#1 Community Safety & Gun Violence Prevention: Do individuals’ perceptions of safety, beliefs about care-based vs. fear-based safety, and community cohesion influence their preferred method/approach for violence prevention and intervention? See study 1
#2 Lifestyle Approaches for Mental Health: Which restorative state (sleep, physical activity) is most associated with less mental distress and more mental wellbeing? See study 2
#3 Politically Polarizing Social Media on Mental Health: Does politically leaning and politically polarizing content on social media facilitate mental distress among college students? See study 3
#4 Cooking Demonstration Program for Food Security: Does a 60-minute cooking intervention effectively enhance cooking knowledge and cooking self-efficacy? see study 4
#5 Ultra-Processed Foods and Nutrition on Campus: Is food classification knowledge (measured by qualitative responses and two different knowledge tests) or a traditional nutrition knowledge test more influential in explaining average fruit and vegetable consumption among Binghamton University students and Broome County residents? See study 5
Lab Projects with Peer Mentors
For decades, regulatory focus theory has explained the way promotion and prevention motivation systems are associated with different goals and strategies. We extend regulatory focus theory to prosocial regulatory focus theory to include prosocial promotion motivation and prosocial prevention motivation. Using a multi-study, mixed-method design, we measure and validate a prosocial regulatory focus scale. To establish concurrent and divergent validity, we examine the factor structure of a new prosocial regulatory focus scale, relationships among existing subscales (promotion focus, prevention focus) and new subscales (prosocial promotion focus, and prosocial prevention focus). In one study, we examined the factor structure of the prosocial motivations. To establish predictive validity, we use logistic regression to examine the relative influence of prosocial regulatory focus (compared to regulatory focus) in predicting health conceptions and goal preference, such as promote peace vs. prevent violence, promote health vs. prevent disease, etc. A content analysis of qualitative data from an open-ended survey question reveals a range of conceptions among participants when thinking about ‘care’ vs. ‘harm’ during their responses to prosocial promotion motivation vs. prosocial prevention scales.
Certain zero-sum beliefs influence voter preference, support for health policy, and reinforce competitive core beliefs that undermine population health and wellbeing. In this study, we examine racial identity, gender, social class, political ideology, and political party affiliation as predictors of zero-sum beliefs regarding social identity and economics. Khan extended an existing zero-sum scale regarding gender (e.g., (e.g., As women face less sexism, men end up facing more sexism) to a broader zero-sum social identity scale capturing beliefs about other social identities (e.g., More health care access for undocumented immigrants means less access for U.S. citizens; More opportunity for transwomen means less opportunity for people who are assigned female at birth). In future work, we aim to examine the association between zero-sum beliefs and health status.
Leadership is a key ingredient of organizational capacity associated with effective nonprofit organizations. In this study, Buffalo-based health equity leaders participated in two waves of interviews (Summer 2024, Winter 2025). Qualitative data analysis reveals similarities and differences in leadership style, regulatory orientation, and practices of community-based leaders of nonprofit organizations advancing health equity in Buffalo, NY.
The determinants of adolescent upstander behavior have been limited to explanatory modeling and an overemphasis on linear modeling. In this study of 300+ students from a single high school, we use predictive modeling (i.e., random forest analysis) to examine the relative importance of sociodemographic variables, beliefs, and dispositions on upstanding.
The ability to attribute health problems to causes beyond the individual has been referred to as ecological thinking, structural thinking, and structural competency when applied in a healthcare setting. In an undergraduate public health course, first-year students provided their causal beliefs of mortality in two case studies before and after the course and completed self-reported measures related to free will and indivdidualism (i.e., the antithesis of structural competency). In this study, we aim to examine causal beliefs and determine whether structural competency can be enhanced among first-year students.
In 2014, the mental health field began a shift from treatment-focused, individual-level mental health interventions toward promotion/prevention approaches to address social determinants of mental health (SDoMH: see WHO, 2014) that facilitate community mental health (Nelson, Kloos & Ornelas, 2014) and population mental health (Dodge et al., 2024). Recent reviews of mental health interventions targeting social factors demonstrate the effectiveness of housing, cash transfer programs, and psychosocial interventions (e.g., Oswald et al., 2023). However, these reviews do not critically assess the extent to which neoliberal influences may be undermining efforts to realize SDMH goals of structural change. Specifically, Chater and Loewenstein (2022) argue that a historical over-emphasis on ‘i-frame’ (individual-level) interventions, often driven by corporate interests, diverts from ‘s-frame’ (systems-level) interventions which could more effectively address population mental health. Numerous leaders in the field of community psychology have distinguished between first-order change and second-order change (Bond et al., 2017) along with ameliorative and transformational change (Prilleltensky, 2008). Despite this important dynamic, it is unknown whether the new paradigm brought about by the social determinants of mental health movement has resulted in interventions that have shifted away from the dominant individual-level to a systems-level. In a scoping review, we identify interventions targeting the social determinants of mental health/ill health and categorize them using two independent reviewers into i-frame or s-frame interventions. Additionally, coders consider the commercialization of interventions, such as conflicts of interest with authors and industry as well as copyrighted intervention approaches to account for the commercial drivers of health (Maani, Petticrew & Galea, 2022).
Stream Presentations
Cohort 11
Evaluating the role of SNAP in reducing food insecurity
Social media algorithmic design and adolescent mental distress
Socioeconomic disparities in U.S. firearm violence
The detrimental health effects of ultra-processed foods in the U.S.
The impact of exercise on mental distress among college students
Cohort 10
The effect of an educational intervention on vaccine attitudes
Assessing the behaviors connecting Type 2 Diabetes and oral health
Examining health beliefs and motives for substance use among university students
Public knowledge and attitudes on vaccinations and reproductive health
Voting behaviors and health perceptions regarding incarcerated people
