          
Contact Information:
1425 NW 10th Ave
Sieron Bldg, 3rd Flr
Miami, FL-33136
V - (305) 243-4592
F - (305) 243-5577
Email - Maria
Padron
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Research Grants
Recent Grants
Family Therapy Mechanisms in HIV+ Women in Drug
Recovery
P.I. Victoria B. Mitrani, Ph.D.
This application proposes to investigate the
family mechanisms by which Structural Ecosystems Therapy (SET; Mitrani et
al, 2000) has its impact on HIV+ women in drug recovery. This proposed study
is a companion to NIDA Grant DA15004 (SETA Protocol), which investigates the
efficacy of SET in a clinical trial with HIV+ women who are in drug
recovery. In the SETA Protocol, 176 women are randomly assigned to either
SET or an HIV health group. The interventions last 4 months. SET works to
transform the family system to reinforce sobriety, increase adherence with
HIV medical care, and decrease sexual transmission risk behaviors in the
target woman. The SETA Protocol only assesses the effect of SET on the
recovering woman, not her family. Because SET targets changing the whole
family as a means of helping the woman, we hypothesize that effects on the
family as a whole (family functioning) and on individual family members will
help to explain the woman’s outcomes. The proposed study will enroll the
women in the SETA Protocol and their families. A total of 528 family members
are anticipated. Families are assessed at 4-month intervals for a period of
12 months. SET is hypothesized to affect family functioning (measured by
self-report and observational methods). Changes in family functioning are
hypothesized to affect the woman’s drug abuse, HIV medication adherence, and
HIV risk behaviors as well as the individual functioning of her family
members (psychological distress, drug use and parent report of problem
behaviors in children). The hypotheses will be tested using Latent Growth
Curve Modeling. Understanding these mechanisms will facilitate the
development of the next generation of family-based interventions for HIV+
women in drug recovery. This will be the first R01 award for this
investigator.
The Florida Clinical Trials Network for Drug Abuse Treatment
NIDA 1U10 DA 13720-01
Szapocznik 09/30/2000 -
09/29/2005
A new partnership has
been formed to improve the quality and impact of drug abuse treatment in
Florida and throughout the country.
The Florida team consists of several top research centers at the
University of Miami, led by the Center for Family Studies and its
Director, Dr. José Szapocznik, and a group of the state of Florida’s
top drug abuse treatment agencies, and the State of Florida.
This partnership is part of a National Clinical Trials Network
established by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to improve drug abuse
treatment by accelerating the transfer of proven treatment models to the
front lines of treatment.
Within the University group, the Center for Family Studies is joined by
the Comprehensive Drug Research Center, the Center for Treatment Research
on Adolescent Drug Abuse, and the Behavioral Medicine Research Center. The
treatment agencies, among the largest and most respected in the State, are
Gateway Community Services, Inc. in Jacksonville (Phil Diaz, Director),
Operation PAR in Pinellas Park (Nancy Hamilton, Director), the Center for
Drug Free Living in Orlando (Jerry Feulner, Director), The Village in
Miami (Matthew Gissen, Director), and Spectrum Programs, Inc. in Fort
Lauderdale (Bruce Hayden, Director).
Together these five agencies serve over 70,000 clients per year
with a combined budget of nearly $100 million.
The Florida Clinical Trials Network brings together many of the State’s
top drug abuse researchers and drug abuse treatment programs in an effort
to bring state-of-the-science drug abuse treatment to the State of Florida
and instantly makes Florida a national leader in the fight against drug
abuse. A third key component of the partnership is the
Substance Abuse Program Office of the Florida Department of Children and
Families. Their input and
leadership on the types of programs the State can fund and maintain will
be critically important to the work of the Florida Clinical Trials
Network.
Families Preventing HIV in
Hispanic Adolescents
NIMH 1R01 MH 63042-01
Szapocznik 09/30/2000 -
09/29/2005
Parent-adolescent communication about sexuality has been shown to be a
significant factor in delaying onset of sexual activity and risky sexual
behavior in adolescents. However, because of cultural taboos among
Hispanics, Hispanic parents often do not speak to their children and
adolescents about sexuality. This is the first research program ever
funded by the NIH to study a family strengthening intervention in the
prevention of HIV sexual risk behaviors among Hispanic adolescents.
This five-year $3.3 million dollar research study funded by the National
Institute of Mental Health will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of
two different, family-based interventions to prevent drug use and risky
sexual behavior among eighth grade Hispanic adolescents. All interventions
have been built on Hispanic cultural values by validating the central role
of the family as protector and change agent of its youth. The study will
determine if providing an HIV prevention intervention as part of a
parenting program improves parent-adolescent communication, and
significantly increases the effectiveness of the HIV prevention
intervention in preventing adolescent drug use and risky sexual behaviors.
The study will include 300 recent immigrant Hispanic adolescents and their
parents. The intervention in which a family participates will be selected
at random. After completing the intervention, each family will be
interviewed annually for three consecutive years.
Given Dade County’s growing Hispanic population, the researchers hope
that their findings will help school and health officials deliver
effective programs to prevent HIV in the Hispanic community.
Hispanics as a group are also growing rapidly in the nation. In
fact, Hispanic children already are the largest child minority group in
the nation.
Built Environment and Hispanic Elders’ Behavioral Health
NIMH 1R01
ES 10917-01
Szapocznik 09/30/2000 - 09/29/2005
A partnership between the University of Miami School of
Medicine’s Center for Family Studies director José Szapocznik and
School of Architecture faculty Joanna Lombard and Frank Martinez, Florida
International University professor Frederick Newman, and Lehigh University
(Pennsylvania) professor
Arnold Spokane was successful in obtaining joint funding from the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute of
Mental Health, both in the NIH. The study will attempt to shed light on a
little-understood aspect of mental health: the impact of building
architecture, street design and landscapes, and other "built
environments" on the health and well-being of elderly people. The
researchers hope their findings will help government officials, town
planners and architects modify existing or build new residential
neighborhoods that are more suitable to the health needs of the elderly.
The results of the study could have a significant economic benefit: An
easing of the need to place aging baby-boomers in costly nursing homes. Do
some types of neighborhoods contribute more significantly than others to
the decline of the elderly? That is what the study will try to determine.
The impact of architecture and other built environments on human behavior
has been studied for some time. School of Architecture Dean Elizabeth
Plater-Zyberk is one of the founders of a theory and movement called New
Urbanism, which suggests that small neighborhoods, with residences placed
close to each other with greater variability of use, foster a greater
sense of social connection and increased social interaction. However, few
studies exist on the impact of the built environment on the health and
well being of the elderly. This
is the first time the National Institutes of Health recognizes the built
environment, as defined by New Urbanism Theory, as a potential health
risk.
The study will investigate four aspects of the built environment believed
to affect social behavior: the diversity of use of buildings (whether they
serve multiple purposes); building types (including walk-ups, low-rises
and high-rises, and multiple-family housing with courtyards and front
steps or with side-yards); street block dimensions and landscape
(including the space between buildings and streets that impacts on
pedestrian convenience, comfort and traffic control) and the use of open
space (whether it provides opportunities for people to socialize).
Researchers will interview 400 randomly selected Hispanic men and women
who are 70 years or over. Each will be interviewed annually for 4
consecutive years to determine rate of decline in health and capacity to
perform everyday tasks (e.g., using a phone or writing a check).
The residents will represent the "full spectrum" of built
environments in East Little Havana, a community of 40,500 mostly Hispanic
residents. The researchers
want to determine whether these elderly feel connected to their community. A special concern is when elderly individuals in low-income
neighborhoods such as East Little Havana become isolated and house-bound,
reluctant to seek out support systems because they fear to leave the
safety of their homes. The study will look at such factors as whether the
buildings are accessible and whether they are near grocery stores, medical
offices and other types of services critical to the elderly.
East Little Havana was chosen for the study, in part, because
architectural and other data of the community exists as the result of an
earlier study, relating to adolescent drug use. For this study on the
elderly, the researchers will use a statistical method applicable to any
neighborhood, regardless of its social, ethnic and economic
characteristics.
Developing a Culturally Rooted Family Therapy for Hispanic Adolescents
NIDA 1R01 DA 13104
Santisteban 08/01/2000 - 07/31/2004
This new study has been awarded to Dr. Daniel Santisteban, Associate
Professor of Psychology and a Clinical Psychologist at the University of
Miami Center for Family Studies, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Dr. Santisteban’s work is designed to learn more about the unique
values, acculturation, and immigration-related life experiences of
Hispanic adolescents and families and how these values and experiences
impact the development and treatment of adolescent drug abuse.
The final product of this study will be a drug abuse treatment
model specifically refined and enhanced for use with Hispanic adolescents
and their families. The
treatment model will more effectively utilize the strengths of the
Hispanic family and will more precisely address their unique stressful
life experiences.
Clinical Processes in Drug Abuse
Prevention
Little research has been conducted on what actually happens during
prevention intervention. This
study examines in-session behaviors in drug abuse prevention intervention
groups. The primary goal of
this study is to initiate a program of research that will increase
understanding about how clinicians influence within-session participant
behaviors and group processes, which, in turn, influence outcomes
(“Attendance”, “Parental Involvement”).
With this understanding, prevention clinicians can be trained to be
more effective.
Earlier Grants
Borderline Adolescent Family Therapy
NIDA 1R01 DA 11061
Santisteban 04/01/1997 - 03/31/2000
This study conducts a Stage 1 treatment development study targeting a subtype of drug
abusing adolescents, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), that have proved to be
particularly difficult to treat. The proposed intervention, Borderline Adolescent Family
Therapy (BAFT) integrates two successful traditions in intervention research: Structural
Family Therapy for drug abusing adolescents with individual skills building components
derived from the work of Marsha Linehan with Borderline. The study includes a family
therapy process component followed by a pilot test with random assignment that will yield
preliminary efficacy data (N=20).
Structural Ecosystems Therapy with HIV+ African American Women
NIMH55796
Szapocznik 09/30/1995 - 04/30/2000
This is a randomized trial that examines the efficacy of Structural Ecosystems Therapy in
improving family functioning and reducing distress and other psychosocial sequelea of HIV
infection. The sample consists of African American women (N=206) living in Dade County,
Florida who have tested positive for HIV-1. The study participants are randomly assigned
to either the Structural Ecosystems Therapy condition, a Person Centered Approach therapy
condition, or a Community Control. Data from this multiple time-series mixed design
intervention will be analyzed using structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear
models.
Enhancing Family Caregiving for ADRD
NIA 1V01AG 13297
Eisdorfer 10/01/1995 - 09/30/2000
This is a randomized trial that examines the efficacy of an innovative Family-based
Structural Multisystems in-home Intervention (FSMI) developed by Dr. Szapocznik as well as
the innovate combination of Family-based Structural Multisystems in-home Intervention and
a Computer Telephone Integration System (CTIS). The sample consists of 200 Cuban American
or Caucasian-Caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients. The study uses an experimental
design in which families are randomized to three conditions; 1) FSMI, 2) FSMI + CTIS, and
3) Control outcomes include caregiver burden, distress and family functioning. Data from
this multiple time-series design will be analyzed using random regression models,
structural equations modeling and hierarchical linear models.
Structural Ecosystems Prevention Intervention Study (SEPI)
SHAMSA/CSAP 07961
Szapocznik/Coatsworth 09/30/1996 - 09/30/2000
This project is a randomized trial that examines the effectiveness of Structural
Ecosystems Prevention Intervention on increasing parental involvement and investment on
the target child, increasing social competence and self-regulation and control and
decreasing rates of behavioral problems and drug use. The sample consist of 12 year old
African American (N=81) and Hispanic (N=167) adolescents. Adolescents are randomly
assigned to either the Structural Ecosystems Prevention Intervention or to a control
condition. Data from this multiple time-series mixed design will be analyzed using random
regression models, structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear models.
Structural Ecosystems Therapy with Drug Using Minority Youth
NIDA DA 10574
Szapocznik 09/30/1996 - 07/31/2001
This is a randomized trial that examines the efficacy of Structural Ecosystems Therapy in
improving family and ecosystemic functioning and reducing drug use and behavioral problems
in the youth. The sample consists of African American (N=100) and Hispanic (N=100) drug
using adolescents. Adolescents are randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions:
Structural Ecosystems Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, or Community Control. Data from
this multiple time-series mixed design will be analyzed using structural equation modeling
and hierarchical linear models. |
