Institute for Prevention of
Addictions

Year at a Glance

2017/2018

Bringing in the Next Generation of Researchers

The IPA publishing group mentors several students and professors with limited research experience. Past and current mentees work at a variety of universities including Loma Linda University, Andrews University, Southern Adventist University, the University of Michigan, the University of Idaho, University of Tennessee and the University of California in Los Angeles. We are pleased at the success of our younger faculty in being published in the scientific literature.

Major Research Activities of 2018

  • One of the major research activities the IPA has engaged in is leading the 2017/2018 Global Church Member Survey. This survey focused on a wide variety of beliefs and practice of Seventh-day Adventist Church Members. The data include a number of health behavior questions on substance use, diet and the integration of health and spiritualty.
  • We worked with the Health Ministries Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on updating the Youth Alive program as well as preparing a wide variety of research-based presentations on health risk behaviors for Health Ministries and Family Ministries at the General Conference and the North American Division.
  • Andrews University Health Risk Behavior Study – In March of 2018, the IPA conducted a survey of the health risk and protective behaviors of students. The survey focused on substance use, mental and physical health, and sexual activities as risk behaviors and faith, parental relationships, and social bonding as protective behaviors.
  • Program Evaluation for United Way of Southwest Michigan  –Collected and analyzed data and wrote four evaluation reports on volunteer activities, early education programs, a health and fitness program, and a welfare-to-work program, all sponsored by the United Way of Southwest Michigan.
  • The IPA provided the leadership for the Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association. The Annual meeting was held at Andrews University in May of 2018. The next meeting is at Oakwood University in May of 2019.
  • The IPA Director continues to Chair a National Institutes of Health grant review committee and serve as an Advisory Board Member to the Monitoring the Future project at the University of Michigan.

Presentations at Major Scientific Conferences

A key part of our mission is to present our primary research at major scientific conferences. Presentations by IPA faculty included presentations at the:

  • College of Drug Dependency, Montreal, Canada, June 2017
  • Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Washington, D.C. October 2018
  • Council of Social Work Education, Dallas, Texas, October 2018
  • Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, March, 2018
  • National Council on Family Relations, San Diego, California, November 2018
  • American Public Health Association, San Diego, California, November 2018

Publications in Peer-Reviewed Venues

We achieved these goals in 2017/2018 through publications in major scientific, professional, and peer reviewed journals and books covering a wide variety of discipline. These venues included:

  • Social Work and Christianity
  • Review of Religious Research
  • A Chapter in a book on AIDS  research Pioneers published by Johns Hopkins University Press
  • https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/hiv-pioneers
  • A book on promoting the public good in the Public Square and the Church