Six named Family Research Scholars

Six faculty members have been named Family Research Scholars for the 2013-14 academic year by the Center for Research on Families (CRF).

 

Elizabeth Harvey, Psychology, Agnès Lacreuse, Psychology, Joya Misra, Sociology and Public Policy, Jonathan Rosa, Anthropology, Gwyneth Rost, Communication Disorders, and Lisa Troy, Nutrition, were chosen on the basis of their promising work in family-related research.

The Family Research Scholars Program provides selected faculty with the time, technical expertise, peer mentorship and national expert consultation to prepare a large grant proposal for their research support. The goal of the program is to bring together a diverse, multi-disciplinary group of faculty to foster innovation and collaboration across research areas related to the family.

 

Harvey, who studies the development of children with ADHD, will develop a grant proposal for a project titled, “A Longitudinal Study of Emotion Regulation in Preschool Children with Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”

 

Lacreuse addresses the biological factors that contribute to differential aging trajectories in males and females. She will develop a grant proposal for a project titled, “Sex Differences in Cognitive and Brain Aging.”

 

Misra focuses her research on gender inequality among advanced welfare states. In her grant proposal, “National Gender Earnings Inequality Dynamics,” she plans to analyze 18 different advanced industrialized countries from 1985 through 2007.

 

Rosa examines the linguistic characteristics that influence culture and identity in the Latino community. He is developing a grant titled, “Learning Latina/o Ethnolinguistic Identities across the U.S.”

 

Rost studies how children learn language, and focuses on youth who have language impairment. She will develop a grant proposal titled “Is disability incriminating? Language impairment in the juvenile justice system.”

 

Troy, who is also Commonwealth Honors College professor of Nutrition, is interested in the effect of overall diet quality and components of a healthful diet on under-nutrition, obesity, metabolic syndrome and risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. Her grant proposal is titled, “How Diet and Exercise Improve Sleep: Implications for Diabetes and Heart Disease.”

Over the year, the scholars will participate in an interdisciplinary faculty seminar that includes concrete instruction on the details of successful proposal submission and the resources of the university, individualized methodology consultation, and information about relevant funding agencies. This process culminates with the submission of a research proposal to a major funding agency. For scholars, the program offers extra time through a course release, support and expertise.

 

Since the program first began in 2003, 56 Family Research Scholars have submitted more than 141 proposals.

The Center for Research on Families’ mission is to increase research on family issues, to build a multidisciplinary community of researchers who are studying issues of relevance to families, to connect national and internationally prominent family researchers with UMass Amherst faculty and students, to provide advanced data analytic methods training and consultation, and to disseminate family research findings to scholars, families, practitioners, and policy-makers. Research at CRF encompasses disciplines as diverse as the life sciences, social sciences, public health and nursing, education, and natural resources.

Photo: Top, from left, Elizabeth Harvey, Agnès Lacreuse, Joya Misra, and bottom, from left, Jonathan Rosa, Gwyneth Rost, Lisa Troy