Mental health and coping in teens who leave home without a parent
Mental Health of Adolescents who Leave Home without a Parent: Understanding Risk while Identifying Resilience and Coping Strategies
This project looks at how hunger, violence, and other stresses affect mental health and coping in teenagers who leave home without a parent, especially unaccompanied migrants.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Columbia University Health Sciences NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-10993155 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would be invited to share your experiences with events like hunger, violence, and moving without a parent and to describe current feelings such as anxiety or depression. The team will ask you to complete interviews, questionnaires, and brief thinking or attention tasks to measure cognitive and emotional functioning. They will follow participants over time to see how symptoms and coping skills change and to identify supports that help some teens stay resilient. The goal is to find specific, changeable skills and social supports that future programs can strengthen for teens in similar situations.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are adolescents around ages 15–19 who left home without a parent or guardian, including unaccompanied migrants or youth who experienced similar displacement.
Not a fit: People who did not leave home without a parent, older adults, or those without exposure to deprivation or threat are unlikely to directly benefit from this specific work.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could inform new programs that strengthen coping skills and social supports to reduce mental health problems in unaccompanied teens.
How similar studies have performed: Previous research shows refugee and unaccompanied teens have higher rates of PTSD, depression, and anxiety, but using combined measures of hunger/threat with cognitive and social resilience to guide interventions is a relatively new approach.
Where this research is happening
New York, United States
- Columbia University Health Sciences — New York, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Orjuela, Manuela a — Columbia University Health Sciences
- Study coordinator: Orjuela, Manuela a
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.