Rohini Pahwa
New York University, NY·Social Science
People with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression die about 10 to 30 years earlier than their peers, partly because they lack support and resources. The people around them, their social networks, are a known driver of health and survival.
- Fields
Social Science
Public Health & Epidemiology
Psychology
- Topics
serious mental illness
schizophrenia
bipolar disorder
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2029
What they work on
- Measure how the social networks of 600 Black and Latino/a adults with serious mental illnesses change in size, membership, support and belonging over 18 months, using ego-centric network maps at three time points.
- Test whether systemic factors such as incarceration and hospitalization predict network features and mental health service engagement more strongly than clinical factors or community rejection.
- Test whether race and ethnicity moderate the links between risk and protective factors and social network elements over time.
- Conduct semi-structured interviews with 50 participants at baseline and 18 months, with community partners, and compare the findings with quantitative results to identify intervention targets.
More about the research
These gaps are even larger for Black and Latino/a individuals, whose networks tend to be smaller or to have fewer resources. Past research mostly blamed the illness itself for shrinking networks. There is growing evidence, however, that rejection by community members and system-level forces like incarceration and housing matter just as much.
Why it matters
Black and Latino/a adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or depression face early death and poor access to support. By identifying which forces, especially systemic ones like incarceration and hospitalization, weaken their social networks, this work could point to intervention targets that strengthen support and increase engagement with and satisfaction with mental health services.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wendy Lichtenthal
University of Miami, FL·Psychology
Quantify how bereaved parents' social networks change after a child's death, including negative interactions, emotional support, social integration, shared purpose, and network size and composition, through a survey of about 300 parents.
Lance Perez
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Education Research
Identify the rural assets and structural barriers that shape engineering awareness before college, through site visits and semi-structured interviews with principals, counselors and STEM teachers at rural Nebraska high schools.
Ethan Cicero
Emory University, GA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Examine the epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias among middle-aged and older adults from under-resourced communities, including people receiving hormone replacement therapy, using Kaiser Permanente electronic health record data from the STRONG study.
The school
New York University: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 540 research doctorates a year.
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