The applicant is requesting five years of funding through the Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) program to enhance his skills in services based research for refugee families. He intends to investigate the familial dimensions of psychosocial services, specifically the contribution of family beliefs. The long-term goal is to possess the expertise to conduct large-scale service research on refugees in collaboration with service organizations, which develop and test new interventions for families that build on their strengths and are attuned to their needs. This application builds upon applicants' strong background in clinical psychiatry, interdisciplinary trauma studies, community immersion, and the ongoing successful implementation of the NIMH-funded Bosnian CAFES study of a multi-family group for refugees with PTSD not seeking mental health services. Recognizing that the psychosocial needs of refugees and other trauma survivors far exceed the individual and psychopathological focus that conventional trauma mental health approaches provide, this application aims to train the applicant for a program of services research that utilizes knowledge from social and behavioral sciences to develop interventions that are more oriented towards families. The applicant proposes the Family Beliefs Adaptation Model for conceptualizing, developing and studying services. The training goals consist of basic knowledge and skills in: 1) ethnographic and qualitative family research; 2) design and analysis of quantitative studies; and 3) social and behavioral theories on families. The research plan for this award is divided into two studies. The first study will use ethnographic and qualitative methods to investigate the family beliefs of refugee families from Bosnia and the possibilities for modification of beliefs through interventions. The second study will use quantitative methods to investigate engagement and retention with the CAFES intervention and the impact of family beliefs. Completion of this integrated program of training and research will enable the applicant to pursue timely, ethnoculturally appropriate, empirically supported family oriented services research within settings where refugees and related groups receive psychosocial services.
| Weine, Stevan Merrill; Hoffman, Yael; Ware, Norma et al. (2011) Secondary migration and relocation among African refugee families in the United States. Fam Process 50:27-46 |
| Weine, Stevan M; Ware, Norma; Klebic, Alma (2004) Converting cultural capital among teen refugees and their families from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Psychiatr Serv 55:923-7 |
