Posted on May 21, 2002 at 11:55 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — Robin Gaines Lanzi, Ph.D., developmental scientist with the Civitan International Research Center and the department of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has received a five-year $420,390 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The prestigious Mentored Research Scientist Developmental Award will support Lanzi’s research focusing on improving the lives of at-risk children and families.
Research career development awards are awarded to select investigators to advance needed research skills in the areas of child abuse and neglect, rehabilitation and violence. Lanzi’s mentor is Sharon Ramey, Ph.D., former director of the Civitan Center, now the Susan H. Mayer Professor of Child and Family Development with the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Lanzi’s grant will focus on how certain aspects of adolescent development may affect parenting skills. “We are interested in studying parenting as a function of the mother’s stage of development and are particularly interested in the role of personal responsibility.” Depression and social support are also factors Lanzi’s research team will explore.
“This research is of paramount significance because there are alarming rates of child neglect among adolescent and high-risk mothers, and there is a limited understanding of maternal developmental factors related to the onset, severity and duration of child neglect,” says Lanzi.
Lanzi’s grant builds upon a recently funded NIH multi-center study, directed by Ramey, to assess the parenting skills of first-time teen moms. Other sites participating in the study are the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the University of Kansas in Lawrence and Georgetown University. Overall, NICHD will award sites nearly $6 million over the next five years. UAB will receive $942,000.
Researchers are recruiting expecting teens between the ages of 15 and 18 and expecting adults between the ages of 22 and 35. A total of 480 teen moms and 400 adult moms will be recruited nationally. UAB will enroll 120 teen moms and 100 adult moms.
Lanzi’s grant will provide funding to enroll an additional 50 teens who are not mothers and who are not pregnant. “This group will serve as a comparison group and will provide information about adolescents’ patterns of personal responsibility relative to school, work, chores, health and safety, social engagements and networks,” says Lanzi.
Moms and their children will be evaluated several times over a three-year period. “We will use cell phones, a rather unique approach, to check-in with moms occasionally and to conduct impromptu interviews,” says Lanzi. “We also will schedule times to conduct home visits with moms and their children and to conduct assessments on the children.”
In addition to free parenting information, child evaluations and the use of a cell phone, moms will receive Wal-Mart gift certificates for their participation in the study. For more information, please call Lanzi at (205) 934-3171.