Human Development
Social Contexts and Adolescent Well-being
Dr. Kathleen Rodgers’ research explores how factors within the individual, family, and non-family environments interact and are related to positive youth development and the reduction of risk behaviors. Three areas of current research are (1) faith-based mentoring of adolescent mothers, (2) youth asset mapping, and (3) the role of media on adolescent risk behaviors and attitudes. Dr. Rodgers is researching the relation of faith and faith-based mentoring on adolescent mothers’ stress, depression, risk taking behaviors, future orientation, and responsiveness to her child. Attachment of teen mothers to their parent is of interest as a possible predictor of the adolescent mother’s ability to form a bonding relationship with a mentor or a spiritual figure in their life.
As an outgrowth of her community-collaborative research, Dr. Rodgers developed an experiential learning curriculum whereby youth engage in community-based research to assess existing and needed community resources that can promote positive youth development. With adult guidance, youth plan and implement data collection and disseminate research findings to school personnel, community leaders, and the public through various media. The assumption that youth benefit from being involved in community asset mapping has received little empirical examination. Thus, opportunity exists to examine the psycho-social impact of youth involvement in asset mapping, as well as the processes by which a community can involve youth as active agents of change.
With collaborators at Washington State University (The Prevention Research Group), Dr. Rodgers is exploring how youth and their parents receive and interpret messages in music videos regarding substance use, violence, sexuality, and physical attractiveness. Understanding of parents’ and youths’ interpretation of messages in music media is a first step toward collaboration with WSU Extension to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a media literacy program for adolescents and parents on alcohol and tobacco use prevention and related risk behaviors (e.g., sexual risk taking attitudes and behaviors, violence).
Contact Information
Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Human Development
Washington State University
PO Box 646236
Pullman, WA 99164-6236
Telephone: 509-335-2873
E-mail: rodgersk@wsu.edu
Society, Communication, and Learning
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Dr. Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, associate professor in the Department of Human Development, received her Ph.D. in child and family studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1995. Prior to joining the faculty at WSU, she was an assistant professor and Extension family life specialist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For the past decade, she has conducted community-based collaborative research that has generated basic and applied research to inform policy and programming around youth issues. Her work with communities includes consultation in survey design and implementation with the Knox County Health Department in Knoxville, Tennessee, and evaluation of the Spokane City/County Youth Department’s three-year Prevention Through Empowerment Project. Dr. Rodgers’ research on risk and resiliency among adolescents in married, step-, and single-parent families received national attention when the National Council on Family Relations selected it for press release in 1999. She is currently an advisory board member of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at WSU. |
