Institute for Prevention of
Addictions

Year at a Glance

2019/2020


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 2019/2020

  • Global Church Member Survey -- 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 spirituality. Currently we are working on articles for submission to major scientific journals and organizing sessions for the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study Religion. We had a session in 2019 and have submitted on for the 2020 annual meeting
  • Working with Church Ministries Departments -- We worked with a wide variety of Ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church primarily with Health Ministries as well as Family Ministries, Education and various media. In working with these ministries we prepare professional/scientific presentations and publications for the scientific and faith community.
  • Andrews University Health Risk Behavior Study – The IPA has conducted 6 of these surveys, about every 5-7 years since 1991. We are currently in the process of integrating all of separate data files into an integrated file. We will analyze this combined file to examine trends in health risk behaviors and changes in risk and protective factors.
  • Program Evaluation for United Way of Southwest Michigan  – Curt is Co-Principal Investigator (2020) (with Stephen Eccles leading) of a 6-month evaluation project titled Be Healthy Corner Store Evaluation. 
  • Adventist Human Subject Researchers Association -- The IPA provides leadership for the Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association. The last meeting was held at Oakwood University in May of 2019. The next meeting is at Andrews University in 2021.
  • External Committees -- The IPA Director Chaired a National Institutes of Health grant review committee and serves 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:

  • Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, St. Louis, Missouri. October 2019
  • Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, March, 2019 & 2020

 

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 disciplines. These venues included:


Publications/Presentations Read by the Scholarly Community

In the last year IPA publications have been downloaded by over 1,000 individuals in the last year according to Andrews University Digital Commons.