Each year at their annual meeting, the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) sponsors a friendly competition among teams of early-career researchers. Named for two of the founders and long-time active members of SPR, Dr. Zili Sloboda and Dr. William Bukoski, the competition charges teams of scientists to develop a research question, analyze a selected dataset, and present their work at the annual meeting. This year, the SPR Cup chose Add Health as its dataset for competition.
The competition included four teams from Penn State, UT Austin, University of Florida, and a cross-institution team with members from University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, SUNY Buffalo, and Ohio State. Teams shared their findings using Waves I-VI of the Add Health public use data at the annual meeting to a panel of expert judges, including Add Health Co-Director Lauren Gaydosh.
Congratulations to the team from the University of Florida – named the PreventiGators – who won first place. Their project examined how positive childhood experiences influence suicidal behavior trajectories among immigrant youth in the United States.
Team members: Paola Sullivan, PhD student, Doctoral Program in Youth Development and Family Sciences, Zixiao Yang, PhD student, Doctoral Program in Youth Development and Family Sciences, Xiaoyang Jin, PhD student, Doctoral Program in Youth Development and Family Sciences, Mariana Rebello, PhD student, Doctoral Program in School Psychology, Matthew Peterson, Master student, Master Program in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences , Indy Hurun Ein, PhD student, Doctoral Program in School Psychology
Mentors: Xiaoya Zhang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences , Shanting Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology