University of Pittsburgh School of Education
 

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Psychology in Education - Grants

After School Writing Fellowship

Andrew Schneider will faclitate and coach a bi-monthly Writers Workshop for 13 after-school practitioners from across the region. He will transfer the knowledge to other after-school programs by holding an after-school best practice research roundtable for APOST, provide writing on best practices from after-school practitioners to www.pghafterschool.org and collect and report evaluation data regarding impact of Fellowship participation on quality in out-of-school time programs.
Dates: 6/1/2011 - 2/28/2013
Funding Amount: $10000.00
Funder: United Way of Allegheny County
Investigator: Andrew Schneider

Afterschool Youth Worker Summer Institute 2012

The University of Pittsburgh School of Education will facilitate the third annual Summer Training Institute focused on the priority of regional afterschool professional development. Pittsburgh after-school youth workers will have the opportunity to learn from local master trainers in United Way agencies and national after-school experts as we deliver the Child & Youth Care Basic Course. The Basic Course teaches an understanding of how children develop, increases the capacity to implement productive discipline, and enlarges workers' repertoire of enriched activities that meet the standards and practices that are promoted by APOST and PASYDN.
Dates: 5/21/2012 - 9/30/2012
Funding Amount: $36050.00
Funder: United Way of Allegheny County
Investigator: Andrew Schneider

Biobehavioral Pathways Linking Stress and Cancer Progression

The proposed study will begin to elucidate the biobehavioral pathways linking stress and health behaviors with disease progression in the context of cancer. The aims and hypotheses of this study are: (1) to investigate predictors of the psychological and psyciological stress response to a diagnosis or recurrence of hepatobiliary carcinoma; and (2) to examine the dynamic link between stress and levels of chronic stress to be associated with (a) attempts to decrease maladaptive health behaviors or to adopt adaptive health behaviors, or (b) attempts to decrease physiological arousal by continued use or re-initiation of maladaptive health behaviors.
Dates: 9/24/2012 - 8/31/2013
Funding Amount: $19220.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Kevin Kim

Development of Substance Use in Girls

The proposed study is the first to evaluate a large multi-ethnic cohort of normal weight and overweight adolescents, measure academic achievement and cognition comprehensively, and obtain detailed information on both psychosocial stutus - including current and past stressors, as well as detailed metabolic markers. Not only will this approach permit us to definitively document the extent to which obesity in adolescence is associated with cognitive dysfunction, but it will allow us to partition the effects of critical psychosocial and biomedical variables and thereby provide a base of information that is directly relevant to the development of better approaches to intervention and education.
Dates: 4/1/2012 - 3/31/2013
Funding Amount: $10268.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Kevin Kim

Drug Abuse Vulnerability: Mechanisms and Manifestations

This continuation application proposes to continue the follow-up research on 775 families enrolled in the Center's prospective investigations into the etiology of substance use disorder (SUD).
Dates: 3/1/2013 - 2/28/2014
Funding Amount: $38393.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Kevin Kim

Drug Abuse Vulnerability: Mechanisms and Manifestations

This continuation application proposes to continue the follow-up research on 775 families enrolled in the Center's prospective investigations into the etiology of substance use disorder (SUD). The probands are men with lifetime presence/absence of SUD consequent to use of an illicit drug who have a 10-12 year old biological son or daughter.
Dates: 3/1/2013 - 2/28/2014
Funding Amount: $2709.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Clement Stone

Impact of Low Health Literacy on Medical Adherance in Lung Transplant Recipients

The long term objective of this study is to gain sufficient information in order to develop an intervention trial focused on improving health literacy and outcomes for lung transplant patients.
Dates: 7/1/2012 - 6/30/2013
Funding Amount: $7660.00
Funder: American Society of Transplantation
Investigator: Kevin Kim

Novel Measures of Psychosocial Stress: Validation in an Ongoing Cohort Study

There is increasing evidence that psychosocial stress may enhance the risk for a number of important chronic conditions, and that stress may moderate the effects of genetic factors on health and behavioral outcomes as well. Further advances in this area are predicated on the development of standardized, psychometrically sound instruments for quantifying exposures to psychosocial stress. Over the past four years, our Pittsburgh-based team has been working to develop new tools for the assessment of psychosocial stress, under the auspices of a cooperative agreement sponsored by the Exposure Biology program. We have made a great deal of progress, and we now have in hand two new prototype technologies, one for the self-report assessment of daily psychosocial stress (SMART, or self-report mobile activity recording tool), and the other, an interviewer-assisted assessment tool for the measurement of chronic and acute environmental stressors (LEAP, or Life Events Assessment Profile). The goal of the proposed study will be to validate these two prototype devices in the context of an ongoing epidemiological study at an offsite location.
Dates: 9/21/2011 - 7/31/2012
Funding Amount: $7021.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Clement Stone

Novel Measures of Psychosocial Stress: Validation in an Ongoing Cohort Study

There is increasing evidence that psychosocial stress may enhance the risk for a number of important chronic conditions, and that stress may moderate the effects of genetic factors on health and behavioral outcomes as well. Further advances in this area are predicated on the development of standardized, psychometrically sound instruments for quantifying exposures to develop new tools for the assessment of psychosocial stress, under the auspices of a cooperative agreement sponsored by the Exposure Biology program. We have made a great deal of progress, and we now have in hand two new prototype technologies, one for the self-report assessment of daily psychosocial stress and the other, an interviewer-assisted assessment tool for the measurement of chronic and acute environmental stressors. The goal of the proposed study will be to validate these two prototype devices in the context of an ongoing epidiemiological study at an offsite location.
Dates: 8/1/2012 - 7/31/2013
Funding Amount: $14525.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Clement Stone

Qualitative Research Teachers Effectiveness

The U. S. Department of Education Race to the Top Initiative, in an effort to improve teacher and principal effectiveness, states are required to 1) measure individual student growth; 2) design and implement transparent evaluation systems for teachers and principals that can differentiate effectiveness and take into account student growth, and are designed with principal and teacher involvement; 3) conduct annual evaluations of teachers and principals; and 4) use the resultsof the evaluations to inform decisions.
Dates: 4/15/2012 - 6/30/2012
Funding Amount: $44414.00
Funder: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Investigator: Suzanne Lane

Research Evaluation Work Plan for the Pilot Teachers Effectiveness

1.) Measure individual student growth. 2.) Design and implement transparent evaluation systems for teachers and principals that can differentiate effectiveness and take into account student growth, and are designed with principal and teacher involvement. 3.) Conduct annual evaluations of teachers and principals. 4.) Use the results of the evaluations to inform decisions.
Dates: 7/1/2012 - 6/30/2013
Funding Amount: $99182.00
Funder: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Investigator: Suzanne Lane

Research on the Effectiveness of the R-Coaching Model

At the request and direction of the Foundations College Ready Work Team, the University of Pittsburgh will research the effectiveness of the R-Coaching Model and how it is used by the participants (teachers, coaches, and principals) on instructional practices and student achievement.
Dates: 12/1/2011 - 2/28/2014
Funding Amount: $140600.00
Funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Investigator: Suzanne Lane

Research on the Effectiveness of the R-Coaching Model

At the request and direction of the Foundations College Ready Work Team, the University of Pittsburgh will research the effectiveness of the R-Coaching Model and how it is used by the participants (teachers, coaches, and principals) on instructional practices and student achievement.
Dates: 1/1/2013 - 2/28/2014
Funding Amount: $183638.00
Funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Investigator: Suzanne Lane

Smartcare: Innovations in Caregiving Interventions

The specific aims of this multi-site three arm randomized controlled trial are to: 1) Compare the efficacy of A) an intervention for depressive symptoms (Beating the Blues) delivered prior to a needs-based caregiver intervention (SmartCare) versus B) SmartCare alone versus C) enhanced care as usual (CAU+) in improving caregivers' psychological and physical health and 2) Compare the efficacy of Beating the Blues versus CAU+ in improving subjects' short-term psychological and physical health.
Dates: 9/27/2012 - 6/30/2013
Funding Amount: $4732.00
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Investigator: Kevin Kim