Current Projects
Connect Through PLAY: A Staff-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Middle School Youth
Connect Through P.L.A.Y. is a 5-year, $3 million research project funded through the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This study provides a novel translational approach that works with pre-existing after school programs and targets staff as instrumental for facilitating changes in critical social mechanisms within the setting for sustained increases in the daily physical activity of underserved adolescents. This research is important for increasing the potential impact of school- and after school- based health interventions. Increasing and sustaining adolescents’ physical activity has significant public health and economic implications for weight control, reducing chronic disease, and increasing longevity and quality of life, especially among an underserved population of youth who are at greatest risk for obesity and related diseases.
A Brief, Adaptable Mindfulness Intervention for Teachers to Improve Classroom Climate in Secondary School Settings
The focus of this study is to investigate the impact of a brief mindfulness-based intervention designed to decrease stress and burnout, increase well-being, and improve classroom climate among high school teachers. Outcome measures include teacher self-report measures of stress and burnout, well-being, and classroom climate as well as cortisol levels collected via biological samples.
Enduring Character Virtues: How After-School Organized Activities Support Character Development from Childhood through Young Adulthood
Character virtues are critical to fulfilling one’s potential. Virtues include hard work, self-control, emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, and cooperative behavior. This study aims to address two major questions:
(1) What are the patterns and developmental trajectories of character virtues from childhood and adolescence, and do they predict successful development in adulthood?
(2) What aspects of youth’s organized after-school activities help support youth’s positive character virtue development?
Past Projects
Social Mechanisms for Promoting Youth Physical Activity in AFter School Programs
This research project was funded through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this study, the Connect intervention was delivered to 6 middle school after school programs for a 10-week duration. Programming included sessions designed to promote positive social climate (i.e., youth friendships, group belonging, youth-staff connection) as well as youth and staff physical activity behaviors. When controlling for site, youth BMI (i.e., body mass index), and gender, the youth who received the intervention demonstrated greater increases in physical activity, motivation for physical activity, and engagement. Further, after school program staff who received the intervention were more likely to prompt, praise, and and participate with youth in physical activity.
Social & Organizational mechanisms for promoting youth physical activity among youth with developmental disabilities
This research project was funded through Advanced Support Program for Innovative Research Excellence (ASPIRE). The focus of this study is to investigate the feasibility of integrating the Connect program into a residential school for children ages (7-21) with development disabilities.