Tamara G.J. Leech, Ph.D.
Butler University
Junior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Public Housing and Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors
"New Connections has enabled me to focus on the research questions of most interest to me. Instead of being driven by what is easy or available, I have been able to decide my own research -- and therefore professional -- agenda."
Project Description
In 1998, the federal government implemented major changes to public housing policy, largely based on the assumption that decreasing the concentration of poverty would improve public housing residents' life chances, including adolescent violence, substance use and risky sexual behavior.
Leech's project employs propensity analyses and structural equation modeling to investigate the association between public housing residence and adolescent health risk behavior. Her project examines the behavior of teens living in public housing before and after the 1998 reforms, and investigates potential mechanisms that would explain any emerging associations.
Biography
Tamara Leech, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at Butler University, received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Michigan. Her areas of expertise include medical sociology, urban communities, the interaction between race and gender and adolescent health risk behavior. Leech's previous academic experience has focused on racial and ethnic variations in child and adolescent well-being. She serves as a consultant on social organization and crime issues for several Indianapolis neighborhood associations.
