Dr. Crosnoe recently received a very large grant from the National Institutes of Health (NH) to conduct a large scale project on the ways in which physical attractiveness stratifies the life chances of young people, primarily by affecting their opportunities to achieve academically and socially. NIH is interested in this kind of research because it has major health implications – as academic and social achievements are major foundations of lifelong health – and more specifically because we believe that such health issues as obesity, disordered eating, and substance use come into play in explaining how attractiveness affects people’s lives.
NIHaims[1] is a document with the specific aims of the actual grant proposal that NIH funded. The specific aims are the one-page overview of the whole project that start out any NIH grant proposal.
Many years ago, the federal government funded a large study of the effects of child care on child development called the SECCYD. It followed about 1300 babies through high school, and one of the data collection pieces involved videoing the children interacting with their parents at every age. We have possession of those videos, which are highly secure, and aim to extract “short slices” from each one, which is likely a short gif or still shot of the kid at each age. We will then be working with our IT people to set up a system in which undergraduates will rate these thin slices for physical attractiveness and other criteria.
We are interested in having 3-4 students do their BDP connecting experiences this coming summer to help with the extraction of the thin slices. Dr. Crosnoe’s graduate student, Lilla Pivnick, will work with the undergraduate interns. We would expect them to put in a few hours per week for most of the semester. They could also get involved with other aspects of the project (e.g., analyzing the rich data set to answer questions about child and adolescent health). Finally, at the end of the semester, there is a chance that we could take on 1-2 of the interns for a paying research assistant position.
If you are interested, contact Dr. Robert Crosnoe at:
Robert Crosnoe, C.B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair #4 & Department Chair
The University of Texas at Austin
Department of Sociology | Population Research Center
crosnoe@austin.utexas.edu
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/prc/directory/faculty/crosnoer