This application is a request to develop a multidisciplinary prevention research pre-doctoral training program for predoctoral trainees in Psychology, Sociology and the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Sciences at the University of Michigan. Our major aim is to address the national need for prevention researchers who are both conversant in socio-cultural and racial factors influencing mental health, and able to translate basic science into testable interventions, programs and policies aimed at promoting mental health and reducing mental illness and its consequences across the lifespan. Major elements of the training program are support in developing focused coursework, a 4-semester training seminar sequence, and a two-year prevention research apprenticeship with a faculty member. As part of the training program, students will develop a publishable prevention research study and learn to write grant applications. Over the 5 years requested, a total of 18 trainees will be supported, 6 trainees will enter in Year 1, and 6 additional trainees will enter in Years 3 and 5. Training support will be provided for 4 years for each trainee, with funding sought to complete training of trainees entering in Years 3-5. A central feature of the training program will be a special seminar colloquium series focused on (1) Substantive knowledge about mental health and sociocultural factors, including culture, race, gender, and poverty; (2) Translational skills - translating basic science findings into prevention intervention models and implementing in field settings; (3) Research designs and measures - Concepts of implementation evaluation, logic models, and program theory to enhance treatment effectiveness research, as well as issues in selecting appropriate intermediate and long-term outcome measures; and (4) Statistical analysis methods - conceptual understanding to select appropriate statistical tests and skills in conducting tests and interpreting results. Trainees will work with faculty at the Michigan Prevention Research Center and the Center on Poverty, Risk and Mental Health. Trainees will learn multidisciplinary, collaborative and negotiation skills required to work with community stakeholders to carry out field research and disseminate interventions. Important program features include: (a) exposure to an array of prevention research foci, (b) formation of collaborative learning relationships among trainees and faculty, and (c) integration of trainees of diverse backgrounds. The faculty includes mid-career and senior prevention and services researchers interested in mental illness, sociocultural contextual factors, and quantitative methods related to these issues. All training faculty members are actively involved in prevention science - quantitative methods, mental health intervention and services research emphasizing poverty, race and other sociocultural contextual factors. Specific research by participating faculty include (a) preventive intervention in adolescence and adulthood, (b) services research in chronic or seriously mentally ill populations, (c) sociocultural and racial influences on the interplay between mental health, physical health, and coping, (d) the interplay between poverty, poverty policies, and mental health, (e) methodological issues - in studying individuals in contexts - neighborhoods, relationships, classrooms, and in studying the nature of self-reports.
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