Methodology Resources-Biology
The Center for Family Research studies the reciprocal impact of children, their caregivers, and the broader community context on health and psychological adjustment among African American families living in the rural South. In recent years, we have examined how risk factors such as racial discrimination and poverty affect health outcomes for this population by studying the effects of stress on biological aging, behavioral factors, and substance abuse. This page provides researchers with some of the tools and methodologies used by CFR and as well as some methodology presentations and handouts created over the years.
Methods and Measures
For more than two decades, scientists at the Center for Family Research have sought to employ measures that are psychometrically-robust, developmentally-appropriate, and contextually-sensitive. This page includes information about measures and methodologies developed for CFR-sponsored research studies with a focus on rural, African American populations. The development of these measures included use of focus groups representative of the population being studied. This group provided item-by-item input on the appropriateness of the items as well as other suggestions for procedures.
These two publications provide details about the process of developing and testing the measures:
CFR researchers have developed protocols for collecting biological measures from rural African Americans. This guide describes protocols for intravenous blood collection. See the cited article or contact the Center for Family Research for more details.
Getting started with blood collection: An Introduction for Behavioral Scientists
Neuroimaging has increasingly been used as a tool for understanding human behavior, and CFR is no exception as we have incorporated neuroimaging into several projects.
See our introduction to brain imaging for behavioral scientists videos.
The basic protocols for data collection are described in this guide: fMRI Research Data Collection Guide
