Kathleen Roche has received a 5-year, $3.88 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health. This grant is for a project titled "Societal Stressors, Adaptive Factors, and Developmental Timing: Influences on Latinx Mental Health from Early Childhood Through Young Adulthood." The project expands on her ongoing Caminos study, which is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Dr. Roche, alongside Dr. Margaret Caughy from the University of Georgia and Dr. Esther Calzada from the University of Texas at Austin, will use an integrated data analysis approach to combine data from five longitudinal Latinx cohort studies. Investigators will examine the impacts of both distal and proximal societal stressors on mental health trajectories for a diverse sample of US Latinx youth followed from early childhood into young adulthood. The participants will represent various national origins and geographic locations throughout the U.S.
Situating the understanding of Latinx youth’s mental health within the context of child development, societal stressors, and modifiable family and youth processes and adaptive factors indicative of resilience is expected to provide critical information needed for designing effective Latinx mental health interventions.
More information about Dr. Roche’s studies can be found under the research tab in her faculty profile.