This proposal, Social Research Training in Applied Issues of Aging, is a revised competing continuation request for 5 years of support for a training program at the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan. The proposed project has 6 goals;all have been modified from the previous training period and Goal 5 is new: 1) research methods appropriate to the study of aging and the aged with the focus on survey research, qualitative research, evaluation research, secondary analysis, and longitudinal design and data analysis, with a more intensive focus on responsibility in the conduct of research, 2) disciplinary and professional social science theories and research evidence, 3) multidisciplinary focus, 4) conduct of scientific research in an applied setting, 5) substantive and theoretical issues involved in examining the determinants of successful aging: biological and physical, psychological, social, religious and spiritual, as well as socioeconomic, racial/ethnic and cultural, and 6) scientific methods utilized to examine the relationships identified in Goal 5. The reasons for continuing the Program with the new as well as old goals are: the need to understand and enhance the functioning of older people and their families, the need to train gerontological investigators in interdisciplinary research, and the need to train gerontological researchers who will assume leadership positions in academic institutions. Over the course of the 5 year training period (2006-2011), 11 pre-doctoral and 9 postdoctoral fellows will be supported. Pre-doctoral fellows will have a 3- year fellowship while the postdoctoral fellows will have 2 years of training. There are three types of trainees: 1) Pre-doctoral fellows in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science;2) Postdoctoral fellows with a social work doctorate who desire more extensive research training;and 3) Postdoctoral fellows with a doctorate in a social science discipline who desire further applied research experience in gerontology. Twenty-nine faculty will serve as mentors to the pre and postdoctoral fellows. This training grant is relevant to public heath in that it provides gerontological training to social workers and social scientists. The training will address the need to understand and enhance the functioning of older people and their families, the need to train gerontological investigators in interdisciplinary research, and the need to train gerontological researchers who will assume leadership positions in academic institutions.
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