Program Summary
Basic and applied research on HIV/AIDS risk and prevention for youth and families (PIs: Baptiste, Donenberg). Populations of particular interest include youth with psychiatric illness, young men who have sex with men, African American youth, juvenile offenders, and youth in international settings experiencing a high HIV prevalence.
Project Title
Chicago HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Project (CHAMP)
Supervisors
Roberta Paikoff, Donna Baptiste
Project Description
CHAMP is an HIV prevention research project located in six elementary schools on the South and West sides of Chicago. The CHAMP Family Study began in 1993 by following children (aged 9 and 10) and their families over a period of five years to examine the factors related to protecting children from HIV risk exposure (e.g. early sexual activity). In 1995, the CHAMP Family Program was developed based upon the findings from the CHAMP Family Study and the research literature on prevention in urban communities.
The CHAMP Family Program is a 12-week, family-based intervention that targets 6th and 7th graders in four schools on the South side of Chicago. CHAMP families meet once a week for two hours in groups of 5 to 10 at school or community sites. The intervention is designed to bolster family communication, enhance care takers' strategies for monitoring their children, enhance children's social problem solving skills, and provide basic information about puberty and HIV/AIDS. Groups are facilitated by teams of community parents and mental health interns who have completed joint training.
CHAMP Family Project is overseen by the CHAMP Collaborative Board. The Board was developed in 1995 and is chaired by Dr. Carl Bell, the CEO of the Community Mental Health Center (located on the South side of Chicago). It is comprised of parent and teacher representatives from each intervention school, as well as university research staff. The Board has a major decision-making role in the operation of the intervention (e.g. personnel and budgetary issues) and will play a major role in data analysis and dissemination of findings.
Psychology interns have been involved with CHAMP since 1995. In the past, interns have co-directed multi-family groups, along with becoming involved in research and other opportunities. Interns also participate in developing intervention curricula, implementing the intervention with community partners, and analyzing and presenting data from the CHAMP Family Study.
Opportunity for one intern to work with Drs. Baptiste, Kapungu and McBride (Roosevelt University) to analyze a rich longitudinal database that includes 3 waves of data on 315 inner city African American youth, best friends, parents and communities.
Project Title
CHAMP- Caribbean Study
Supervisors
Donna Baptiste, Chisina Kapungu
Project Description
The CHAMP research described above, was translated to the Caribbean by Dr. Baptiste and a local collaborating agency and Community Advisory Board. This study involves examination of translational processes (eg., transfer framework, cultural adaptation of measures; local program tailoring and delivery). CHAMP-Caribbean also includes a randomized controlled effectiveness study of the family-education intervention impact on youth sexual and HIV risks. Data from this study are currently being analyzed.
Opportunity for one intern to work with Drs. Baptiste and Kapungu to analyze intervention data from CHAMP-Caribbean and compare CHAMP- US and CHAMP-Caribbean youth and families on sexual HIV-related risks
GIRL TALK
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
GIRL TALK tests a framework of HIV-risk that emphasizes the interplay of family, peer and partner mechanisms and proposes that family processes (mother-daughter relationships and communication, maternal attitudes and beliefs, mothers’ risk behavior and partner relationships) influence sexual risk behaviors directly and indirectly through peer and partner relationships among AA 12-18 year old girls seeking psychiatric care. Mothers and daughters were recruited from seven urban mental health clinics in Chicago and followed for 2 years (baseline, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-months). Participants complete questionnaires, participate in interviews, and engage in three structured videotaped interaction tasks. Recruitment is complete (N=266), but follow-up data collection is underway.
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) conduct assessments, (2) outreach to schools and mental health clinics, and (3) data analysis and manuscript preparation.
Project BALANCE*
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
Project Balance is a 3-arm randomized controlled trial for adolescents in therapeutic day schools. Participants will be a total of 420 adolescents with psychiatric disorders in Rhode Island and Chicago. Balance implements and evaluates an affect management and a skills-based intervention and compares the efficacy of these treatment conditions to a general health promotion control group. The Affect Management intervention includes non-cognitive factors to target distress in sexual situations. Each intervention involves 12 45-minute sessions delivered in a classroom setting and co-facilitated by trained research assistants. The intervention uses role-plays, games, videos, discussions, and specially tailored experiential activities to delay sexual debut and reduce risky sexual behavior. Assessments are conducted at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-months post intervention. A booster session is implemented one month after the 12th session.
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) facilitate the manualized intervention, and (2) conduct assessments.
Project STYLE
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
Project STYLE is the first multi-site (Providence, Rhode Island; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois) HIV prevention program designed specifically for parents and their 13-18 year old youths with significant mental health disorders. The study is evaluating the efficacy of a family-focused HIV-prevention program and an adolescent-only HIV-prevention program, relative to a health promotion control group, in increasing safe sex behavior and reducing incidents of STDs across a 36-month period. Across sites, 750 families participated in the intervention. Each condition was delivered as a one-day 7-hour workshop by two trained facilitators. Families participated in a 2-week follow up and a 3-month booster session. Assessments occur at baseline, 3-, 6-, 12-, 24, 30-, and 36 months. Assessments for the final three data collection points are ongoing and include self-report questionnaires, structured clinical interviews, behavioral observations, and biological markers (i.e., urine screening for Sexually Transmitted Infections).
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) conduct assessments, and (2) data analysis and manuscript preparation.
PHAT LIFE*
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
This is an exploratory/developmental project to design and pilot an HIV and alcohol/drug use prevention program for urban 12 – 17 year-old male and female juvenile offenders. In the early stages of the project, we worked closely with a diverse interdisciplinary advisory board, to tailor the intervention for juvenile offenders. We conducted four gender-specific focus groups with offending youth to discuss adolescent sexual behavior, HIV and STIs, condoms, and HIV programming for youths. Groups were gender specific. We piloted the curriculum with one girls and one boys group and revised it based on feedback and experience. We are currently testing the revised intervention with 30 boys and 30 girls to evaluate recruitment, retention, and intervention implementation and content. Youth complete baseline and 2-month follow-up assessments.
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) facilitate the manualized intervention with female juvenile offenders, (2) work with the Department of Probation, and (3) conduct assessments.
Psychiatric Illness in Young Intravenous Drug Users
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
This 4-year cross-sectional study is identifying rates of psychiatric illness among young intravenous drug users. Male and female users participate in a structured psychiatric interview, the PRISM, delivered by trained clinicians. Participants are recruited through respondent driven sampling, with seeds identified through drug treatment programs in Chicago.
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) deliver the PRISM, a structured psychiatric interview, and (2) learn about/interview intravenous drug users.
CARES
Supervisor
Geri Donenberg, Ph.D.
CARES explores HIV/AIDS risk determinants among 325 ethnically diverse teenagers seeking outpatient mental health services. Study aims were to (a) determine rates of risky sexual behavior and drug use among youth in psychiatric care and compare these rates to rates among teens in the general population; (b) test and compare the utility of two theoretical models in explaining HIV-risk -- the Information-Motivation-Behavior model (Fisher & Fisher, 1992) and a social-personal model (Donenberg & Pao, 2003); and (c) test and compare the two models for theoretically important subgroups of youth (internalizing, externalizing, substance abusing). Teens and parents were recruited from four outpatient mental health clinics and interviewed at baseline, 6- and 12-months. Family members completed a combination of interviews and questionnaires to assess HIV/AIDS information, motivation, and behavioral skills, and teens' personal attributes, relationship concerns, and risky sexual behavior and substance use. Parents and teens also participated in two structured videotaped interaction tasks.
Opportunities for psychology interns: (1) secondary data analyses, and (2) manuscript preparation.
