The purpose of the proposed study is to understand features of sober living homes that promote recovery among women with histories of addiction and trauma. In the current OVW/DOJ-funded study, we are focusing on a unique gender-responsive and trauma-informed recovery community in Phoenix, Arizona—Support, Education, Empowerment, and Directions (SEEDs) program.
Learn MoreIndigenous Voices Rising is a community-based, Indigenous-led research project that was created in response to the urgent call from advocates, crisis responders and Native American elders for more information that can be used to prevent sex trafficking of Indigenous persons.
Learn MoreJourney to Thrive is a research project to better understand sex trafficking survivors’ perceptions of the services they receive — and to learn what services they find most helpful in their recovery and how to decrease barriers to accessing services.
Learn MoreThe PRYSHM Project seeks to develop and evaluate an online program for LGBTQ+ teens, ages 15 to 18. The program aims to help LGBTQ+ teens feel acceptance and pride in their LGBTQ+ identities, and to empower them to make healthy decisions consistent with their personal values, hopes and goals for the future.
Learn MoreThe goal of the Rapid City Family Project is to work closely with community members to create a program that reduces adverse childhood experiences, including child abuse, exposure to domestic violence or community violence, and other upsetting or traumatic experiences. The project is community-led, which means members of the Rapid City area community will play an active role in developing the program and making decisions about how we evaluate the program.
Learn MoreThis exciting new study is being conducted on 20 campuses across the United States with students, faculty, staff and campus administrators. As part of this project, researchers seek to better understand the role of stigma in partner violence among sexual minority individuals. This research project evaluates a new sexual stigma model for intimate partner violence and examines the relation between LGBTQ+ students’ experiences of stigma along with social, emotional, psychological and behavioral factors that may increase risk for intimate partner violence.
Learn MoreFew sexual violence (SV) prevention programs are developed and evaluated in ways that center the experiences of racial, ethnic, and sexual minority college students although many forms of SGBV are experienced at higher rates by those students. Project STOPP addresses this gap by intentionally recruiting students from across the United States with an array of intersectional identities around race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender to participate in focus groups where they are asked about how their identities influence their response to SV prevention, particularly bystander intervention programming (BIP). The study also assesses these students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of BIP at preventing SV for their groups.
Supporting Survivors and Self (SSS) is an intervention for social supports of survivors of partner abuse and sexual aggression. This program is unique in that it is grounded in theories of behavioral etiology and behavioral change. Participants in the program (young adults) are given tools to help them in responding in healthy, positive ways should someone come to them to disclosing an experience with sexual abuse or violence. The program seeks to ultimately increase the positive social reactions while decreasing the negative social reactions to disclosures. It also provides participants with stress and coping strategies around receiving a disclosure, as well as an understanding of resources that can be used by victims (if needed). In the current study, we are testing the effectiveness of the intervention.
Learn MoreWe have several projects currently underway that focus on developing and evaluating resilience-focused and culturally grounded violence prevention programs for diverse LGBTQ+ youth across various settings (e.g., online, Indian reservation).
The Takini (Survivor in Lakota) Project seeks to understand the factors that support healing and recovery for Native American and/or rural women who have survived domestic violence. The project is a collaboration between UNL researchers (Edwards, Mullet) and USD researchers (Diamond-Welch)
Learn MoreThis exciting new study is being conducted among teens (ages 14-17 years old), professionals who work directly with teens and guardians/caregivers of teens across the United States. As part of this project, researchers are seeking to better understand whether a phone app that works to help prevent aggression and alcohol use might work among teens. The research is designed to better understand the use of technology among teens and determine whether guardians and/or teachers/professionals would be open to using an in-school phone app that focuses on aggression and alcohol use prevention among teens.
Learn MoreThe teen years are an exciting time for creativity, growth, and change. It is also a time that can be challenging. Some challenges that teens face are peer-to-peer aggression and risky situations. These things can harm teens. The good news is that we can keep these things from happening. In fact, youth are safer when they feel they matter to their community, have skills to cope with tough situations, and are involved in taking action to make a difference.
Learn More