Ongoing Projects

Resilience: Conceptualization for Research and Policy

This work draws together work from academia and humanitarian practice and policy, to help define and operationalize resilience.

See policy brief here and abstract here 

Child and Youth Resilience Scale 

We developed and validated the Arabic-language Child and Youth Resilience Measured (CYRM), and are currently implementing the measure with Syrian refugee and Jordanian youth. More information here:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28617937/.

Resilience and Mental Health in Afghanistan

Mark Eggerman and Catherine Panter-Brick have conducted the first longitudinal survey of child and adolescent mental health in Afghanistan – a project designed to integrate cross-cultural psychiatric epidemiology with medical anthropology.  With analysis of longitudinal data, they provide evidence for the cluster of adversities that impact family wellbeing and the mental health cascade across generations. They also identify the culturally-meaningful leverage points for building family-level resilience, relevant to the prevention and intervention agenda in global mental health. 

More information here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25384553/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24286507/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21421175/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19699514/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18663740/

An Ethnographic Study of Father-Child Interactions & Child Development in Sierra Leone  

This study, led by Kristen McLean, provides much-needed data on how men raise their children in the aftermath of conflict, and the impact of father engagement on family dynamics and child wellbeing.  The study is embedded within the research program directed by Professor Theresa Betancourt on the intergenerational impact of war in Sierra Leone.  For the Harvard program, please see: https://fxb.harvard.edu/former-programs/

Mental health, psychosocial distress, and stress biomarkers

Amelia Sancilio, Mark Eggerman, Andrew Rasmussen, Peter Ventevogel, and Catherine Panter-Brick have evaluated measures of wellbeing in Afghanistan, to compare the extent to which screening for poor mental health (using a standard WHO scale) maps onto psychosocial distress (using a culturally-specific scale) and physiological stress (blood pressure).

More information here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27435220/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25034331/