Shawn Bediako, Ph.D.
University
of Maryland, Baltimore County
Junior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Employment Status, Health Care Utilization, and Mental Health Outcomes among Young Adult Men with Sickle Cell Disease
"I applied for the New Connections award because it offered two things that emerging scholars and junior faculty members need to advance to the “next level” of their careers: structured mentoring and opportunities to acquire and demonstrate new skills."
Project Description
Bediako will study how young adult men with sickle-cell disease manage workplace absenteeism and limited access to health care. Currently, there is very little research describing the impact of employment status on health care use and mental health, especially among young adult men. His study is intended to inform policy-makers on the types of social support services needed by adults with sickle-cell disease, a debilitating genetic blood disorder that disproportionately affects minorities.
By exploring data from a national 10-year longitudinal study of sickle-cell disease patients compiled by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bediako will examine the employment status of adults with sickle-cell disease and the rates at which they can access and use health care and mental health services. Bediako will use the data to create a computer model projecting unemployment rates among sickle-cell disease patients in Maryland during the next decade.
He plans to study whether unemployment leads to poor health outcomes or whether poor health reduces the likelihood of finding employment, and whether changes in employment status lead to less appropriate health care use and poorer mental health outcomes.
Biography
Shawn M. Bediako, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he contributes to both the behavioral medicine and the community and applied social psychology programs.
Bediako’s general research interests are concerned with the socio-cultural aspects of the adult experience of sickle cell disease. Currently, he examines: (a) social psychological processes that influence public attitudes towards individuals with sickle cell; and (b) the broader impact of macro-level factors such as employment, unemployment, and underemployment on persons coping with sickle cell, their families and their communities.
As one of the few social and community health psychologists conducting research exclusively on sickle cell disease, he is producing a unique body of work that utilizes experimental, survey and qualitative research methods to enhance our understanding of the complexities of adult adjustment to the condition.
Bediako received a master’s degree in community psychology from Florida A&M University and earned a doctorate in social/health psychology from Stony Brook University. He then completed a Carolina Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
