Center for the Study of Family Health and Well-being

The Center for the Study of Family Health and Well-being (CSFHW) is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to tackling challenges faced by families and children across Tennessee and the United States, from economic hardships and poor health conditions to complex social, emotional, and educational well-being. Researchers investigate the impacts of societal structures with a vision toward establishing transformative scholarship to make life and lives better.

The center’s core faculty work on projects that encompass the center’s three areas of focus: health disparities, economic inequity, and children’s well-being. 

“By generating data-driven insights into these critical areas, we are committed to informing policy and community interventions that lead directly to measurable improvements in economic and health equity and life opportunities for all children,” said Associate Professor of Sociology Deadric Williams, director of the center.

The center’s team represents multiple UT colleges, including Associate Professor Jennifer Bolden-Bush and Assistant Professor Jasmine Coleman, both of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience; Assistant Professor Andrea McCatty, College of Social Work, and Associate Professor Lyndsey Hornbuckle, in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.

In addition to ongoing research, the center will host a conference in fall.

“The conference will showcase work by UT Knoxville scholars, with at least ten presentations curated for an upcoming edited volume,” said Williams.

Solving Health Disparities

In her research, Hornbuckle works to make a positive impact on cardiometabolic health disparities in underserved groups through the promotion of physical activity and exercise.

“The majority of my current work is centered in Black communities, and aims to reduce cardiometabolic disease—hypertension, type II diabetes—risk through the development and implementation of culturally relevant physical activity and exercise interventions,” said Hornbuckle.

The American Diabetes Association recently funded Hornbuckle for a three-year efficacy trial to expand the reach of her previous work in developing a community-engaged, dyadic exercise intervention designed to examine its impact on physical and relationship health for middle-aged and older Black adults. The funding allows for a larger scale approach to better learning how exercising with partners can directly and indirectly lessen cardiometabolic disease risk and mortality.

“I will continue to work closely with co-investigator Amy Rauer, professor in the Department of Counseling, Human Development, and Family Science, to identify characteristics of various partnered relationships that may facilitate long-term exercise behavior and health support,” said Hornbuckle. “The study team collected extensive quantitative and qualitative pilot data to support this work and is the first to examine a dyadic exercise intervention in aging Black adults.”

Overcoming Economic Inequality

Williams’ priority projects focus on both economic inequality and health disparities by examining the role of structural inequality in poverty and population health.

“I’m executing a series of multi-state and multi-year studies examining the independent and collective impact of racial ideologies (beliefs about inequality) and structures (laws, policies, and social practices) that maintain racial variations in poverty and cardiovascular health in the United States,” said Williams.

Williams has also applied for external funding in collaboration with Child Trends and the Rand Cooperation to explore the potential of income supports, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, to improve parental educational advancement in ways that reduce economic and racial inequality.

Promoting Children’s Well-being

Bolden-Bush’s lab partners with the Shora Foundation to provide trauma-informed services through engagement in the East Knoxville community. Shora is a nonprofit organization committed to building resilience and fostering a safe, welcoming community for all.

“This mutually beneficial partnership is grounded in trust, consistency, and shared investment in the families we serve,” said Bolden-Bush. “Together, we work to strengthen behavioral health support by embedding high-quality services directly within the community.”

At Shora’s Academic Center, Bolden-Bush’s team delivers prevention-focused programming that aims to strengthen social and emotional skills, emotion regulation, and resilience, supporting scholars enrolled in Shora’s after-school and summer programming. Through Shora’s Healing Pathways Clinic, they provide evidence-based services to youth ages 5–22, increasing access to care for children and families in East Knoxville.

“Since 2023, eight clinical doctoral students and I have co-facilitated over 200 sessions in East Knoxville, reflecting our sustained commitment to this work,” said Bolden-Bush. “By integrating therapeutic services with skill-building group interventions in a familiar community setting, our team aims to build a continuum of care that promotes positive youth development.”

Coleman’s work also centers on children’s well-being, with her current project using mixed methods to understand the lived experiences of Black children and adolescents whose sibling has experienced involvement with the legal system. Her research examines how this relates to Black children and adolescents’ behavioral and mental well-being.

“Black children and adolescents’ voices are often absent from research on family member contact with the legal system, despite Black individuals being overrepresented in the legal system,” said Coleman. “We work with a community advisory board that will help guide the research through qualitative interviews in Knoxville and the surrounding areas.”

McCatty’s priority projects focus on understanding and addressing the structural and relational conditions that shape inequitable outcomes for youth, particularly Black girls. 

“We examine how adverse childhood experiences, school discipline practices, and gaps in socio-emotional supports influence children’s development, safety, and access to opportunity,” said McCatty. “Building on this foundation, our work seeks to develop a trauma-informed, culturally responsive framework for Black girls that promotes psychological safety, relational decision-making, and school belonging.”

By applying their research and Volunteer spirit through these multiple avenues of vibrant, outgoing civic engagement, the CSFHW team advances the UT mission of making life and lives better, empowering the people of East Tennessee.

by Randall Brown