Research Discoveries

People in the SSW Atrium looking at research posters.

At the University of Michigan School of Social Work, faculty, students, and community partners are advancing research and practice to address critical social challenges.

Trauma-Informed Programs and Practices for Schools

Daicia R. Price, Beth A. Sherman, Yanni, Todd I. Herrenkohl

The Trauma-Informed Programs and Practices for Schools (TIPPS) is an innovation hub that utilizes a strength-based and equity-centered interprofessional approach to bring faculty (field, clinical, tenure,  and research), students, staff, and community practitioners together to foster learning and dissemination of research on childhood trauma and system change. Educational components of TIPPS support field experiences for MSW students and professional learning for K-12 school providers.

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AI Helping Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) with Cancer in Schools

Assistant Professor Zhang’s study is among the first to evaluate the clinical utility of a speech-based distress monitoring tool using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that simultaneously overcome numerous mental health barriers in young adults living with cancer.

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Helping Black Girls and Caregivers with Legal System Stress

Camille R. Quinn

Associate Professor Quinn’s mixed-methods intervention study includes a key innovation—hair cortisol (HC) as a stress biomarker. Twenty-five Black girl-caregiver dyads will provide data on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other outcomes: stress, delinquency, racial identity, etc., over 3-time points. This pilot test assesses the preliminary effects of a single-arm healing-adapted intervention.

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Partnering with Community Health Workers to Prevent Suicide

Lindsay A. Bornheimer

Associate Professor Bornheimer collaborated with Washtenaw County Community Mental Health to host six research dissemination events in the fall of 2023, with over 450 attendees. The events involved information sharing and hopeful art project activities to raise suicide awareness, foster dialogue, and promote community as part of a MICHR Promoting Academic and Community Engagement (PACE) Dissemination grant Bornheimer was awarded.

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Research News

Research Groups/Labs/Centers

Center for Assets, Education, and Inclusion

The mission of AEDI is to create and study innovations related to asset development, education, and financial inclusion that result in opportunities across the life course for low-income children and families, in the U.S. and around the globe, for the purposes of climbing out of poverty and up the economic ladder.

Center for Equitable Family & Community Well-Being

The goal of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being is to encourage and support efforts connecting the resources and intellectual strength of the University of Michigan with the passion and social capital of community leaders.

Child & Adolescent Data Lab

The Child and Adolescent Data Lab of the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work is an applied research center focused on using a data­ driven approach to inform policy and practice decisions in child welfare and juvenile justice.

Gender and Health Research Lab

The Gender and Health Research Lab strives to understand the mechanisms by which socio-demographic, psychosocial, and environmental agents influence the mental and physical health of racial and ethnic minorities, particularly as it pertains to gender differences and gender role socialization.

Interprofessional Collaboration Group

Interprofessional Collaboration Group's research examines how practitioners may better deliver evidence-based services to high-risk populations.

Latinx Faculty and Staff Research and Practice Group

The Latinx Faculty and Staff Research and Practice Group is an affinity group of self-identified Latinx faculty and staff at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Their aim is to provide a supportive space for discussing issues and challenges relative to Latinx identities in an academic environment. They also wish to provide mentorship and support for faculty, staff, and students through scholarship, academic preparation, and networking students while at the University of Michigan and beyond.

Level Up Lab

Employment Skills Simulation Lab, bridge the equity gap in employment opportunities for underserved groups by harnessing technology for social good, ensuring healthy development for all youth, promoting decarceration, and eradicating social isolation.

Parenting in Context Research Lab

Parenting in Context Research Lab's research and community-based intervention work focuses on the role of fathers in promoting child and family wellbeing.

Poverty Solutions

The Treatment, Innovation & Dissemination Research Group is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team of faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and community partners focused on improving psychosocial treatment for mental disorders and increasing access to evidence-based treatments for these conditions among traditionally underserved populations.

Prevention Research and Health Equity Lab

The goal of the Prevention Research and Health Equity Lab is to prevent problem behaviors, eliminate health disparities and work toward health equity.

STEP Lab

Our research is designed to examine the factors that support effective work transition for individuals with disabilities, as well as potential barriers. Through our projects, we aim to promote diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in our community by removing systemic barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing meaningful education, employment, and other opportunities.

Suicide Prevention, Treatment, & Research (STaR) Lab

The STaR Lab works to prevent suicide among individuals with serious mental illness, and particularly psychosis and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Scholarship within the lab aims to 1) advance understandings of factors driving suicide risk and protection; 2) develop, modify, and test suicide prevention-focused psychosocial interventions; and 3) strengthen and evaluate the implementation of suicide prevention efforts to increase their access, utility, and scalability in practice.

Trauma-informed Programs and Practices for Schools (TIPPS)

TIPPS translates research and shares strategies that help students realize their potential and become more resilient to the effects of trauma.

Vivian A. and James L. Curtis Center for Health Services Research and Innovation

The Curtis Center's mission is to stimulate research, training, and outreach opportunities that promote health equity by supporting work that deepens our understanding of the factors that lead to inequities and the strategies that eliminate them.