CPS Faculty Present Applied Community Based Grant Research

Drs. Diana Formoso and Mercedes ter Maat, co-investigators for Connections: Families and Schools Supporting our Youth, presented year 1 results and goals for year 2 of this research study to the NSU Quality of Life Council Board. This study is part of a collaborative effort between NSU’s Center for Psychological Studies, the Children’s Services Council, and Broward County Public Schools (three low-income, elementary schools). Its overarching goal is to enhance the quality-of-life of low-income, ethnic minority children living in Broward County by developing and evaluating a pilot program to increase the family and school support available to them. This intervention targets protective factors that consistently have been shown to improve outcomes for low-income youth: child coping skills, positive family relationships, effective parenting practices, parental involvement and school-home communication, and relationships with supportive adults and peers. These factors, in turn, are expected to promote children’s academic achievement and positive mental health outcomes. This study, in its second year, is the first step in a program of intervention research seeking to adapt existing evidence-based practices for use with low-income families from Latin America, Haiti, and the English Speaking Caribbean and to develop new strategies—ones that are culturally-competent and contextually-relevant, when existing interventions fall short.