The School of Nursing and Health Studies is pleased to announce that PhD student Jiye Lee, MSN, CPNP-AC, is the recipient of a National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) F31 grant for her research into the effects of neighborhood environments on child behavioral health. The F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) is designed to enable promising predoctoral students with the potential to develop into productive, independent research scientists to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Hudson Santos, SONHS Vice Dean for Research Affairs, this training grant will fund a 1.5-year project starting August 2023.
“This fellowship will serve as the foundation of my career in becoming an independent nurse scientist dedicated to addressing systemic determinants of health that influence child mental and behavioral health in vulnerable populations of children and families,” said Lee.
Many children living in resource-poor neighborhood environments experience more negative social determinants of health (SDOH), which shapes short- and -long-term physical, mental, and emotional health. Negative SDOH affect the parents as well, leading to ineffective coping and family cohesion. Studying outcomes of these determinants early in life opens up a larger window of opportunity to promote long-term health and eventually close the health disparities gap.
Lee will use data from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to adopt the Creating Nurturing Environments framework and address two main aims. One aim is to identify the effect of neighborhood environment on behavioral dysregulation (an inability to control or regulate one's behavioral responses) and academic performance in early childhood (ages 1 to 6 years). The other aim is to determine the degree to which familial relationships mediate the effect of neighborhood environment on behavioral dysregulation and academic performance. The project’s results will help promote health equity in neighborhoods and, accordingly, child health.
“Receiving an F31 from the NIH is a tremendous accomplishment that recognizes the student’s potential as an emerging scientist,” said Dr. Victoria Behar-Zusman, director of the PhD in Nursing Science program at SONHS. “Jiye has been dedicated to addressing the health of children from vulnerable populations since her first day in the PhD program. Thanks to her hard work and support from her mentors, she will be able to conduct this important research on the effects of neighborhood environment on children’s health outcomes.”
Built into the fellowship framework is a career development plan for Lee to increase expertise on child development and neighborhood environment’s effect on child health, advance skills in quantitative research methods for data analysis, and gain team science experience and professional development.
A strong interdisciplinary team of mentors will support the training and research plan: Dr. Santos, expertise in child development and SDOH (SONHS); Dr. Yui Matsuda, expertise in examining family relationships (SONHS); Dr. Daniel Messinger, expertise in child development and psychology (College of Arts and Sciences); Dr. Yue Pan, expertise in statistics (Miller School of Medicine); Dr. Scott Brown, expertise in neighborhood and built environment and its effect on health (Miller School); and Dr. Michael O’Shea, expertise in pediatrics, cohort design, and child development (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
“Our aim of inspiring SONHS students to be novel, optimistic, and world-changing can be seen in accomplishments like this impressive proposal from Jiye Lee,” said SONHS Dean and Professor Cindy L. Munro. “I am proud to see Jiye's bright promise recognized by the NINR. Improving our understanding of how disparate neighborhood environments affect the health of our children aligns with one of our top three priorities at SONHS—promoting health equity across diverse communities.”
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About the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies: Celebrating 75 Years of Educational Excellence, the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS) transforms lives and health care through education, research, innovation, and service across the hemisphere. South Florida’s first collegiate nursing program is a world-class, prestigiously accredited, research-driven school conferring undergraduate and advanced nursing degrees, and undergraduate public health and health science degrees. SONHS values its diverse faculty, students, and 250+ clinical and community health partners. Its research core includes the Jorie Healthcare Partners Biobehavioral Research Laboratory, PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre, Center for Latino Health Research Opportunities, Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Program, and 41,000-square-foot Simulation Hospital Advancing Research and Education (S.H.A.R.E.®). For more information, visit sonhs.miami.edu.
