HRSA has awarded a total of $1,254,573 for first-year funding of four research projects to improve health care services for America’s mothers and children.

• Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., received a grant of $306,349 to examine the social and emotional effects of early intervention services on adolescents with developmental disabilities and assess their families’ well-being.

• Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, was awarded $466,480 to study the health and social, cognitive and psychological development of adolescents treated during infancy for bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease of prematurity often associated with very low birth weight.

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received $275,699 to study the effect of supportive home and school environments in early childhood on the academic achievement of low-income African American adolescents.

• Marshall University School of Medicine in Huntington, W.Va., was awarded $206,045 to study risk and protective factors among white, low-income, rural Appalachian children that predict social and academic competence, use of tobacco and attitudes toward its use.
  

Each of the grants involves assessment of children who have been studied or tracked for years, some since birth.  The grants will be funded for a four-year period, with the exception of Marshall University’s School of Medicine, which will receive funding for three years.
 
HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Research Program supports research grants whose findings help health care providers and policy makers provide better MCH health services in preventive care, early intervention and clinical management.