Funded White Paper Proposals
Thank you to all who submitted proposals for mini white papers. The following are the funded proposal descriptions:
Home Centered Technologies that Engage Family Members to Care for Patients with Chronic Diseases
Authors
Barbara Given, Acting Associate Dean and University Distinguished Professor, College of Nursing
Charles Given, Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Michael Shanblatt, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Neil Wright, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Philip Reed, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology; Director, Biomedical Research and Informatics Center
Mohan Reddy, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine; Research Director, Geriatric Programs
Description
Three indisputable trends face families: 1) a large cohort is aging, 2) a significant proportion will manage complex chronic illnesses, and 3) costs of care will escalate while reimbursement for health care is shrinking.
This proposal builds on research that focuses on how family members care for one another in the home and will develop, test, and disseminate home centered technologies that link families and patients to their sources of primary care and to evidence-based information from the World Wide Web, and that serve as sources of mutual support for chronic health problems.
This program of research will build upon existing interpersonal and telephone-based technologies that assist family members and patients. From this base, new technological approaches will be developed and tested to assist in home monitoring and transmission of information about family members to primary care providers. These monitoring systems will be tailored for health problems and family needs. Blending these technological innovations with effective interpersonal strategies in order to manage symptoms of cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, and musculoskeletal problems in the home will be the long-term vision of this program.
The impact of these innovations will be assessed from the perspectives of patients and families’ usability, acceptability, clinical management, and perceived benefit.
Employees' Family Well-Being: The Impacts of Flexible Work-Life Policies/Programs
Authors
Ellen Ernst Kossek, Professor, School of Labor and Industrial Relations
Peter Berg, Associate Professor, School of Labor and Industrial Relations
Mingzhu Nie, Doctoral Candidate, School of Labor and Industrial Relations
Brian Distelberg, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Family and Child Ecology, Marriage and Family Therapy
Description
Studies on employer flexible work-life policies focus on organizational outcomes (i.e., productivity and turnover) but under examine family outcomes. Effective implementation of flexibility remains complex and different types of flexibility (limiting work hours, flextime) may not be equally helpful to all families who have diverse job and family demands, and may have mixed (good and bad) family outcomes.
This goal of this interdisciplinary project is to conduct a literature review of the measures and gaps related to family outcomes from flexibility use from the fields of human resources, business management, psychology, sociology, health, and marriage and family studies. The purpose will be to understand not only the role of work-life flexibility in a family system but to understand which specific flexibility practices have the most significant effect on the well-being of families where individuals are required to be caregivers to family members while maintaining their occupational employment. Family outcomes may include work-family conflict, health, housework, psychiatric disorders (mood, anxiety, substance dependence, substance abuse), marital satisfaction, family interactions and processes, and child well-being and school involvement.
Children, Parents, and Information Technology Use
Author
Linda A. Jackson, Professor, Department of Psychology
Description
The proposed paper will: 1) review the evidence indicating a digital divide in information technology (IT) use; 2) provide compelling evidence of the importance of IT use for educational and occupational attainment and advancement; and 3) propose an after-school program that will involve children and their parents using IT together to accomplish shared goals. The program will take place at the Holmes Street Youth Community Center for Technology (HSYCCT), Lansing, MI.
The HSYCCT is currently in the planning stage. The impetus for the center comes from Governor Granholm’s emphasis on technology as critical to Michigan’s future, and from community leaders and faculty at MSU who are currently working together to make the Center a reality. These include faculty in Computer Science (Laurie Dillon, Rich Enbody), Education (Yong Zhao, Angela Barton), and Psychology (Linda Jackson) and community leaders such as David Hollister (Primas Civitas), Adam Pitcher (President, Holmes Street Neighborhood Association), and the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team (MMIT).
Keeping Families Safe Online
Authors
Robert LaRose, Professor, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media
Nora Rifon, Professor, Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing
Richard Enbody, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Description
The paper reviews current threats to the online privacy and safety of families and family members. These threats include cyberstalking, cyberbullying, spyware, viruses, Trojans, phishing, identity theft, and privacy invasion. Relevant scholarly research is reviewed to define the current state of knowledge about these threats, family activities that raise threat levels, technical protections, online safety education, and strategies that might encourage safer online behavior in the family setting. The paper concludes with policy recommendations and a proposal to test a policy-based intervention that will better protect the privacy and safety of families living in the information society. These include user education, improved privacy labeling, mandatory "black box" safety warnings, user verification, and safety certification.
Using Virtual Environments and Games to Support Teens at Risk, Their Families, and the Professionals Who Work with Them
Authors
Paul P. Freddolino, Professor and Coordinator of Distance Education, School of
Social Work
Glenn Stutzky, Clinical Instructor, School of Social Work
Additional authors of the mini white paper will come from Virtual University Design and Technology, and from Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media. The projects to be proposed in the mini white paper will include faculty and researchers from nursing, health communications, family and child ecology, educational psychology and educational technology, and colleagues in social work who specialize in children and families.
Description
While many societies face continuing challenges related to child abuse and neglect, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide as yet untapped resources. One example is the emergence of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMOs) in which literally millions of people around the world engage in 'virtual' environments. While these began for entertainment, MMOs are beginning to be used by business, government, and academia because of their potential for creating active simulations. Yet this same technology has created a new problem for children, teens and their families -- cyberbullying.
The proposed mini white paper will: 1) review relevant technologies available today (and expected to emerge in the next decade); 2) review relevant “serious” applications of MMOs for education, training, and intervention and research associated with those applications; 3.) assess the feasibility of using a 'virtual' environment such as the MMO called Teen Second Life to collect needs assessment data about teens; 4) explore the feasibility of using virtual environments and games for delivering safety and communication simulations to teens and families; 5) explore the feasibility of using MMOs for graduate and undergraduate education related to human services, family communication, and sociology; and 6) propose concrete plans to establish a campus interdisciplinary group to develop proposals for application of MMOs for assessment, higher education instruction, and family interventions.
Teaching Multidisciplinary Health Professional Teams to Conduct End of Life Discussions Using Simulated Families
Authors
Heather Laird-Fick, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program
Judith Vinson, Associate Professor, College of Nursing; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Mark Ensberg, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Mary Kay Smith, Assistant Instructor and Coordinator of Simulation Lab, College of Nursing
David Solomon, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Linda Keilman, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
Mary Jo Arndt, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs, College of Nursing
Gwen Wyatt, Professor, College of Nursing
Margie Rodriguez LeSage, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Description
Death, dying, and grief are inevitable components of our lives, and are of increasing public concern. Compassionate, patient-centered communication can help patients, families and health care providers make decisions that result in optimal care during this vulnerable process, but many clinicians struggle with discussions about end of life care. Traditional curricula rely on lectures to teach about end of life issues, and do not adequately prepare trainees. Curricula that incorporate practice and reflection are superior for improving skills and attitudes, but existing programs are designed for clinicians from a single background -- that is, medicine, nursing, or social work. In reality, interdisciplinary teams of nurses, physicians and social workers engage patients and their families in collaborative decision making over time. We will explore the use of high-fidelity simulation to train interdisciplinary teams to engage patients and families in high quality end of life decision making. High fidelity simulation is a new teaching method that combines learners, high-tech mannequins, and actors in realistic settings. Prior research has shown that the use of simulation can compress the time required to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes by providing focused practice and reflection.
The Primary Role of Family in Family-Centered Primary Care
Authors
Rebecca Malouin, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Esther Onaga, Associate Professor, Department of Family and Child Ecology
Jane Turner, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development; Assistant Dean, Preclinical Curriculum, College of Human Medicine
Description
The medical home, characterized by primary care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate and culturally effective, is a core concept within both pediatrics and family medicine. Recently, the Committee on Children with Disabilities within the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "the focus of health and developmental services has evolved from a child-centered, traditional, ‘medical’ model to a family-centered 'developmental' model. That is, it also takes into consideration the important contributions of the family unit, the stressors that affect families (be they social, financial, and/or psychological), and the ability of families to adapt to new challenges" (2001). The proposed white paper seeks to identify definitions of "family-centered care," models of implementation and measurement of "family-centered care" within practice, proposed outcomes, and future directions such as family-defined, family-centered care and issues of cultural competency in providing care within the context of the family. The proposed white paper will unite the work and expertise of the three authors on topics such as children and youth with special health needs and their families, care coordination for children with special healthcare needs, and measurement of components of a medical home.
Bringing Baby to the Family Table: An Intervention to Improve Feeding Practices to Reduce Childhood Overweight
Authors
Beth H. Olson, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Mildred A. Horodynski, Professor, College of Nursing
Holly Brophy-Herb, Associate Professor, Department of Family and Child Ecology
Tammy Sullivan, Program Leader, Building Strong Families & Maternal and Child Wellbeing, Family & Consumer Sciences, MSU Extension
Patricia Benton, Program Leader, The Breastfeeding Initiative, Family & Consumer Sciences, MSU Extension
Description
One in three Michigan children is overweight. Children of lower socioeconomic status and African Americans are particularly at risk.
Little research addresses parent-child feeding practices within the family environment. The investigators have conducted research addressing mothers and their young infants or toddlers. The proposed project addresses the crucial time transition period from breast- or formula-feeding to solid foods and the family table. The when, what, and how babies are brought into the family eating environment needs to be addressed through both nutrition and parenting education as does the qualitative context of the meal time experience. Our previous behavioral theory-based research with mothers and health professionals identified key topics to be addressed. These include understanding baby cues and temperament, and the development of parenting feeding styles that help infants develop self-feeding and self-regulation skills necessary to grow into eating solid foods. These topics need to be encompassed in education which acknowledges and may need to accommodate family behaviors which help them live in their environment.
This research project will be a randomized intervention to develop healthy infant feeding practices. The results will lead to more positive mealtime environments for families, with a long-term goal of prevention of childhood overweight in at-risk families.
Enriching Employees' Family Lives through Interpersonal Capitalization on Positive Work Events
Authors
Remus Ilies, Associate Professor, Department of Management
Jessica Fandre, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Psychology
Description
Whereas there is a large body of literature examining work-family conflict and the negative consequences of such conflict for individuals' family lives, very little research has examined what positive influence work can have on employees' family life. In this proposed white paper we will describe a process through which positive influences from work on employees' family lives can be enhanced. Drawing from an emotions-as-resources framework, we propose that sharing of positive work events with a family member or friend (e.g., discussing with one's spouse at home a satisfying event or experience that has occurred at work) can build resources useful across work-family domains through a process called capitalization. For example, through capitalization, employees will experience increases in their daily affective well-being over and above those caused by the positive events themselves. Furthermore, contingent on the nature of the other party’s (e.g., spouse's) response to employees' capitalization attempts, this process can further enhance relationship satisfaction and general psychological well-being. In the white paper, in addition to describing these conceptual processes, we will delineate a methodological framework for studying such work-family capitalization effects with repeated (daily) assessments of positive events, capitalization attempts, responses to capitalization, and well-being.
Consumer De-Socialization: Teaching Children to Identify and Understand Advertiser Motives and their Messages
Authors
Nora J. Rifon, Professor, Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing
Bruce G. Vanden Bergh, Professor, Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing
Description
The paper will review academic literature on how children learn from advertising and the value of persuasion knowledge for the development of healthy skepticism toward advertisers and their messages. Children are heavily targeted by advertisers; notably food and toy advertisers dominate the advertising-to-kids landscape. The increasing childhood obesity epidemic is fueled in part by food advertising messages that are dominated by the lure of fun, taste, and premiums, and now food marketers have moved into the gaming business with games at their Web sites and product placements within other online venues as well. Persuasion knowledge, also known as schema about schemers, offers a cognitive approach for the development of childhood interventions to protect children from harmful advertising messages. To date, no research has applied persuasion knowledge to children’s learning from advertising. In addition, elementary school programs such as Junior Achievement, which barely scratch the surface of the issue, are of little use to children in this regard. This paper will synthesize and integrate literature on how children (under the age of eight) learn from advertising, and on persuasion knowledge, then develop a proposal to study the value of persuasion knowledge for children’s cognitive defense against advertising.
Pathways for Ethnic Differences on Head Start Children's Short- and Long-Term Impacts
Authors
Deborah Johnson, Professor, Family and Child Ecology
Kyunghee Lee, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Description
Previous studies suggest that the impact of Head Start differs among black, white, and Hispanic children, particularly in long-term outcomes. Family support hypothesis, which was one of Head Start's original goals, has been considered as an indicator for these differences. Taking the ecological framework, the proposed study will examine the ethnic differences on Head Start children's outcomes and investigate whether the family support hypothesis can explain these differences. Data will be extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Children's outcomes will be reading, math, and behavioral scores measured repeatedly from the age of five up to twelve. Family support variables will include family income, home learning environment, maternal psycho-social well-being, family structure, and family residential context. Growth curve analysis will be used to compare changes in children's outcomes from the starting point at ages 5-6 (intercept: short-term outcomes) and up to ages 11-12 (slope: long-term outcomes) among different ethnicities. Each of the family support variables, measured at children's age at 5-6, will be tested to investigate whether they affect the intercept and slope of children's outcomes differently. The implication will be that Head Start should continue to provide comprehensive programs not only for children but also for parents.
Investigating the Impact of Neighborhood Environments on the Risk of Hypertension
Authors
Sue Grady, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Philip Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies
Sarah Nicholls, Assistant Professor, Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies and Department of Geography
Description
Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide and affects 26.8% of adults in Michigan. Susceptibility to this condition is highly heritable, and treatment/secondary medical conditions may place burdens on unaffected family members. Much of the etiology of hypertension is poorly understood. However, there is an increasing recognition of the role of risk factors that are beyond the control of individuals in influencing the risk of hypertension.
The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of the types of neighborhood environments that are most and least amenable to the development of hypertension. We focus on three broad areas: 1) segregation by income and race; 2) conduciveness to physical activity; and 3) inequity in access to affordable, nutritious foods. The white paper will concentrate on identification and/or development of the appropriate procedures for measuring these factors using multi-level modeling methods and traditional survey methodologies in combination with geographic information system techniques. There is a need to develop objective measures to characterize neighborhood environments, as well as measures of residents' perceptions of these environments. Both are hypothesized to influence the risk of hypertension through direct and indirect pathways (i.e., influencing individual-level diet and physical activity).
Raising Global Citizens through Early Childhood Language Programs
Authors
Senta Goertler, Assistant Professor of Second Language Studies, Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
Angelika Kraemer, Director of German Outreach Programs, Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
Description
Economic and immigration trends indicate that future citizens need intercultural communication skills. East Lansing attracts international families, which increases the need for our children to learn about tolerance and diversity and at the same time provides excellent opportunities to do so. We propose early childhood language programs (ECLP) in collaboration with the community to increase the opportunities.
Existing research identified several positive influences of ECLP such as: 1) communication skills; 2) positive attitude towards language learning/speakers of other languages; 3) interest in multiculturalism academic achievement (SAT scores, drop-out rates, grades); and 5) employment opportunities.
The German section has several successful ECLPs. While already a community-engaged, cross-disciplinary team, we want to expand our collaboration with other languages and possibly Education, Sociology, Theatre and/or Anthropology. Our programmatic vision is to establish a Community Language School like the Community Music School.
We propose investigating short- and long-term correlations between the children's participation in ECLPs and friends' diversity, foreign language study, language improvement, study abroad, academic performance, and job placement. This study will track ECLP students and their non-participating peers from elementary school through their first two years in the workforce.
Using Tablets to Disseminate Health Information in Rural Rwanda
Authors
Teresa Mastin, Associate Professor, Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing
Ines Mpambara, Rwanda Center for Health Communications, Ministry of Health, Republic of Rwanda
Description
This mini white paper will examine the viability of using tablets to disseminate health information in rural Rwanda through two venues: elementary schools and community-based healthcare workers. Elementary schools may be an ideal venue through which to use tablets to disseminate basic health information and to introduce children to the computer. Community healthcare workers are responsible for approximately fifteen families; however, no mechanism exists to provide them with health information in a timely fashion that could be of value to the families they serve.
This paper will examine the viability of using tablets in support of achieving the following objectives: 1) to disseminate information through children, which will be designed in a manner that encourages them to share what they have learned with their family units; and 2) to provide the Ministry of Health's office with a means by which to maintain contact with, provide continuing education to, and disseminate information to community healthcare workers.
The overall goal is to enhance the quality of life of Rwandans living in rural areas by making tailored healthcare information more readily available. Health topic priorities will be guided by the Republic of Rwanda's National Behaviour Change Communication Policy for the Health Sector.
Maternal and Child Health in Low Income Families
Authors
Cristian Meghea, Assistant Professor, Institute for Health Care Studies
Lee Anne Roman, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Jodi Holtrop Summers, Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Director, Residency Network, Department of Family Practice
Lynette Biery, Project Coordinator, Institute for Health Care Studies
Description
Maternal and child health is a key area in family well-being, particularly for poor families.
Medicaid covers poor, vulnerable, underserved families and finances 37% of all births in the US. Recent federal legislation has cut funding for Medicaid by $10 billion over the next ten years. There is a sense of urgency for policy makers to improve health outcomes for low income families in a cost-effective way.
We propose a research and policy project that will help Medicaid target the beneficiaries most in need with the appropriate interventions during pregnancy and the infancy period. Our project will identify the most modifiable factors, and will assess which ones, if addressed, significantly improve health. We plan to implement selective pilot interventions to advise policy makers how to get the best value out of a limited pool of resources.
Some of the health related issues are poor birth outcomes and the risks associated with them (such as smoking, drinking), maternal depression and stress, enhancing traditional home visiting during pregnancy, parenting, and infant development.
Our prior work with state policy makers in Michigan allows us access to the statewide data warehouse, and to in-depth surveyed samples of Medicaid insured mothers and children.