Elizabeth Salerno Valdez, MPH

Preventing substance use among young adults living on the U.S.-Mexico border is the focus of research by a graduate student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Elizabeth Salerno Valdez, MPH, a doctoral candidate in maternal and child health received a $88,000, two-year fellowship award from the National Institutes Health (PA-16-309) to support her dissertation which will focus on identifying the environmental factors that increase the risk of or protect against substance use among adolescents living on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Current evidence suggests that Mexican-American young adults living on the U.S.-Mexico border, experience higher rates of substance use-related problems compared to non-border Mexican-Americans and their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

Valdez will conduct a Youth Participatory Action Research study with the Cochise County Youth Health Coalition in the border community of Douglas, Arizona to examine the environmental factors that increase the risk of or protect against substance use among adolescents residing in the border region.