Prevention science is a framework for research focused on preventing and/or mitigating behavioral and health challenges and increasing resiliency. The prevention science work at FPG draws from a diverse range of disciplines—including the behavioral, social, psychological, and neuro sciences—to understand the origins of social problems at the individual, community, and societal levels. Prevention strategies focus on ways to intervene before a problem emerges or worsens, avoiding adverse outcomes and their costs, and enhancing conditions conducive to healthy child and adolescent development, good mental and physical health, and strong families and communities.
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Nissa Towe-Goodman, PhD, is a research scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines the interplay between the early family environment and the development of regulatory skills, and the implications of regulatory deficits for children's adaptation and mental health. This work has focused on the ways in which parenting and family violence influence early emotional, physiological, and behavioral self-regulation, how children's regulatory deficits may influence family functioning, and methodological approaches to assess regulation and parenting in at-risk contexts.
Featured FPG News Story
A new digital curriculum developed by a team of researchers and faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is helping juvenile justice professionals apply developmental neuroscience in ways that can better support court-involved youth. The curriculum, Bridging Neuroscience and Juvenile Justice, was created through a collaboration among the UNC School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, the UNC School of Government, and the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG). The project was supported by the Dana Foundation and recently launched after 18 months of development by a multidisciplinary team of research and faculty experts.
