Dr. Tucker's two research teams (i.e., the Behavioral Medicine Research Team and the Health Psychology Research Team) implement her ambitious research agenda while providing invaluable “real world,” hands-on research training experiences to over 60 undergraduate students and up to 8 graduate students each year. All members of Dr. Tucker’s research teams learn how to conduct culturally sensitive, community participatory, qualitative and quantitative research by being involved in all aspects of the research process. The research attitudes, knowledge, and skills acquired by members of Dr. Tucker’s research teams help realize her aspiration of preparing the next generation of first-rate, culturally sensitive researchers. Below are descriptions of Dr. Tucker’s two research teams.

BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE RESEARCH TEAM

Dr. Tucker's Behavioral Medicine Research Team focuses on developing empirically-based tools and interventions to promote patient-centered culturally sensitive health care, which broadly refers to patient-identified knowledge, behaviors, skills, and policies that are needed to effectively provide health care to culturally diverse patients. Specifically, patient-centered culturally sensitive health care involves (a) training health care providers and office staff to engage in the behaviors and display the attitudes that make patients feel comfortable with, trusting of, and respected by the health care professionals involved in their treatment; (b) modifying the physical environment of the health care facility so that patients feel welcome there, and (c) training patients in behaviors and skills that increase the likelihood that they will be treated in a culturally sensitive manner by the health care professionals involved in their treatment.

Research conducted by Dr. Tucker and her Behavioral Medicine Research Team shows that patients who receive patient-centered culturally sensitive health care tend to report high levels of heath care satisfaction, are more likely to adhere to treatment plans, and are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors.

The Behavioral Medicine Research Team has undertaken the challenge of promoting patient-centered culturally sensitive heath care as a means of reducing health disparities among low-income adults who use community health clinics for their primary health care.

The Behavioral Medicine Research Team currently is implementing the Health-Smart Church Program.

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH TEAM

Dr. Tucker’s Health Psychology Research Team investigates psychological and behavioral factors associated with attaining and maintaining health.

Initial research conducted by this team focused on health-risk and health promoting behaviors among culturally diverse youth living with at least one chronic illness and living in low-income families (each youth’s mother also participated). This 18-month study (called the Children’s Health Self-Empowerment Project) was funded by the Florida Department of Health and implemented in conjunction with Children’s Medical Services in Gainesville, Florida. Findings from this study indicated that the effects of a workshop intervention differed for African Americans as compared to White Americans relative to various health promoting behaviors (e.g., eating a nutritious diet). Subsequently, Dr. Tucker was awarded a 3-year grant by the PepsiCo Foundation to build on and extend the focus of the Children’s Health Self-Empowerment Project. The goal of this recently completed multiphase research study (called the Family Health Self-Empowerment Project) was to evaluate a comprehensive set of integrated interventions designed to modify and prevent overweight and obesity among children, adolescents, and adults.

One important focus of the Health Psychology Research Team has been to develop and empirically test Dr. Tucker’s literature-informed, culturally sensitive Health Self-Empowerment Theory, which asserts that health promoting behavior can be predicted by the following five health-related psychological variables: health motivation, health self-efficacy, health self-praise, active coping skills, and health responsibility. Findings from the Children’s Health Self-Empowerment Project provided support for Health Self-Empowerment Theory in terms of predicting health promoting behavior among (a) culturally diverse youth living with at least one chronic illness and living in low-income families and (b) these youths’ mothers. These research findings informed the development of culturally sensitive health self-empowerment theory-based health promotion interventions which were then tested in the Family Health Self-Empowerment Project.

Currently, the Health Psychology Research Team is in the process of launching the Clinic Staff Health-Smart Behavior Program.

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