Team Members
- Tawandra Rowell-Cunsolo, PhD
- Rahwa Haile, PhD, MA
- Anthonine Pierre
Research Project Description
Black men are over-represented in the carceral system; approximately 1 in 3 report such contact. Moreover, paternal incarceration is associated with children's health. Research also suggests that Black populations in the United States are at risk of weathering, a potential mechanism through which inequities in health across the life-course are produced. However, less is known about the intersecting determinants of weathering in general, and among Black youth in particular.
Although mass incarceration may shape inequities in population health, few studies have explored how Black parents and communities understand and resist the ways that exposure to the carceral system, and related social exposures (displacement, economic instability) constrain their ability to build healthy futures for their children. To address this gap, we will:
- provide an in-depth understanding of the sources of disadvantage and resilience experienced by Black fathers with carceral system involvement, and their children, and
- examine the relationship between weathering in Black youth and paternal exposure to disadvantage.
We will conduct a mixed methods study, focusing on one key geographic center of the Black community: central Brooklyn. Phase one of the study will involve in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 father-child dyads, with each individual being separately interviewed. Phase two will involve conducting a cross-sectional survey of 100 Black late adolescents. We will take measurements of weathering (telomere length), on which we will regress paternal exposure to incarceration, and other key paternal social exposures, which will be identified and refined during phase one. Empirically demonstrating that these exposures harm child and community health could powerfully compel a responsive policy approach, which will help create the conditions to better foster health equity and create a Culture of Health in central Brooklyn communities, and New York City more broadly.
Team Members
Tawandra Rowell-Cunsolo, PhD
Tawandra Rowell-Cunsolo is an Assistant Professor in the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Social Work. She is interested in examining ways in which incarceration affects vulnerable communities, and subsequently population health. Her long-term goal is to create sustainable evidence-based interventions that address the intersection of health and justice.
Rahwa Haile, PhD, MA
Rahwa Haile is an Associate Professor in the department of Public Health at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Her scholarly work is situated in the field of social epidemiology, and centers around the ways in which intersecting inequalities linked to racism, socioeconomic status, and heteronormativity exert an impact on health and well-being. Her long-term goal is to conduct policy-translatable research that helps improve social conditions in Black communities.
Anthonine Pierre
Anthonine Pierre is the Deputy Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), in Brooklyn, New York. Anthonine oversees the organization's member engagement and communications efforts in addition to community safety organizing campaigns. Anthonine's Central Brooklyn organizing work has included co-founding No Disrespect, BMC's abolitionist anti-street harassment collective. She currently represents BMC in the Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), and has led several citywide campaigns.
