Newswise — Mississippi State University sociologist Angela Robertson is a former mental health counselor who has seen firsthand the consequences of risk-taking behaviors among teenage offenders.
She has worked with cases of drug and alcohol dependency, early pregnancy, abusive relationships, AIDS exposure, and sexually transmitted diseases. Now, she theorizes that drug and alcohol use, combined with a history of abuse, can be significant predictors of the likelihood for contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
In her position as a research fellow at MSU's Social Science Research Center, Robertson again is working to change prospects for those adolescents—especially in the area of sexually transmitted diseases. With a recent $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, she's launched a five-year project to evaluate and improve intervention efforts designed to reduce the likelihood of STDs and a host of related issues.
"NIH awards are among the most competitive and prestigious in science," said SSRC director Arthur G. Cosby. "Dr. Robertson has proven to be a campus leader in securing NIH funding, earning three grants during the last few years with a combined funding of approximately $3 million. The work she is doing in this project will have significant policy implications for the future."
Through a cooperative effort with the University of Southern Mississippi, Robertson's current study will focus on approximately 400 high-risk adolescents in an incarcerated setting—the state's Columbia Training School. "The study will target females exclusively because girls, especially African-American girls, are disproportionately at risk," Robertson explained.
She has the solid research to back up her concern. In a study completed earlier this year of more than 780 juveniles at a state detention center, she found that nearly 30 percent of girls 13 and older tested positive for either gonorrhea or chlamydia, two of the most prevalent venereal diseases. Survey data and urinalysis results provided a link between self-reported behaviors and infections.
"This is a high rate," she observed, adding that many sexually transmitted diseases, left untreated, can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and other health issues.
Nearly a third of the surveyed girls also reported at least one pregnancy, and 80 percent of both males and females said they were victims of violence. In a screening for seven illicit drugs, more than 20 percent of girls and more than 40 percent of males tested positive for at least one.
With the NIH support, she will test a potential intervention she hopes will lower the risks, especially for troubled youths. Working with females age 13-17, she will use a standard state-developed health education curriculum for part of the group.
For the other, she will expand an intervention effort developed by Janet St. Lawrence, branch chief of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.
Among other project collaborators are Sherry Hartman and Janie Butts of the USM and David Morse of MSU.
The new intervention emphasizes problem-solving, negotiating, communication, and critical thinking skills.
"We will encourage behavior changes to help stop substance abuse, reduce sexual behavior and improve safety practices," said Robertson, a recent doctoral graduate of MSU's department of sociology, anthropology and social work.
The grant also provides for a full-time nurse and two health educators on site at the training school. They will provide instruction in substance abuse and its effects on impaired judgment, human growth and development, and disease prevention.
In turn, each participant will meet with counselors for health safety planning to identify risk problems and ways to overcome them. Robertson said participating youths will be tracked for a year after the intervention, with researchers collecting both behavioral and biological data.
"We believe the intervention will reduce risk behaviors, and that the group involved with the intervention will have lower infections," she said.
Robertson's research has far-reaching implications, said Martin Levin, her doctoral adviser. Department head and Thomas L. Bailey Professor of Sociology, Levin also has conducted research in the area of STDs.
"The study is designed to determine which among several alternative strategies for reducing or eliminating such risky behaviors is most efficient and effective," Levin said. "It will have a significant impact on Mississippi and the nation at large on a major public health problem."
For more information about the study, contact Robertson at (662) 325-7797 or [email protected].
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