September & October 2023 Chronicles

Quick Highlights

Lisa Long will lead Project ECHO RDH. The project received $800,000 in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Read more at https://bit.ly/3smm9je. 

Dr. Megan Stubbs-Richardson, Lauren Brown, MacKenzie Paul, and Dr. Devon Brenner released the Artificial Intelligence Applications for Social Science Research database. Learn more and access at https://bit.ly/3uctdzG.

Dr. Devon Brenner was co-editor of the rural education special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education. Read at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hpje20/98/4.

The Mississippi Learning Investment For Tomorrow Summit, hosted by the Preschool Development Grant team, was held at the SSRC on Sept. 27-28. PDG team members who attended include Laure Bell, Dr. Heather Hanna, Tockie Hemphill, Callie Poole, and Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi. SSRC members are providing support for strategic planning and evaluation of the $30 million, three-year grant administered to the Mississippi Department of Human Services to improve access to high-quality early care and education programs. Other PDG partners include the Mississippi Department of Education, the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center, and the Children's Foundation of Mississippi. 

New Projects

Dr. Dustin Brown, an SSRC research fellow and affiliate, will serve as a co-PI on “Collaborative Research: CLIMA: Equitable Adaptive Strategies for Flood Protection Infrastructure Under Current and Future Compound Hazards.” 

Tockie Hemphill will work on the "safeSPACE School Climate Transformation" grant as data manager and evaluator. Dr. Devon Brenner, Abby Reeves, and Ruby Brenner will assist. 

As part of work with the "Mississippi Early Childhood Systems and Data" project funded through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the SSRC will facilitate the Early Childhood Development Coalition. SSRC work is led by Dr. Heather Hanna and Dr. Connie Baird-Thomas.

Lab Updates

Avery Tate has joined the Message Laboratory as an undergraduate research assistant under the direction of Dr. Holli Seitz. Avery is an MSU junior majoring in psychology with minors in communication and media studies, business administration, and cognitive science. Her research interests lie at the intersection of psychology and communication, and she will be contributing to the "Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement" project. 

On the anniversary of the most viral moment of the #MeToo movement, researchers for the DS3 Lab released a blog on their work around the movement. Read at https://bit.ly/479gMD8.

Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program

Billy Brister, Dr. Blythe McCance, and Chuck Dawkins of the MASEP office attended the Mississippi Justice Court Clerks Convention in Bay St. Louis on Sept. 6-8. Dr. McCance gave a presentation to the group on the final day.

Personnel

Dr. Katerina Sergi is a member of the Mississippi Thrive Early Childhood Development Coalition and the Help Me Grow Subcommittee. 

Tockie Hemphill attended the American Evaluation Association 2023 Digital Conference from October 12-14 and attended the Virtual 2023 World Food Prize Foundation's Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue from October 16-26. Additionally, she attended the City of Jackson Department of Human & Culture Services Senior Health Fair and served as NIA Online Facilitator for The Future of Population-Based Studies in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias 2-Day Workshop at the end of October.

Wolfgang Frese Survey Research Laboratory

On behalf of the Tobacco Control Unit at the Social Science Research Center, the Wolfgang Frese Survey Research Laboratory is administering the 2023 Mississippi Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control. Results from this survey assist researchers in better understanding the degree to which people in Mississippi live in smoke-free homes, work in smoke-free environments, understand the health risks of using tobacco, and talk to their children about tobacco use. Funding for this research is provided by the Mississippi State Department of Health. This telephone-based survey of the general public will include a representative sample of 900 adults residing in the state of Mississippi. The primary investigator for this project is Dr. Robert McMillen,  a professor at the SSRC and the Department of Psychology. The survey administration is being directed by Dr. John F. Edwards, a research professor at the SSRC.

Presentations & Conference Participation

Brown, L. & Stubbs-Richardson, M. (October 11, 2023). Cyberbullying, Bullying, and Teacher Interventions. Teach ECHO. Mississippi Department of Education and Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY) at the Children’s Hospital at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). 

Hanna, H. & Grace, C. (2023, October 24). Mississippi Child Care Teachers' Wages Survey. [presentation] Mississippi Forum for the Future Progress Meeting. Virtual.  

Martin, H. (2023, October). Hocus Pocus! Everybody Focus! Focus and Self Control Skills in Early Childhood with Vroom and Mind in the Making. [Presentation]. Mississippi Early Childhood Association Conference. Meridian, MS.

Martin, H. (2023, October). Do You See What I See? Implicit Bias in Early Childhood. [Presentation]. Mississippi Early Childhood Association Conference. Meridian, MS.

Martin, H., Southward, L. (2023, October). Learning from the Circles Around Us: Early Childhood Councils and Kids to College Program. [Presentation]. Mississippi Early Childhood Conference. Meridian, MS.

Martin, H. (2023, October). Getting to the HEART of Perspective Taking and Pouring from an Empty Cup. [Presentation]. Excel by 5 Annual Summit. Jackson, MS.  

Martin, H. (2023, October). Two-Generation Approach in Early Childhood with Vroom and Mind in the Making. [Presentation]. Mississippi Department of Education Educator Preparation One Day Conference. Jackson, MS. 

McClelland, E. (2023, September 20). [Virtual Presentation]. Mississippi Youth and Tobacco Data Update. The Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition Quarterly Meeting.

McMillen, R., & McClelland, E. (2023, September 15). [Virtual presentation]. The Health and Economic Burden of Tobacco on Mississippi. The Mississippi Lung Cancer Roundtable Tobacco Cessation Workgroup Meeting. 

Publications & Reports

Gardner, S., Baird-Thomas, C., Sergi, K. Focus Groups Evaluation Report. (September 2023). SSRC for Project AWARE in Mississippi (AIM), ECHO partner session.

Gardner, S., Baird-Thomas, C., Sergi, K. Focus Groups Evaluation Report. (August 2023). SSRC for Project AWARE in Mississippi, grant funded by SAMHSA. 

Hare, M. M., Walker, C. S., Sarver, D. E., Lim, C. S., Brown, D. C., & Annett, R. D. (2023). Assessing attitudes towards pediatric research participation across diverse populations: Psychometric properties of a novel tool. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 133, 107321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107321

May, D. C., Wells, M.J., Stubbs-Richardson, M., Evans-Mccleon, T.N. & Sinclair, H.C. (2023). The Impact of Trusted Adults and Friends on Fear and Avoidance Behaviors at School. Journal of Crime and Criminal Behavior, 3: 2, pp. 277-298. https://doi.org/10.47509/JCCB.2023.v03i02.01

McDonnall, M., Sergi, K., Steverson, A. (2023). Comparison of Assistive Technology use and beliefs among employed and unemployed people who are blind. The New RE:view, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.56733/TNR.22.012

Sergi, K., Elder, A., Wei, T. ., Javorsky, K., & Xu, J. (2023). Self-Regulatory Metacognitive Skill Use in Elementary Students During Computer and Paper Reading Assignments: A Qualitative Study. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 16(1), 1–16. Retrieved from https://www.iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/2081

Stouffer, C., McClelland, E., Sergi, K., & S. Anreddy. (August 2023). Annual State Tobacco Prevention and Control Evaluation Report. SSRC for the Office of Tobacco Control, Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Vahedifard, F., Azhar, M., & Brown, D. C. (2023). Overrepresentation of Historically Underserved and Socially Vulnerable Communities Behind Levees in the United States. Earth's Future, 11(9), e2023EF003619. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003619 

 Vahedifard, F., *Azhar, M., Brown, D.C., & Madani, K. (2023). Inequity Behind Levees: The Case of the United States of America. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Report available at  https://go.unu.edu/rtlCm.