The applicant is revising a request for five years of funding for a K23 award to enhance his skills in health services research for forced migrant families. He proposes to broaden and deepen his research skill set through coursework and structured mentoring, and through the development and implementation of a study comparing intergenerational conflict in forced migrant and voluntary West Africans in order to propose points of intervention for forced migrant families using interventions adapted from the general immigrant literature. While a number of studies have pointed to high rates of distress among African forced migrant families post-migration, none have examined whether this distress is common to most low-income African immigrants or unique to those with a history of political violence, nor whether this distress has implications for their children. Training: The applicant will use the K award to acquire coursework and mentorship in qualitative research methods, immigration, respondent-driven sampling, qualitative analysis, multilevel modeling, and social network analysis. Sponsor Francesca Gany, MD, MS of the NYU Center for Immigrant Health will provide an experienced perspective on healthcare research with immigrant populations through regular meetings. Research: The applicant proposes a series of three research projects to complement the training. The first is a focus group study of how West African communities discuss family problems, the second is a survey of intergenerational conflict among both forced and voluntary migrants in West African communities, and the third is a focus group study West Africans to interpret findings from the second and prepare for the development of an intervention targeting intergenerational conflict. In the final year of the K award the applicant will seek funding for treatment development and clinical trials for the latter. Environment: The applicant is an Assistant Professor at the NYU School of Medicine and a researcher at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT), a hospital-based clinic specializing in refugee and asylee health. He will work closely with West African clients and colleagues at PSOT in interpreting research findings. In the pursuit of these goals, the applicant will draw upon the resources of NYU School of Medicine, field.
Little has been done to design interventions to address intergenerational conflicts arising in forced migrant families. As African forced migrants constitute 55% of refugees resettled in the United States, addressing these gaps in the literature has the potential to affect a large proportion of our most vulnerable new neighbors. This project's focus on adapting Euro-American measures and service practices will provide a platform from which to develop research and interventions for other forced migrant groups (e.g. Iraqis)
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