Luis H. Zayas - US grants

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): The primary objective of this study is to determine the extent to which a psychosocial intervention combining cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression with child development information and social support reduces depressive symptomatology and risks of impairments in maternal interactions with infants among 300 low SES Puerto Rican (n = 75), Dominican (n = 75), and African-American (n = 150) women during pregnancy and early postpartum receiving prenatal services at inner-city primary care clinics of a major medical center. Using a randomized, controlled clinical trial, the aims of the study are to determine: (1) the impact of the psychosocial home and primary care intervention on women's depression symptomatology, sensitivity and responsivity to their infants, and sense of parental competency when their infants are 3-months old compared to standard clinic services; (2) the possible moderating effects of specific psychosocial factors and demographic variables on the effectiveness of the psychosocial intervention; (3) how women's prenatal care utilization psychosocial and demographic factors to impact on perinatal depression. The experimental group will consist of pregnant depressed women receiving the psychosocial intervention. A comparison group of pregnant depressed women will receive the standard services offered by their health care centers. A second comparison group of non-depressed pregnant women will also receive standard services.

Fordham University proposes to establish a Center for Hispanic Mental Health Studies which will: (1) conduct research on mental health service needs of Hispanic populations, and develop and evaluate psychosocial interventions for Hispanics; and (2) strengthen GSSS' institutional research capacity and faculty skills in mental health research. The focus on Hispanics is based on their documented mental health needs. Infrastructure development will occur under the leadership of a director and senior co-investigators from Fordham with the collaboration of New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) researchers who will include GSSS faculty and students as collaborators in their research projects. The Center will pursue its aims through four integrative learning components. (1) Research teams conducting pilot studies and REPs at GSSS and participating in research at NYSPI will provide faculty and students "hands-on" experience in all aspects of research. One pilot study compares mental health outcomes for Hispanic children in kin and non-kin foster care and another pilot study examines symptom recognition and mental health services utilization by elderly Hispanics. A funded REP tests a psychosocial intervention for women during pregnancy, and a proposed REP examines the effects of language and ethnic matching in diagnostic interviews with Hispanics. (2) Mentorship to implement individualized Faculty Research Development Plans will meet substantive and methodological needs of faculty pursuing mental health research. Mentoring will result in concept papers and research proposals by faculty to be submitted for funding through University faculty awards, Center "seed grants," and external sources. (3) Interactive, problem-solving seminars on psychiatric epidemiology, services, arid intervention research will be led by NYSPI collaborators. They will respond to conceptual, methodological and logistical concerns of research teams and individual faculty. (4) Research colloquia by leading mental health researchers and new investigators will solidify the Center's presence at GSSS and link it to the community of mental health researchers.

DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): The Center for Hispanic Mental Health Research at Fordham University proposes to establish a predoctoral research training program in minority mental health. Based on the under-representation of social work and minority investigators in mental health research, on the recognized needs of Hispanic and other minority populations, and on the need to produce culturally sensitive research and culturally competent services, the training program will provide skills development courses and activities necessary to enter careers in mental health research. The training program's goals are to (1) provide rigorous training in the theoretical and methodological foundation for mental health research in psychiatric epidemiology, clinical and intervention research, and services research; (2) train doctoral students to conduct culturally competent research with Hispanics and other minority populations; and (3) enable students of minority and majority backgrounds to launch careers in mental health research in academic and other settings. To achieve these goals, we will recruit three trainees annually and provide support for three years. Trainees will complete all doctoral courses including additional electives in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies; participate in a research internship in NIMH-funded research projects at Fordham and New York State Psychiatric Institute during the period of training; participate in an integrative research seminar and receive individualized mentoring; and attend Center-sponsored seminars and colloquia as well as those at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Throughout their training, students will receive regular didactic and interactive instruction on the ethical conduct of science. Our goal is to produce highly trained mental health investigators with interest, skills, and experience in addressing the psychiatric and psychosocial needs of Hispanic and other minority populations.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Clinician-patient communication is essential for accurate diagnosis which in turn is vital to proper psychiatric treatment. When clinicians and their patients differ in ethnicity, culture and language, problems in assessing psychiatric disorders and their severity are more apt to arise. Even with translators assisting in such diagnostic situations, we know very little about the impact of ethnicity and language on psychiatric diagnosis. In order to examine how ethnic and linguistic similarity and difference between clinicians and patients affect diagnosis, this revised exploratory/developmental application has as its specific aims to (1) To compare clinician-rendered diagnoses of Spanish-only and bilingual Hispanic patients when clinicians are English-speaking, non-Hispanic clinicians and bilingual Hispanic clinicians; (2) explore clinicians' rationales for diagnoses based on their interpretations of patients' behaviors, and examine interactional process during diagnostic interviews; (3) differences between clinician-rendered and structured-interview diagnoses for Spanish-only and bilingual Hispanics; and (4) effects of translator presence in clinician-rendered diagnoses of Spanish-only patients. The study design has 150 foreign-born adult Hispanic immigrants seeking psychiatric services assigned at intake to either a monolingual (English) non-Hispanic clinician or a bilingual Hispanic clinician. A trained translator will translate during interviews of monolingual patients who are matched with English-only clinicians. Interviews will be videotaped. Clinicians will render DSM-IV diagnoses on all five axes, and complete research questionnaires. A structured clinical interview will also be administered to patients before or after the videotaping. Then, a second clinician (blind to the clinician and SCID diagnoses) will also render DSM-IV diagnoses on all five axes and complete research protocol based on the videotape. In Spanish-only taped interviews, the second clinician who will be monolingual (English) will also be assisted by the translator. Data analysis consists of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rates of suicide attempts among Hispanic adolescent females (one in five) are higher than for their non- Hispanic counterparts (one in ten), yet little is known about Hispanics'attempts, their antecedents, and why Hispanic girls are more likely than other girls to attempt suicide. Although theoretical and clinical formulations about the reasons for this phenomenon have appeared in the literature, these ideas have not been subjected to empirical scrutiny. Using qualitative methods supplemented by quantitative measures, the proposed project will examine the phenomenon using a conceptual framework that encompasses ecological-developmental systems theory. The study will (1) explore the phenomenology of the suicide attempts from the girls'perspective (e.g., antecedent distress, crisis events, subjective experience);(2) explore parents'understandings of their daughters'suicide attempts (including their hypotheses about preceding crisis events and daughters'motivations);and (3) examine the familial, developmental, and sociocultural experiences that distinguish adolescent Latina attempters and their parents from non-attempters and their parents. One hundred adolescent Latinas who have attempted suicide will be recruited to complete questionnaires. We will also interview parents to get multiple informant perspectives on the suicide attempts. To insure that the factors we explore and identify are indeed unique to attempters rather than simply representing aspects shared by most Hispanic girls and families, we will also interview a matched group of 100 Hispanic nonattempters and their parents. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews will be conducted to explore psychological, family and social experiences preceding suicide attempts;why the attempts become the chosen response;and how the attempts are understood or interpreted by the girls. Objective measures of the sociocultural and familial factors posited in the conceptual model will enrich the qualitative data. This emic, intra-ethnic approach can help explain why some Hispanic teenage girls attempt suicide and others do not, and shed light on the interaction of cultural factors with other factors believed to influence suicide attempts. Key research goals are to determine if, and how, the explanatory factors hypothesized in the literature play a role in the attempts, and to invite the emergence of factors not considered previously.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objectives of the three scientific meetings comprising this conference, titled "Developing Interventions for Latino Children, Youth and Families," are to advance knowledge and methods on integrating cultural constructs into extant and new interventions. We propose to bring together leading scholars in Latino mental health, behavioral sciences, and intervention research to address three objectives: to (1) identify, isolate, and crystallize conceptual definitions of core cultural constructs of diverse Latino groups considered essential for developing interventions for children, youth and parents (Year One Meeting), (2) (a) generate via expert consensus and empirical and theoretical literatures precise operational descriptions of how each core cultural construct is manifested behaviorally by Latinos in different age groups and (b) transform the constructs into intervention-behaviors that therapists must use with clients (Year Two Meeting), and (3) (a) sponsor adaptations of extant psychosocial interventions by junior investigators that integrate the definitions and (b) support research grant applications and publications (Year Three Meeting). Past literature on Latino mental health and behavioral sciences described cultural traditions, beliefs, values, and behavioral practices but they have not been clearly defined nor operationalized into a set of cultural constructs for incorporating into treatment protocols. Questions remain about which cultural constructs are important, how they are operationalized, and how they can be embedded into the therapy process. This conference will fill the critical gaps in knowledge in the development of interventions for Latino children, adolescents and families in the areas of depression, anxiety, and conduct disorders. The conference will be held annually in early April of 2006, 2007, and 2008 at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. An Organizing Committee will oversee the meetings to insure a successful, high quality endeavor. Products from the conference will include scientific papers to be published in high impact journals, conference proceedings, and 4 or more NIH grant applications to test the integration of Latino cultural constructs in empirically supported interventions. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objectives of the three scientific meetings comprising this conference, titled "Developing Interventions for Latino Children, Youth and Families," are to advance knowledge and methods on integrating cultural constructs into extant and new interventions. We propose to bring together leading scholars in Latino mental health, behavioral sciences, and intervention research to address three objectives: to (1) identify, isolate, and crystallize conceptual definitions of core cultural constructs of diverse Latino groups considered essential for developing interventions for children, youth and parents (Year One Meeting), (2) (a) generate via expert consensus and empirical and theoretical literatures precise operational descriptions of how each core cultural construct is manifested behaviorally by Latinos in different age groups and (b) transform the constructs into intervention-behaviors that therapists must use with clients (Year Two Meeting), and (3) (a) sponsor adaptations of extant psychosocial interventions by junior investigators that integrate the definitions and (b) support research grant applications and publications (Year Three Meeting). Past literature on Latino mental health and behavioral sciences described cultural traditions, beliefs, values, and behavioral practices but they have not been clearly defined nor operationalized into a set of cultural constructs for incorporating into treatment protocols. Questions remain about which cultural constructs are important, how they are operationalized, and how they can be embedded into the therapy process. This conference will fill the critical gaps in knowledge in the development of interventions for Latino children, adolescents and families in the areas of depression, anxiety, and conduct disorders. The conference will be held annually in early April of 2006, 2007, and 2008 at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. An Organizing Committee will oversee the meetings to insure a successful, high quality endeavor. Products from the conference will include scientific papers to be published in high impact journals, conference proceedings, and 4 or more NIH grant applications to test the integration of Latino cultural constructs in empirically supported interventions. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Maternal depression in the postpartum period is a significant public health matter, particularly among poor urban minority women with limited access to mental health services. Through research we know how to treat depression. What we do not know is how to translate effective depression treatments into community non- specialty mental health settings beyond office-based primary care. Nurse home visitation programs provide an opportunity to efficiently increase access to depression treatment for low income disadvantaged mothers. This study explores the co-location of depression treatment (Problem Solving Therapy) within nurse home visitation and the organizational changes needed to maintain access to evidence-based treatment. Problem Solving Therapy (PST) is suited to use by non-specialists and for in-home use. The brevity of the intervention (4-8 sessions) and its non-pathologizing approach should be acceptable to low income minority women. Through multiple methodologies, this study will gather information from women and their providers to determine what system and treatment modifications are needed to effectively deliver acceptable depression treatment in home visitation programs as they strive to implement policy directives to identify and treat mothers with depression. An expert panel, which blends local and global knowledge will provide advice on decisions regarding the intervention adaptation. Once these adaptation decisions are made a small group of experts will adapt a PST manual for use in home visitation. We will then carry out a small three-arm randomized trial comparing the effectiveness, acceptability, and practicality of PST provided by home visitation RNs, by a psychiatric advance practice RN usual care (referral to mental health specialty care). Forty two women will be matched and randomized into the three study conditions. Outcomes will be measured using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Depression outcomes will be measured using the Beck depression Inventory and PHQ-9 at 6 and 12 months post intervention. The Parenting Stress Index will be used to measure parental functioning. Women in the usual care condition will be tracked to assess barriers to their accessing depression treatment once referred. A sub-set of mothers and will be interviewed regarding the acceptability and practicality of receiving PST at home either from their regular nurse or a psychiatric advanced practice nurse. Nurse home visitors will be interviewed to assess the acceptability and practicality of their delivery of PST to mothers on their caseloads. Effect sizes and information on the acceptability and practicality of the intervention to both mothers and nurses will be used to prepare a full scale R01. PST delivered through home visitation holds promise for providing access to effective and acceptability depression treatment for poor urban minority mothers. Significantly, our study has the potential to provide home visitation agencies with a viable means of access to effective and acceptable depression treatment for mothers in the face of policy mandates for depression screening. 7. * Project Narrative Depression in the postpartum is a major public health problem, not only because of lost productivity and social functioning for the mother, but because of devastating health, mental health, and developmental consequences for the child, its effects on family functioning, and overall costs to society. Even mild depression in new mothers has been shown to impact on the establishment of mother-child bonding, while effective depression treatment for mothers can significantly improve outcomes for both mother and child. The postpartum period is a window of opportunity in which to address depression in women because they are more likely to come into contact with the health care system.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objectives of the scientific meetings comprising this conference, titled "Adapting Interventions for Diverse Ethnocultural Families," are to advance knowledge and methods on integrating cultural constructs into extant interventions. We propose to bring together leading scholars in child and adolescent mental health, behavioral sciences, and intervention research to address five objectives: (1) to generate and refine conceptual models for adaptation that can generalize to diverse groups;(2) to identify and develop theoretically based methodologies for adapting extant interventions;(3) to foster dialogue among intervention developers and intervention adapters on navigating between the core elements of interventions and adaptation processes;(4) to support the development and testing of models, theories and methods for intervention adaptation by investigators, especially junior researchers;and (5) disseminate meeting content through print and state-of-theart electronic media made accessible to the public, clinicians, and investigators around the world through our interactive website.. Previously, we focused on conceptual definitions of cultural constructs and operationalizing them for infusion into interventions. But we discovered that developing models and methods for adaptation science that are far-reaching, beyond just one ethnic group, has potential to advance the science of intervention-adaptation. Through the proposed series of annual meetings we can address several challenges for advancing adaptation science. First, we need to develop comprehensive adaptation models that can absorb the enduring cultural factors as identified by ethnic and cultural groups rather than looking at transitory cultural changes that are less helpful. Each group must undertake this process. Deriving from this, our second challenge is to expand our scope to a multicultural one that includes investigators working with other minority ethnic groups (e.g., African American, American Indian, Asians/Pacific Islanders, refugees and others). Third, extending our conceptual models and population groups also requires attention to designing methodologies to guide intervention-adaptation scientists across ethnocultural groups. Fourth, because adaptation always raises tension between fidelity and fit, we must engage intervention developers in conversations about adaptation. In short, the meetings will encompass models and methods buttressed by scientific evidence, population groups, and intervention-developers to arrive at consensus and products that can be applied across ecological contexts. Through three annual meetings, we address these and other vexing issues. The meetings will be held in early April each year at Washington University in St. Louis. A Steering Committee of mental health services researchers will insure a successful, high quality endeavor. Products will include scientific papers to be published in high impact journals, conference proceedings, NIH grant applications to test adaptation models and methods, and disseminated through sophisticated internet technology. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed meetings will provide methods and models for adapting interventions that will reduce health disparities can be reduced by ensuring their cultural relevance to ethnic minority groups. NIMH's Strategic Plan (2008) calls for developing new and better interventions that incorporate the diverse needs and circumstances of our citizens and strengthening the application of interventions by examining community and intervention delivery approaches and how they may affect intervention outcomes. Finally, The Road Ahead: Research Partnerships to Transform Services (NIMH, 2006) also recommends that we determine the mechanisms underlying the successful implementation of evidence-based interventions in varying service settings with culturally and ethnically diverse populations.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): U.S.-born citizen-children of undocumented or illegal immigrants are often the unintended victims of deportation policies. When deported, parents must make critical decisions: to take their citizen-children with them or leave them behind in the care of others. But, what happens to the psychosocial functioning of citizen-children who have left the U.S. or remained behind after immigration-enforcement actions are taken against their parents? To begin answering these questions, this R21 will (a) develop the methods and test their feasibility in recruiting, interviewing, and following children affected by their parents'deportation;and (b) collect preliminary data to develop detailed psychological and social profiles of how children fare during a six- month period as they adjust to their circumstances. A team of researchers from the U.S. and Mexico, will conduct in-depth interviews and clinical assessments of 60 children between 10 and 12 years of age spread across three groups: 20 who accompanied their deported parents to Mexico;20 who remained in the U.S. when parents were deported;and a comparison group of 20 citizen-children whose undocumented parents are not being deported at the time. The developmental-exploratory aims are to: I. Develop procedures for a bi-national (U.S.-Mexico) exploratory, longitudinal project on citizen-children. II. Develop and test in-depth interviews and clinical measures to be used at 2 data-collection points. III. Compare the experiences and clinical profiles of citizen-children in all three groups. Findings and experience gained through this project will set the basis for a rigorous R01 application that will, together with the present project, inform developmental science and influence national policy. This project aligns with NICHD's mission "that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives, free from disease or disability, and to ensure the health, productivity, independence, and well-being of all people." Specifically, NICHD's Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch urges exploration of why people migrate, how it reshapes them, and how movement affects children's behavior problems. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Reports and calls-to-action from some of our nation's leading institutions underscore the significance of this project on psychosocial functioning of citizen-children. NIH has recognized for years the influences of family interactions on children's mental health conditions. Healthy People 2020 notes the need for studying the social conditions affecting children. The Institute of Medicine (2009) states authoritatively that children's mental disorders are too commonplace and have life-long effects on them, their families and communities. Institute of Medicine. (2009). Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders among Young People: Progress and Possibilities. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This conference focuses on three vulnerable groups of children of immigration: (1) undocumented children (UND) brought into the US by undocumented immigrant parents; (2) unaccompanied alien children (UAC) entering from Mexico and Central America; and (3) citizen-children (CC) who are the US-born offspring of undocumented immigrants in mixed-status families (MSF). Without access to education, healthcare, and social services, these children are likely to suffer prolonged childhood adversities, locking them into the lowest socio-economic class, even if achieving legal alien status. The children's future should be of concern not only to those on the frontlines of schools, mental health, health, and youth development but to all concerned with the future wellbeing of our nation. The purpose of this conference is to set a national research agenda in behavioral and social sciences. We have, therefore, set four aims to be achieved. Aim 1 is to discuss the current knowledge of the development, health, mental health, and psychological and social experiences of UND, CC, and UAC from childhood through adolescence. Aim 2 is to identify theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and methodological gaps in knowledge as well as ethical challenges in conducting research with these vulnerable children and their families. Aim 3 is to propose a research agenda to inform the directions that established and emerging scholars can pursue on the developmental, psychological, and social wellbeing of UND, CC, and UAC, and MSF. Aim 4 is to facilitate ongoing interaction and research collaborations among conferees, especially junior investigators, through the establishment of an online community of scholars. A multidisciplinary group of conferees (e.g., anthropology, child development, psychology, public health, social work, sociology) will discuss the current knowledge of the developmental, physical, mental health, psychological and social experiences of these children and propose a research agenda to inform the directions scholars can pursue to advance knowledge and inform practices, services, and policies directed toward their health and wellbeing.

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The disparities in suicidal behavior among American teenagers, particularly girls, have been documented now for over two decades. Since 1991, CDC surveys consistently show that adolescent Latinas attempt suicide at rates much higher than any other group of American adolescents. Even with three decades of surveys, no studies have systematically compared Latinas to other girls in order to understand the reasons Latinas? propensity to suicidal behavior. While family dynamics often account for the suicide attempts of adolescents, we do not know what the qualitative differences in Hispanic family dynamics that influence daughters to attempt suicide more than peers. What, if any, are the substantive differences with non-Hispanic peers? The overarching goal of this developmental/exploratory application is to deepen knowledge of the higher likelihood of Latinas toward suicide attempts (SAs) in contrast to non-Hispanic peers. We will examine the influence of family dynamics on suicidal behavior among Latinas, and contrast the reports of Latinas with those of non-Latina attempters. This study examines intensively family functioning of female suicide attempters of Latino, non-Hispanic White, and African American cultural heritage using in-depth interviews with the girls and the primary female caregiver. Twenty adolescent-caregiver dyads in racial/ethnic groups will be recruited to address two aims: (1) explore the psychological vulnerability of teenage suicide attempters in three racial/ethnic groups and the life contexts that influenced suicidal behaviors. Data on individual susceptibility, viz., emotional vulnerability, family factors, and life context, that girls in each racial/ethnic group indicate influenced the suicide attempts, including thoughts, meanings, and interpretations will generate testable hypotheses about underlying reasons that increase Latina teens? propensity to suicidal behaviors and why they choose this action; and (2) describe the life histories and trajectories of family dynamics that influenced the attempt for each racial/ethnic group. We will seek answers to such questions as, What are family-adolescent dynamics that shaped the suicidal behavior for each group? To what extent do Latinas? and caregivers? histories and trajectories differ from those of the two other racial/ethnic groups? This aim identifies variations in patterns of family dynamics and sociocultural elements that reveal differences in manifestations of suicide attempts across racial/ethnic groups. Achieving these two aims via this mechanism can set the stage for a larger study and inform preventive and intervention programs.

Project Summary When undocumented immigrants are deported from the United States, they often take their US-born children with them. This relocation has familial, social, educational, emotional, and physical consequences for US citizen-children (USCC). USCC may go with their deported parents to a country like Mexico with its lower standard of living than the US, more limited educational opportunities, and substantially higher rates of violence. There are other social-psychological challenges (e.g., language; peer groups; knowledge of local history, geography, and culture; new interpersonal rules of conduct and social-behavioral repertory) and other demands of living in a new environment. There are an estimated 500,000 USCC in Mexico but we know very little about their circumstances. How are USCC in Mexico faring in their overall psychosocial wellbeing? A binational research team from The University of Texas at Austin, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City will collaborate on a mixed-method study of 240 USCC in Mexico on five domains of well-being. The aims are to 1. Develop procedures, test objective measures, and develop qualitative interviews that facilitate the collection of high quality data from USCC and parents residing in Mexico after deportation from the US. 2. Describe the well-being of USCC in Mexico along five domains essential to youth development [1.] Family; [2.] Neighborhood/Community; [3.] Education; [4.] Health/Mental Health; and [5.] Social Integration). 3. Identify the service needs and the extent to which the needs of USCC are being met in Mexico.

PROJECT ABSTRACT Psychosocial Wellbeing of Refugee Children after Release from Family Immigration Detention In the spring and summer of 2014, the US experienced the largest single surge of mothers with minor children migrating through Mexico to the US from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. About 68,000 mothers and children were apprehended at the US border. Despite increased immigration enforcement, families kept coming: 39,838 in FY15, 77,674 in FY16, and 75,622 in FY17. The US created family detention centers, two of them in South Texas, to hold these families and tens of thousands of mothers and children have been held for periods ranging from a few weeks to years. There is virtually no data on what toll immigration detention is taking on the children and we have little empirical knowledge of how they are faring after release. While research on refugee children from Africa and the Middle East held in detention in Australia, Britain, and Canada shows negative physical and psychological effects, we do not know what the post-detention developmental, physical, and socioemotional status is for Central American children who were held in US facilities and who now reside temporarily or permanently in the US. As a first response to this gap in our knowledge, we seek to develop methods for studying the psychosocial wellbeing of children who were held with their mothers in detention centers for weeks and months during critical childhood development. Our overarching objective is to understand the conditions of these children after release and inform research and treatment efforts. This project has two exploratory/developmental aims: To (1) devise recruitment procedures, test instruments, and develop qualitative interviews for studying Central American children previously held in US immigration detention and now residing in local communities; and (2) examine children?s detention experiences and post-release psychosocial wellbeing. We will interview 84 children in middle childhood (ages 6 to 12) who were held previously in immigration detention with their mothers for a period of at least two weeks. Mothers and children will provide post-detention information on family functioning; children?s physical, psychological, and behavioral health; educational functioning; and social integration.

Conference Abstract The conference focuses on immigrant families and unaccompanied children (UAC) from the Northern Triangle Countries of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) who have come to the United States. Many family units arrive at the border and enter into government custody. Immigrant families with minor children and UACs are processed through a system that may include residential centers operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Office of Refugee Resettlement. Very little research has been conducted on the experiences and effects of migration and detention on the psychosocial wellbeing of children and families. Extant science lags, leaving questions such as, what are the psychological and developmental impacts of migration and asking for asylum. How and to what extend can researchers distinguish pre-migration, migration, and post-migration effects on children's development? What is the state of research on the health and wellbeing of immigrant children, and, perhaps more importantly, where should we direct our scientific efforts and resources? What solutions have researchers found to the logistical, methodological and ethical challenges in conducting research with this highly vulnerable population? How can we advance research to answer myriad questions to inform public health services and social policy? Convening researchers in immigration, child development, family relations, health, and mental health to discuss findings, challenges, and opportunities for studying children and families who have been held in immigration detention will go a long way to identifying answers and solutions.