Health in the Valley Study:

In line with a social ecological understanding of how humans are embedded in their social contexts, we are examining how social-emotional-cognitive factors relate to health behaviors and cardiometabolic diseases in the diverse communities of the San Joaquin Valley of California. We will examine how social-cognitive-emotional factors are influenced, combine, and/or interact with broader contextual factors, such as one’s housing status, neighborhood circumstances, and cultural identification to understand risks for cardio-metabolic diseases (e.g., indicators of heart disease and diabetes) over time. This project is a collaboration with Drs. Matthew Zawadzki and Jenny Howell in the Health Psychology group. We received a pilot grant from the UC Merced Academic Senate, but data collection is on-hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.