Academic funding for Erola, Sourander and Malamut
The Research Council of Finland has awarded an Academy Project Grant to Professors Jani Erola and Andre Sourander and an Academy Researcher Fellowship to University Researcher Sarah Malamut. Erola’s team is developing a new method to study the prevalence of Equality of Opportunity, while Sourander’s team is investigating the effectiveness of digital treatment for prenatal depression. Malamut’s research will explore the link between excessive worrying or wallowing in anxiety and being bullied.
The Erola team develops a new method
Professor Jani Erola has been awarded a €642 890 Academy project grant for his project The Unique and Shared Family Influences Model: A New Method to Study Equality of Opportunity. The project team will develop statistical add-on packages for other researchers to implement the novel model in their research.
The project develops a new method to study the prevalence of Equality of Opportunity across societies and over time, called “the Unique and Shared Family Influences Model” (USFI). The developed method provides ways to approximate what social influences related to family background are shared or unique to each child in a family.
“Previously existing methods to study intergenerational attainment have ignored the systematic social influences unique to each child in a family. The novel method introduced in the project also provides a more accurate estimate for the overall contribution of social aspects of family background when contrasted with the estimates for genetic influences”, says professor Erola.
The project uses Finnish full population register data as well as twin and sibling data from the US and Germany.
Sourander’s Study on the Effectiveness of Remote Treatment for Depression
Professor Andre Sourander has been awarded a €549,050 Academy project grant for his study, Stronger Together – randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a population-based digitalized intervention for antenatal depression.
The study, conducted by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry, is the largest randomised controlled trial (RCT) in the world in which pregnant mothers are screened from the population. The study examines the effectiveness of a program offered over the internet and telephone for the treatment of depression and preventing postpartum depression, child’s adverse outcomes and long-term mental health problems in the mother and child.
The study is carried out in cooperation with the Research Center of Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku and Finnish wellbeing services counties. Prolonged maternal depression impairs quality of life, poses a risk to the child’s development and impairs mother-child interactions. However, a significant proportion of pregnant women do not seek or receive help with depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
800 pregnant women with depression will be recruited into the study. Half of these women will receive a digital program based on a cognitive-behavioral treatment during pregnancy, which includes telephone coaching, and half will receive a digital information package for depression.
Malamut study looks at the link between waffling and bullying
INVEST university researcher Sarah Malamutin received € 617,167 in Academy Researcher Fellowship funding for her study Dwelling alone or together: An integrated framework of peer victimization, (co-)rumination, and mental health.
“The project aims to provide parents, educators and clinicians with information by identifying young people who are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of bullying and highlighting healthy strategies for seeking social support2, says Malamut.
Recent studies highlight rumination, or excessive worrying or distress, as a key factor in the prolonged suffering of young people who are bullied.
“Despite the belief that social support is beneficial, supportive friendships surprisingly often lead to poorer adjustment among young people who have been bullied. The project will explore co-rumination, or excessive distress when discussing problems with a friend, as an explanation for this paradox,” Malamut said in her application.
She will look at individual differences in how bullying and (co-)rumination affect mental health over time. Her research uses several methods, including longitudinal studies, network analysis and diaries.