description): The candidate is a research associate in pediatric psychology who is advancing to a junior faculty position. This award is expected to help transition the focus of the candidate's research and provide additional training in measurement of dietary adherence, particularly of barriers associated with following prescribed diets for children with various chronic conditions. The candidate's career goals are to develop an independent research career related to elucidation of barriers and family interaction patterns that interfere with dietary adherence and development of intervention programs to promote adherence. Specific objectives are: 1) learn specialized methods of measurement to identify the challenges related to the dietary management of chronic conditions of childhood, including in-depth interviews and behavioral analyses of family interactions at mealtimes, and 2) use data from these methods to develop family-based interventions to promote adherence to dietary regimens. The candidate proposes a five-year training program with faculty mentors from a strong pediatric research department and medical school. Her sponsor is a very experienced pediatric psychology researcher whose work has focused on identifying factors that enhance or disrupt the psychosocial adaptation of children with chronic illness. Mentors represent subspecialty divisions that are directly relevant to the research and career development plan. The career development plan describes activities focused on enhancing knowledge of research-related approaches to the identification of barriers to dietary adherence and design of intervention programs through clinical observation, course work, and independent studies with mentors. Other activities include research training in statistical methods and supervised experience in preparation of grant proposals for individual research support. The candidate's proposed research involves two studies. Study 1 is a two-phase assessment of barriers to dietary adherence in children with hyperlipidemia, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, phenylketonuria, and Prader-Willi syndrome. Study 2 is a pilot study to develop and evaluate family-based intervention programs to improve dietary adherence for children in the target populations.
| Ievers-Landis, Carolyn E; Burant, Christopher J; Hazen, Rebecca (2011) The concept of bootstrapping of structural equation models with smaller samples: an illustration using mealtime rituals in diabetes management. J Dev Behav Pediatr 32:619-26 |
| Ievers-Landis, Carolyn E; Hoff, Ahna L; Brez, Caitlin et al. (2005) Situational analysis of dietary challenges of the treatment regimen for children and adolescents with phenylketonuria and their primary caregivers. J Dev Behav Pediatr 26:186-93 |
