In efforts to explain racial and ethnic disparities in stress-induced health outcomes, researchers in public health, biomedical sciences, women's studies and other areas of the social sciences and humanities have studied the relationship between psychosocial stressors in African American women's lives and racial and ethnic disparities in the rates of preterm delivery, infant mortality, and low-birth weight deliveries. In addition to efforts to understand racial gaps in pregnancy outcomes as well as racial gaps in other stress-induced health outcomes, researchers have also questioned the """"""""how"""""""" of research, and have come to understand that community-researcher relationships should be guided by norms of reciprocity and accountability if the research is to be useful to communities. In an effort to understand the community context of African American women's pregnancies, as well as other health outcomes, Spellman College is submitting this proposal for support of a planning process that will result in the submission of a research proposal that is both the outcome of, and reflective of, a collaborative academic-community relationship. Specific objectives of the three-year planning period are: (1) To identify two communities reflecting the ethnic and social class diversity among Blacks in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and to establish common interests bonds with key individuals within those communities around the issue of women's health; (2) To develop and establish collaborative research relationships with key individuals within identified communities; and (3)To submit a research proposal for funding of an ethnographic study of the two communities' contexts of Black women's pregnancy experiences, as well as other health issues identified by the women in those communities as important. The planning meetings will occur at both Spellman College and within the communities and will have as their objectives the: (1) Identification of health issues important to the women in the communities; (2) Sharing of research about Black women's reproductive health as well as other health concerns of the women; and (3) Development of a collaborative research project about the community contexts of pregnancy. The National Black Child Institute, Spellman College Women's Research and Resource Center, health care providers, researchers, as well as community members who are engaged in the work of improving the health of their communities will be the facilitators and speakers at the meetings. ? ? ? ?
