Dr. Davison was trained in child and family development with a specialization in childhood obesity. Her research focuses on the familial, social and environmental influences on physical activity and healthy body weight among children. She is Davison is the PI of a 4-year longitudinal study to assess predictors of girls’ physical activity at ages 13 and 15 years. This study builds on to a 10-year longitudinal study of a cohort of girls and their families which began when the girls were 5 years old. Results from analyses based on data collected up to age 13 show that early maturing girls at age 11 reported lower physical activity at age 13 than later maturing girls, independent of initial activity levels, body mass index, and family demographics. Results from follow-up analyses suggest that the association between pubertal development and physical activity may be mediated by body esteem, global self-esteem, fears of pubertal maturation, and enjoyment of physical activity. During the last three years, results from this project have been published in a series of ten articles in Obesity Research, the Journal of Pediatrics, and the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, among other places.
Davison has begun a project on “Community Level Barriers to Parents’ Ability to Support and Promote Physical Activity among Their Children.” The overall goal for this study is to determine what barriers parents experience in their efforts to ensure that their children are physically active. Data collected so far indicate that all parents experience constraints in their efforts to encourage their children’s physical activities, but that the constraints differ by race. White parents were more likely to report a lack of children in the neighborhood and the inability of their children to walk or cycle to local playgrounds. In contrast, African-American parents were more likely to report the cost of community programs and lack of neighborhood safety.
In addition to her affiliation with CSDA, Davison is an investigator with the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD). In this role, Davison and a CSDA colleague, Dr. Catherine Lawson, have published a review of the association between the built environment and children’s physical activity (in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity). Furthermore, Davison is currently conducting a series of pilot qualitative studies with African-American parents and children at the University at Albany and with colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to examine the cultural validity of a scale that she has developed to assess parental and peer support of children’s physical activities. She also participates in the Prevention Research Center at the School of Public Healt.
Davison is the PI of the NICHD-funded 4-year longitudinal study of “Predictors of Physical Activity among Adolescent Girls.” The final round of data collection for this study will be completed in fall, 2007. In collaboration with Lawson, she has also received CEMHD funding for three years to conduct a series of pilot studies on the connection between the built environment and children’s physical activitiesone.
Building on the research outlined above, Davison and CSDA colleagues Lawson and Deane submitted an R21 application to NICHD in February 2006. The goal of the proposed study is to examine (a) links between community-level factors such as the distance to the nearest playground and the presence of sidewalks and African American children’s objectively measured physical activity and (b) whether parent and peer support of physical activity mediated or moderated this association. The application was scored, receiving a score of 238 and a percentile ranking of 46.2. Based on the reviewers’ suggestions, additional pilot data are currently being collected. These data will be incorporated into the revised proposal which will be submitted for review in time for the March, 2007, review cycle.
Davison has also received a Junior Researcher seed grant for the addition of a cell-phone administered survey to her NIH-funded longitudinal study outlined above. The goal of the proposed work is to develop and test a cell-phone based interview to examine in real time girls’ sedentary and active behaviors and the physical (e.g., where and when) and social (e.g., with whom) context of such behaviors. According to the protocol of this study, participants will receive calls on their cell phone at regular intervals. Answering a call will initiate the survey. Participants will provide their responses using the keypad on their phones.
Davison connects the signature themes of health and health disparities with lifecourse transitions. In particular, Davison is one of a large interdisciplinary group of researchers working on risks during adolescence. She collaborates with other CSDA researchers, Glenn Deane of Sociology and Catherine Lawson of Geography and thus strengthens the collaborative links between CSDA and the School of Public Health.
Davison makes extensive use of the CSDA infrastructure. She has relied heavily on the Administrative Core for assistance with proposal preparation. The Information/Data Services Core is providing GIS support for her research, and the Statistical/Computing Core consults on programming and data analysis.