Emotional Wellbeing and Reproductive Health in a Prospective Study of Multiple Generations of Immigrant Latino Youth

NIH RePORTER · NIH · K23 · $171,968 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract This is an application for a K23 award for Marissa Raymond-Flesch, MD, MPH, whose research focuses on the reproductive health and health disparities of Latino adolescents. She has completed three primary data collection projects utilizing community-engaged qualitative methods and has been contributing to the Salinas Teen Health Study, on which this application builds, for the past two years. Her research training includes a masters of public health and fellowships in Adolescent Medicine and Health Policy. Through the activities proposed in this application Dr. Raymond-Flesch will build skills in cross-sectional and longitudinal quantitative data analysis. She will benefit from UCSF's nationally recognized Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and Institute for Health Policy Studies as well as the university's course work in biostatistics and research methodology. In addition, UCSF will continue to support her productive collaboration with the Salinas Teen Health Study team at RTI. Across these intuitions Dr. Raymond-Flesch has established an experienced mentoring team with expertise in epidemiology, mixed methods research, and adolescent reproductive and mental health. By the completion of this award she will be well positioned to launch a career as an independent investigator, including applying for an R01 award. Informed by the social ecological model, this proposal builds on the Salinas Teen Health Study (R01- HD075787), a prospective cohort study of 600 Latino adolescents over two years as they transition from early to middle adolescence in a Californian agricultural community. Latino youth experience a variety of health disparities, including higher rates of depression and adverse reproductive health outcomes (unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections). Current evidence links depression with negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes in adults, but there is a paucity of research on these associations in Latino adolescents. Additionally, data on how immigrant generation affects these outcomes for Latino adolescents are limited. Dr. Raymond-Flesch's specific aims include a quantitative analysis of the associations between depressive symptoms and sexual and reproductive health outcomes at baseline across first, second, and third generation Latino early adolescents (Aim 1); longitudinal analysis of two years of quantitative data to determine the effect of depressive symptoms during early adolescence on subsequent sexual and reproductive health (Aim 2); qualitative analysis of youth interviews to describe how emotional wellbeing influences sexual and reproductive health (Aim 3); and qualitative interviews with mothers to characterize early environmental and structural factors affecting emotional wellbeing, psychosocial development, and sexual and reproductive health for Latino youth (Aim 4). The roles of immigrant generation and protective family influences will be examined across all aims...

Key facts

NIH application ID
10462593
Project number
5K23HD093839-05
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
Principal Investigator
Marissa Raymond-Flesch
Activity code
K23
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2022
Award amount
$171,968
Award type
5
Project period
2018-08-01 → 2024-07-31