A Project to Create National Adolescent and Young Adult Research Network

The AYAH-Research Network (the Network) aims to create a national transdisciplinary research network devoted to accelerating the translation of developmental science into practice through:

• Creating a national research agenda
• Advancing the agenda through collaborative research projects
• Disseminating research findings and other products

The Network is a collaboration led by UCSF’s Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine in partnership with:

• The Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) projects: university-based training projects (Children’s Hospital of Boston, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Minnesota, and University of Washington, plus UCSF),
• the Center for the Developing Adolescent at the University of California, Berkeley, and
• the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM)

Network Activities

To create the national research agenda, the Network is finalizing review articles that focusing on the following areas:

• Leveraging developmental neuroscience
• Improving preventive service interventions
• Integrating behavioral health and primary care services

The Research Network is advancing AYA health research through projects in the following areas:

Applying Developmental Science to health services research

• Network Partners are examining evidence from overweight/obesity clinical interventions to determine whether the peri-pubertal period presents a good time for behavior change interventions (Ron Dahl, MD & Ahna Suleiman, MPH, DrPH, University of California, Berkeley; Yolanda Evans, MD, MPH, Seattle’s Children’s Hospital; Krista Casazza, PhD, RD, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Elizabeth Ozer, PhD, University of California, San Francisco; Tracy Richmond, MD, MPH, Boston Children’s Hospital)

Advancing care for Transgender Youth

• Network colleagues are partnering to examine how best to provide healthcare to transgender youth

Address the benefits and challenges of emerging technology

• Network partners are examining the literature on how technology can enhance the delivery of healthcare services
• The Network is working with the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to examine social media use and sleep hygiene among adolescents

Supporting communication campaigns to address objesity

• Network partners are supporting an obesity prevention project, led by Bryn Austin, PhD. The project will test an on-line adaptation of an in-person training program to create communications campaigns to prevent obesity. The program will be piloted with about 40 medical and public health professionals around the country. The course will be based on participant feedback and will continue to be iteratively developed and improved.

Network Publications

• Ballard PJ, Hoyt LT, Pachucki MC. Impacts of adolescent and young adult civic engagement on health and socioeconomic status in adulthood. Child Dev. 2018 Jan 23. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12998. [Epub ahead of print]
• Adams SH, Park MJ, Twietmeyer L, Brindis CD, Irwin CE, Jr. Association between adolescent preventive care and the Affordable Care Act. JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172(1):43-8.
• Vance SR, Lasofsky B, Ozer E, Buckelew SM. Teaching paediatric transgender care. Clin Teach. 2018 Mar 24.
• Vance S, Guss CE, Inwards-Breland D, Ozer E. Experiences with querying gender identity across seven adolescent medicine sites. Accepted May 2018, J Adolesc Health.
• Suleiman AB, Dahl RE. Leveraging neuroscience to inform adolescent health: The need for an innovative transdisciplinary developmental science of adolescence. J Adolesc Health. 2017; 60(3):240-8. Click here for the full article via open access.
• NEW! Harris SK, Aalsma MC, Weitzman ER, et al. Research on clinical preventive services for adolescents and young adults: Where are we and where do we need to go? J Adolesc Health. 2017; 60(3): 249-60. Click here for the full article via open access.
• Richardson LP, McCarty CA, Radovic A, Suleiman AB. Research in the integration of behavioral health for adolescents and young adults in primary care settings: A systematic review. J Adolesc Health. 2017; 60(3): 261-9. Click here for the full article via open access.
• Irwin CE Jr. Advancing a research agenda for adolescents and young adult health. J Adolesce Health. 2017; 60(3): 233-4. Click here for the full article via open access.
• Adams S, Park J, Irwin CE. Adolescent and Young Adult Preventive Care: Comparing National Survey Rates, Am J Prev Med. 2015 Aug;49(2):238-47.
• Sanci L, Chondros P, Sawyer S, Pirkis J, Ozer E, Hegarty K, Yang F, Grabsch B, Shiell A, Cahill H, Ambresin AE, Patterson E, Patton G. Responding to Young People’s Health Risks in Primary Care: A Cluster Randomised Trial of Training Clinicians in Screening and Motivational Interviewing. Nishi D, ed. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(9):e0137581. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137581.
• Ozer, E.J., Piatt, A., Holsen, I., Larsen, T., Lester, J., Ozer, E. M. (2016) Innovative Approaches to Promoting Positive Youth Development in Diverse Contexts: Novel Applications of Participatory Research and New Technologies (in press). In A. Petersen, F Motti-Stefanidi, S. Koller, and S. Verma. Positive Youth Development in Global Contexts of Social and Economic Change. Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
• Webb, M.J., Kauer, S.D., Ozer, E.M., Haller, D.M., & Sanci, L.A. (2016). Does screening for and intervening with multiple health compromising behaviours and mental health disorders amongst young people attending primary care improve health outcomes? A systematic review. BMC Fam Pract 17(1), 104.
• Tebb, K., Erenrich, R. Jasik, C., Berna, M., Lester, J., Ozer, E. (2016) Use of theory in computer-based interventions to reduce alcohol use among adolescents and young adults: A systematic review. BMC Public Health 16 (1), 517.
• Jasik, C. B.& Ozer, E. M. (2016). Preventive Health Care for Adolescents and Young Adults.  In L. Neinstein, D. K. Katzman, T. Callahan, C. Gordon, A. Joffee, & V. Rickert. Neinstein’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health Care: A Practical Guide, 6^th Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Jasik, C.B., Berna, M., Martin, M., & Ozer, E.M. (2016). Teen Preferences for Clinic-Based Behavior Screens: Who, Where, When, and How? J of Adolesc Health (in press).

Network Presentations

• NEW! Network staff presented at the 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Annual Meeting on technological strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the clinical encounter, and interventions to motivate behavior change among AYAs between clinical visits. Click here to view the presentations.
• Ron Dahl, director of the Center for Developing Adolescent at UCB, presented the Gallagher lecture at the 2016 SAHM. Click here to view the presentation
• In partnership with the Adolescent and Young Adult Health National Resource Center (AYAH-NRC), Network staff presented at the 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Annual Meeting. Network and Center staff discussed how to improve systems of care for adolescents and young adults. You can find their presentations, as well as presentations from other AYAH-NRC staff here

Key Faculty and Staff Contact:

Elizabeth Ozer, Ph.D, Principal Investigator
Charles E. Irwin, Jr., MD, Co-Principal Investigator
Jane Park, MPH, Network Coordinator

For additional information about the Network, please contact Jane Park, MPH at jane.park@ucsf.edu

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UA6MC27378, Adolescent and Young Adult Health Research Network, $960,000. The information, content and conclusions presented here are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Last updated: October 31, 2016