# Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center

> **NIH ALLCDC U48** · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · 2023 · $929,524

## Abstract

Project Abstract
THE UAB Center for the Study of Community Health, a University Wide Interdisciplinary Research Center, has adopted
specific aims to 1) provide a University platform for community-based participatory research (CBPR); 2) engage
stakeholders via education and service; 3) pursue research that enhances community health; and 4) facilitate the
translation of evidence-based programs into practice. Long-term objectives are to 1) develop CBPR tools and
methodologies; and 2) create a unified community engagement portal for the University. The core intervention research
project, “Community Health from Engagement and Environmental Renewal (CHEER),” originates from meetings with city
residents who defined their key community needs as blight and children’s future success. CHEER builds on our and other
observational studies demonstrating that youth risk behaviors are associated with family and neighborhood adversities.
Multiple studies have built a solid research base to inform our understanding of the many upstream social determinants
that contribute to poor health and increased health disparities. While we know that altering the future trajectories of
vulnerable urban youth will require multilevel efforts that influence both family and community systems, efforts to do so
with interventions of sufficient intensity to bring measured lasting effects have not been conducted or disseminated.
Further advancements in community health research will require rigorous studies that test causal hypotheses in a
randomized controlled trial that evaluates the independent and combined effects of a Family System intervention and a
Community System intervention compared to a Wait-List Control condition. In this 5-year project we will employ a 2 x 2
design and recruit 780 parent-youth pairs to examine (and aim to improve) adversities at the family (e.g. maternal
stress, depression, and parenting practices) and community (e.g. neighborhood disadvantage and decay, and social
isolation) levels, testing their independent and combined effects, including possible synergies of these interventions, on
our primary outcomes of improved social norms, social cohesion, and collective efficacy and reduced early and risky sex
and externalizing and internalizing behaviors among youth. The Family System Intervention will test an individually
tailored (using baseline skill levels to determine dose), personally paced intervention facilitated by Community Health
Advisors and delivered via e-health or print media. Goals are to enhance maternal coping and emotional regulation to
positively impact parenting practices and parent-child communication and to reduce family conflict. The Community
System Intervention will offer micro-grants for greening vacant, unkempt lots through community-driven projects (e.g.
gardens, picnic, and playground areas) Goals are to encourage social interactions to enhance social cohesion and
collective efficacy and to increase shared norms. These neighborhood...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10663105
- **Project number:** 5U48DP006404-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
- **Principal Investigator:** JEFFERY T WALKER
- **Activity code:** U48 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $929,524
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2024-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10663105

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10663105, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center (5U48DP006404-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10663105. Licensed CC0.

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