Center Update:  As we welcome winter, the CAYH continues its pattern of  stability and change with regard to the range of activities that we are engaged in. On the research front, we completed a very successful pilot study of the Healthy Passages project in which we assessed over 600 children and their primary caregivers in the three cities of Birmingham, Houston, and Los Angeles. The pilot study facilitated the identification of difficulties that we were then able to rectify prior to the current initiation of the main study of 5,250 children and their primary caregivers. The first assessment of the Birmingham Youth Violence Study has been completed with interviews having been conducted with almost 700 children and their primary caregivers; the second assessment is now underway. We received a high priority score on a grant application and anticipate continued funding for the Lives Across Time Study, an ongoing 16-year longitudinal study of substance use and mental health among 1216 adolescents. We have also completed our Winter/Spring schedule for our colloquia series and you can view the 2005 schedule on our CYVC colloquia page.

I am also pleased to report that I have been invited to serve on the Steering Committee of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Initiative on Underage Drinking. An international panel of experts has been convened to facilitate the identification of new research directions, interventions, and social policies to curb underage drinking, especially among those in early adolescence. Recent research has suggested that alcohol use during the critical developmental period of early-to-late adolescence may have significant negative influences on brain development and functioning. Hence, our challenges are before us and will require sustained levels of work and  community collaboration.

                                                                                                                                      Michael Windle, Ph.D