My research deals with social relationships, risk behavior and health. We often take for granted the influences of our social environments (friends, family, co-workers and social group membership) on our mental and physical health and well-being. My research addresses how social relationships and group identity can be utilized in interventions to improve mental and physical health for at-risk populations.

The HIV pandemic amongst African American MSM (Men-who-have-sex-with-men) is one of the worst pandemics world-wide, and yet most Americans are completely unaware of it. Recent statistics by the CDC (2005) indicate that approximately 50% of African American MSM are living with HIV. My reserach attempts to increase condom use by enhancing feelings of soical support and increasing self-esteem by reducing the multiple levels of stigma that African American MSM experience in our society.

Further Reading : I have published a literature review of psychological corrleates with risky sex amongst African American MSM with HIV, in addition to suggestions for future interventions to reduce the pandemic amongst this population, which you can read at the Center for Health Disparities Research and Practice by clicking on the 'journal' tab on the far right, and accessing Volume 1, Issue 1, page 109. For more information, please visit the Black AIDS Institute.

For my doctoral dissertation, I am assessing psycho-social predictors of treatment adhernece for children and adolescents with type-1 diabetes in partnership with the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). These individuals are required to take part in numerous public behaviors to ensure their health while at school, including blood glucose monitoring, insulin injections, and proper eating. Often, these behaviors make their illness "visible" to their non-ill peers, making them a target for bullying and victimization.

In the school environment, many adolescents avoid properly adhering to their medication because they want to 'fit in' and appear 'normal.' This has damaging consequences for their physical health, including ketoacidossis, a condition that results from failure to adhere to proper medical treatment and can often result in hospitalization. Adolescents girls are also particularly at-risk for a phenomena known as "dia-bulimia" where they do not adhere to their insulin injections because of potential weight gain. The desire for thinness over medical treatment can result in negative health consequences in these young women, such as blidness, kidney problems, and even death.

Children who chosoe to adhere to their treatment may experience high levels of physical health, but low levels of psychological well-being. I am collecting data at CHOC to explore the psycho-social predictors of treatment adherence in over 250 adolescents (aged 12-18) and their parents, to ultimately design an intervention (including cognitive behavioral group therapy and social skills training) to help adolescents with diabetes manage their illness correctly while still feeling accepted amongst their peers. Please contact me for more information, or view the short article about my research on page 7 of the CGU/SBOS Spring 2008 Newsletter.

Together with Professor Giovanni Sosa from Cal State Northridge, I am also invovled in a project to test the effects of Ninentendo's "Brain-Age" game on the cognitive abilities of the elderly. While the game was designed by Japanese neuroscientists to 'keep the brain young,' it has not yet been tested with a rigorous methodology and design in the United States. Previous research (Greenfield et al., 1997) has shown that playing video games can increase reaction time and psychological well-being for elderly individuals.

We postulate that playing games 3 hours per week for eight weeks should result in better cognitive functioning and increased psychological well-being. In addition, older adults in a 'social play' condition will play the game in groups of five via a WI-FI system link. Individuals in this condition should also experience heightened feelings of community involvement.

Data collection at senior centers in Venutra county began in November, 2007. If the initial study is successful, we fully intend to broaden the scope of this study to include other populations and other game consoles. Other research into video games includes the relationship between uses & gratifications and mental health, and how perceptions of the moral/social acceptability of video game content can influence game purchasing decisions.