UA Graduate Student Earns APA Minority Fellowship

multimedia

Highlights from the 2009 State of the University

podcats

Arizona PodCats (Sept. 10, 2009)
Interview with Paul Robbins, UA professor of geography and development, and author of "Lawn People."

news tools

RSS Feeds

UA Graduate Student Earns APA Minority Fellowship

Christina Vasquez, a doctoral degree student in the UA's psychology program, intends to help address challenges adolescent and youth -- particular people of color -- face when dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues.

Christina Vasquez, a doctoral degree student in the UA department of special education, rehabilitation, and school psychology, has earned a minority fellowship from the American Psychological Association.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
June 8, 2009

The overrepresentation of African American and Hispanic youth in the juvenile justice system is a concern to Christina Vasquez, who has begun conducting research on both populations.

Also concerning to Vasquez, a doctoral degree student in The University of Arizona's school psychology program, are some of the mental health and substance abuse issues children and adolescents face.

And Vasquez has just received a fellowship that will allow her to merge both interests.

She has just been named to the American Psychological Association's Minority Fellowship Program. The fellowship comes with a one-year, $20,000 grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which will allow Vasquez to conduct research in the areas of mental health and substance abuse in youth and teenagers in Pima County.

Vasquez said "I feel that it is my calling" to work with adolescents with mental health and substance abuse challenges. And particularly those who are African American, American Indian and Hispanic, she added.

"Research in certain areas of the country has shown disproportionate ethnic minorities in the juvenile justice system," said Vasquez, who earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in school psychology from the UA. "I want to actively pursue correcting that and help create out alternative paths to detention and incarceration."

The purpose of the grant program is to "increase the knowledge of, and research related to ethnic minority mental health and to improve the quality of mental health and substance abuse services delivered to ethnic minority populations," according to the national association's Web site.

The program's mission coincides with the Healthy People 2010, a nationwide health objective established for state agencies, organizations, communities and others to promote disease prevention and improve health services for people in the United States.

Vasquez said that as part of her research, which she will develop into her dissertation, will involve researching mental health issues among juveniles in detention while also evaluating differences based on recidivism rate and type of offense while looking at race and ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status.

In the past year, Vasquez was involved with mental health screenings and therapy among those in the juvenile justice system. She will continue her research with that population during her fellowship.

The ultimate goal is to determine "alternative avenues to receiving services to help adolescents or children to get help to prevent recidivism in the juvenile justice system" Vasquez said.

"Being an adolescent is such a difficult, sensitive and vulnerable part of the development of human life," she said.

"And to have high risk factors and low protective factors makes it difficult to be successful," Vasquez added. "I want help those with such profiles to help them stay on a healthy path in life."