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The community alliance for Research Empowering Social Change (CARES) is an academic-community research partnership designed to: (1) train community members about evidence-based public health, (2) increase community members’ scientific literacy, and (3) develop the infrastructure for community-based participatory research so that local stakeholders can examine and address racial/ethnic health disparities in their communities. Nineteen community members enrolled in the CARES training. The training consisted of 11 didactic training sessions and 4 experiential workshops, taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from research institutions. Results suggest that the training increased research literacy, prepared community members for collaborative work with academic researchers, and empowered them to utilize scientific research methods to create social change in their communities.

Using narratives of single low-income Black mothers with preadolescent children in a high-crime neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, this study aims (1) to understand if and how neighborhood safety influences mothers' decisions about allowing their daughters to play outdoors and (2) to identify what neighborhood changes would need to occur to alter their perceptions about safety. Mothers reported that unpredictable violence, related to drug and gang activity of neighbors, and the absence of safe play areas in their neighborhood led them to sequester their daughters indoors. Hostile neighborhood conditions contributed to children's physical inactivity and put girls at risk for obesity.

Scant attention has been given to the consequence of actual weight status for adolescents' sexual wellbeing. In this article, we investigate the race-specific connection between obesity and risky sexual behavior among adolescent girls. Propensity scores and radius matching are used to analyze a sample of 340 adolescents aged 16-17 who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Young Adult Survey in 2000 or 2002. Nearly even numbers of these participants identified as white and black (183 and 157, respectively). We find that compared to their non-obese white peers, obese white adolescent girls exhibit higher rates of multiple sex partners and sex with older partners, and are also less likely to use condoms. None of these factors are significantly related to high BMI within the black sample. These findings indicate that the negative social consequences of obesity extend beyond future economic and marriage outcomes to adolescent white women's sexual outcomes. They also highlight the importance of context: the implications of being obese during adolescence depend on cultural meanings of obesity.

In this article, the authors operationalize the intersection of gender and race in survey research. Using quantitative data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, they investigate how gender/racial stereotypes about African Americans affect Whites' attitudes about two types of affirmative action programs: (1) job training and education and (2) hiring and promotion. The authors find that gender/racial prejudice towards Black women and Black men influences Whites' opposition to affirmative action at different levels than negative attitudes towards Blacks as a group. Prejudice toward Black women has a larger effect on Whites'policy preferences than does prejudice toward Black men or Blacks in general. In future research, survey methodologists should develop better intersectional measures to further document these gender/racial attitudes.

Purpose: To adapt, implement, and evaluate a public health research methods training program for youth. The Community Research Fellows Training Program is an evidence-based public health research methods training program for adults (18 years and older). The Youth Research Fellows Training (YRFT) is an adaptation of this program for youth.Methods: University faculty facilitate didactic training sessions and experiential small group activities in biweekly sessions conducted as part of an existing 4-week summer camp. Participants were African American girls (n=11) ranging from ages 10 to 14 years (most recent grade completed 4th–8th). To evaluate participant knowledge gain and satisfaction pre-tests were administered before each session, and post-test and evaluations were administered after each session. In addition, faculty completed web-based evaluation surveys on their experience teaching in the program.Results: Mean and median post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores for most (6 of the 7) of the training sessions; one session had no difference in scores. Participants rated the sessions well, on average overall session ratings of 4.3–4.8 on a 5-point Likert scale. Faculty rated their experience teaching in the program as excellent or very good and would be willing to teach in the program again (n=7; 100%).Conclusion: This pilot implementation of the YRFT program proved highly successful in terms of participant and faculty experience. The program evaluation demonstrates increased knowledge of public health research methods. This program has the potential to prepare youth to engage in public health research as partners not just participants.

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Black American women are shrinking in height at a faster rate than other groups, a phenomenon that has consequences for the physical health and economic well-being of black females. Relative to the cohort born from 1955 to 1974, the most recent cohort (1970–1986) of black American women and girls have lost more than half an inch (approximately 0.56) in height. Adult height is a measure of net nutrition acquired during childhood and adolescence and is correlated with a wide variety of economic and health outcomes. Simultaneously, the body mass index (BMI) among blacks has also increased at a faster rate than whites in both the periods of 1988–1994 (1.06 kg/m2) and 1999–2002. Black women and girls, in particular, experienced the greatest increase in BMI since the 1990s. Evidence that black American women are shrinking and BMI is growing highlights the need to examine the nutritional intake of black girls during childhood and adolescence; early nutritional deficiencies have persistent impact over their life course. In this policy brief, we consider several public health policy interventions that affect black girls’ nutritional intake across the life course, particularly during childhood and adolescence.