Brooklyn, NY -- How do ethnicity and race affect health? Exploring answers to this question is one goal of Long Island University/Brooklyn Campus' Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Human Development, which recently opened offices across the street from the Campus at 191 Willoughby Street.
The Center, which has several research projects underway that support the healthy human development of Brooklyn's multicultural population, also hopes to foster greater understanding among the different ethnic and racial groups. A third goal is to develop a closer link between the Long Island University community and the people of Brooklyn.
"Brooklyn is home to people from 153 countries speaking 93 different languages," said Carol Magai, co-director of the Center and professor of psychology at the Brooklyn Campus. "With its ethnically and racially diverse citizenry, Brooklyn provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the interaction between the emotions and health in people from a variety of backgrounds."
Magai, a Long Island University faculty member since 1986 who has published widely on the emotional component of personality, directs the Center. Her staff includes co-director Eric Blackwell; Dawn Smyer, assistant research scientist; Andre Evans-Ross, research associate; and Research Fellows Denise Fyffe, Bevlyn Thorpe, Isa Nunez, and Renee McPherson.
Since its inception in December 1996, the Center has been studying the health of native-born and foreign-born Caucasian and African American residents of Brooklyn, especially as it is affected by stress, emotion and coping abilities.
"The information gained from this survey will enable health care practitioners to understand more about the medical vulnerabilities and/or resiliencies of specific ethnic groups," Magai said. "As a result, they will be better equipped to make treatment recommendations tailored to individual patients."
More than 300 Brooklyn residents, chosen on the basis of randomly generated census maps, have participated thus far in the survey, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.An additional 600 interviews will be conducted by next summer to make the sample as representative as possible.
The Center is also looking for women, 65 years of age or older, who would like to participate in a pilot study designed to determine the need for research on cancer screening practices among older women.
"Brooklyn has a particularly high rate of mortality from breast cancer, particularly among African American women," Magai said. "We want to find out why fewer African American women have breast exams and mammograms, even when access is equivalent, and, in the case of those with a history of breast cancer, how well they follow treatment and followup plans."
The Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Human Development has a multi- ethnic and multi-disciplinary advisory board largely drawn from community-based organizations and institutions in Brooklyn. For more information about the Center's work, please call 718-246-4067 or e-mail
One of the fastest-growing institutions of higher learning in the New York metropolitan area, the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University offers more than 10,000 students 120 programs in more than 50 undergraduate and a comparable number of graduate fields, including the PhD in clinical psychology and in pharmaceutics. Its cultural diversity, innovative academic spirit, NCAA
Division I Blackbirds sports teams and landscaped campus in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech revival make it a model of urban higher education. ###
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