Our scholarly activities build on the premise that illness occurs at biological, psychological, and social levels. In the quest to improve the health of adolescents and young adults, our faculty conduct innovative research on a variety of topics including the impact of stress on physiological and psychological responses to pain, evaluation of vaccine efficacy and compliance, and development of programs to facilitate the transition of youth from pediatric to adult health care services.

Our faculty have expertise in clinical research methods ranging from laboratory assessment of stress reactivity to analysis of data from population-based health surveys. Our research teams are multidisciplinary and include investigators with expertise in adolescent medicine, psychology and psychiatry, gastroenterology, and public health. We provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral fellows to develop research skills by working collaboratively with our faculty.

Faculty members and trainees share their expertise and research findings at local educational events and at national and international professional meetings. We have recently contributed to the scientific programs for meetings of the Pediatric Academic Societies, the International Symposium on Pediatric Pain, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, the National Conference on Child Health Psychology, the International Symposium on Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, and the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies.