Research
DEHB is currently engaged in a variety of research projects examining differential developmental outcomes across the lifespan, with a special focus on how human biology is shaped by the social and cultural ecology of everyday life. Current active faculty-led projects include:
As is common in the anthropological model of graduate training, advanced students frequently design their own research projects consistent with the mission and interests of the lab. The lab supports those projects and acts as a resource. Follow links under people to learn about current graduate students and their individual projects being supported by the lab.
We value opportunities to reach out and establish new collaborations with other scientists in the US or abroad. Please contact us if you'd like to discuss this.
- Linking linguistic, relational, and physiological components of emotion regulation among intimate partners, in the service of better understanding correlations between relational and physical health, and as part of a larger project to lay the foundations for a biocultural-linguistic anthropology (collaboration with Sonya Pritzker, Department of Anthropology, and Josh Pederson, Department of Communication Studies). This research is funded through a research grant to Pritzker, DeCaro, and Pederson from the National Science Foundation (BCS 1826775), as well as a workshop grant to Pritzker and DeCaro from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
- Identifying key addressable health challenges in rural Nicaragua among mothers and young children, through the deployment of a range of biomarkers for nutritional status, inflammation, stress, and parasite load (collaboration with Warren Wilson, University of Calgary, and Kammi Schmeer & Barbara Piperata, both of The Ohio State University). This project is funded through a Institute for Population Research Seed Grant to Schmeer & Piperata, and a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Grant to Wilson.
- Psychobiological moderation of the efficacy of a preventive intervention for preschool children at risk for the development of youth behavior problems (collaboration with Ansley Gilpin, John Lochman, and Caroline Boxmeyer, University of Alabama Center for the Prevention of Youth Behavior Problems.) This project is funded through a grant to Gilpin, DeCaro, and Boxmeyer from the Administration for Children and Families in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS Grant 90YR0075-01).
- Longitudinal associations among everyday experiences of older adults with osteoarthritis, patterns in physical activity, and symptom severity (collaboration with Patricia Parmelee, University of Alabama Alabama Research Institute on Aging, and Dylan Smith, Stony Brook University.) This research is funded through a grant to Parmelee and Smith from the National Institute on Aging (NIH Grant 5R01AG041655).
As is common in the anthropological model of graduate training, advanced students frequently design their own research projects consistent with the mission and interests of the lab. The lab supports those projects and acts as a resource. Follow links under people to learn about current graduate students and their individual projects being supported by the lab.
We value opportunities to reach out and establish new collaborations with other scientists in the US or abroad. Please contact us if you'd like to discuss this.