groups, diverse ethnic populations, in assorted geographical locations and in collaboration with other CLAS units (e.g., Latino Studies) and community research centers.
Students will consist of advanced graduate students and 12-15 undergraduate students. Undergraduate students will consist of students in the Honors Program and other upper-level undergraduate students with a 3.2 grade point average or higher.
OUTCOMES
Participating upper-level undergraduate students will present their research in HDFS undergraduate courses at the 1000 and 2000 level. Targeted courses will include Research Methods, Latino Health and Health Care, Diversity in HDFS, and Adulthood and Aging. Thus, not only will this initiative directly serve the students involved in the research teams, but will also expose large numbers of students in HDFS classes to the importance of health-related research and the opportunities that exist for them to participate in the research process. In addition, besides honing presentation skills in the seminar, the students in the program will have opportunities to attend and present at national and local conferences. The number of participating upper level undergraduate students is expected to increase as the program grows beyond this demonstration. |
University of Connecticut |