Hazel Prelow, an associate professor in the Psychology department, exemplifies the younger scholars that CSDA has welcomed into the ranks of associates during the current period of rebuilding. Dr. Prelow became an associate when she won a Junior Scholar Award from CSDA in 2004-2005. Her work spans demography and psychology and extends CSDA research on vulnerable populations and spatial inequalities. She is interested in the both familial and ecological effects on the adjustment, self-esteem, and ethnic identity of adolescents of diverse race and ethnic origins.
For instance, in an article in the Journal of Adolescence, she analyzed data she collected to examine how supportive parenting is related to depressive symptoms and problem behavior in black and white adolescents. The major findings--that perceived efficacy mediates the relationship between supportive parenting and depressive symptoms for African Americans, while self-esteem mediates this relationship for European Americans--illustrates the importance of examining developmental models separately for different race/ethnic groups. In an article in the Journal of Black Psychology, she further underscores the need for culturally sensitive theory and modeling: looking at the mechanisms through which optimism may influence psychological adjustment among black college students, she finds that active coping, previously found to mediate this relationship among whites, is not significant for blacks, but avoidant coping and social support do mediate it.
Prelow also uses Cherlin’s three-city data extensively in her work and is planning to use these data she when the NICHD proposal she wrote as a Junior Scholar receives funding. She analyzed these data in an article in Journal of Community Psychology, where she assessed the validity and reliability of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) scale to measure psychological distress among low-income Latina mothers, demonstrating that this measure can be effectively used on this population. Her research extends beyond the individual to incorporate the effects of ecological measures of neighborhood on psychological adjustment of youth. In an article in Journal of Community Psychology, she investigated the role of cumulative ecological risk (measured as neighborhood disadvantage and ecologically salient stressful events) and perceived discrimination on black and white youth. One key finding was that perceived discrimination amplified the effect of ecological risk on delinquency for African Americans but not European Americans.
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Prelow is in the process of revising her grant proposal for re-submission to NICHD. She was also selected to be one of the ten 2006 scholars in the African American Mental Health Research Scientist (AAMHRS) grant-mentoring program. The goal of this NIMH-sponsored program is to provide African-American mental-health research scientists with hands-on mentoring in preparing a competitive NIMH grant application. With Mark Hayward of UT-Austin as her mentor, she plans to submit a grant proposal to NIMH that will focus predictors of stability and change in psychopathology in young adolescents. Future work will continue the examination of determinants of psychological stress and adjustment among adolescents, with a focus on African American and Latino youth. Her papers in progress are on such topics as ecological risk, protective factors, parenting behavior, early sexual behavior and delinquency.
Prelow brings an expertise in measurement to the population research program, as well as expands our research on adolescents at risk. Her research on the adjustment of college students links with Schiller’s research on high school students and also Carolyn Smith’s research on problem behaviors and delinquency among adolescents.
Use of infrastructure cores and activities
Prelow has made extensive use of the Administrative Core for assistance with grant preparation and also uses the computing infrastructure.