Research Projects

The Strong Roots Study

The Strong Roots Study aims to better understand what helps parents and children thrive, particularly during stressful times. The project examines how individual factors (e.g., well-being, personality), family relationships, and neighborhood contexts shape resilience in families. By studying parents and children together, the Strong Roots Study seeks to identify the processes that support family well-being.

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The Development of Youth Resilience to Neighborhood Disadvantage

The CARE lab is currently investigating how features of neighborhoods may promote youth and parent resilience. More specifically, this project aims to explore how neighborhood adversity (e.g., poverty, exposure to violence) and positive neighborhood features (e.g., close relationships with neighbors, parks, resources) may impact the development of resiliency throughout childhood into early adulthood.

Additionally, positive parenting has been identified as a key factor in promoting youth resiliency. Thus, we aim to not only examine how the neighborhood environment directly impacts youth, but also how various neighborhood characteristics influence positive or resilient parenting, and how this, in turn, supports youth resilience. We hope to identify protective features of neighborhoods that may be leveraged in order to promote resiliency and help youth overcome chronic and systemic stressors. This project is supported by an R00 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.